Two of the fairest stars in all the Heaven, etc.
And equally good are the closing lines beginning:
Aa tala meir, Ljos-Engel med du lyser, etc.
Foersom is deservedly praised for his translation of the same lines, but a comparison of the two is not altogether disastrous to Aasen, though, to be sure, his lines lack some of Foersom's insinuating softness:
Tal atter, Lysets Engel! thi du straaler
i Natten saa høiherlig over mig
som en af Nattens vingede Cheruber
for dødeliges himmelvendte Øine, etc.
But lines like these have an admirable and perfect loveliness:
naar han skrid um dan seinleg-sigand' Skyi
og sigler yver høge Himmels Barmen.
Aasen busied himself for some years with this effort to naturalize his Landsmaal in all the forms of literature. Apparently this was always uppermost in his thoughts. We find him trying himself in this sort of work in the years before and after the publication of Prøver af Landsmaalet. In Skrifter i Samling is printed another little fragment of Romeo and Juliet, which the editor, without giving his reasons, assigns to a date earlier than that of the balcony scene. It is Mercutio's description of Queen Mab (Act I, Sc. 4). This is decidedly more successful than the other. The vocabulary of the Norwegian dialects is rich in words of fairy-lore, and one who knew this word treasure as Aasen did could render the fancies of Mercutio with something very near the exuberance of Shakespeare himself:
No ser eg vel, at ho hev' vore hjaa deg
ho gamle Mabba, Nærkona aat Vettom.
So lita som ein Adelstein i Ringen
paa fremste Fingren paa ein verdug Raadsmann,
ho kjøyrer kring med smaa Soldumbe-Flokar
paa Nasanna aat Folk, dan Tid dei søv.
Hjulspikann' henna er av Kongleføter,
Vognfelden er av Engjesprette-Vengjer,
og Taumann' av den minste Kongleveven.
Av Maanestraalanne paa Vatn er Selen,
og av Sirissebein er Svipeskafted
og Svipesnerten er av Agner smaa.
Skjotskaren er eit nett graakjola My
so stort som Holva av ein liten Mòl,
som minste Vækja krasa kann med Fingren.
Til Vogn ho fekk ei holut Haslenot
av Snikkar Ikorn elder Natemakk,
som altid var Vognmakarann' aat Vettom.[I.15]
The translation ends with Mercutio's words: