The Dream We Carry: Selected and Last Poems

by Olav H. Hauge, Robert Bly (Translation), Robert Hedin (Translation)

"...spare, psalmlike poems....Together, the poems in this beautifully translated selection...provide us with the autobiography of a poet who felt most at home during winter, in solitude. Hauge deserves a larger American readership, and this book may summon it." —Publishers Weekly

"(Hauge's) poetry is miniaturist, pictorial, and ruminative; personal in that his experience, cognitive and sensual observations, and intentions are everywhere in it. Yet it isn't at all confessional or self-assertive....He is a man who knows where he is and helps us feel that we can know where we are, too."—Booklist

“If you have a tiny farm, you need to love poetry more than the farm. If you sell apples, you need to love poetry more than the apples.”—Robert Bly, from the introduction

Olav H. Hauge, one of Norway’s most beloved poets, is a major figure of twentieth-century European poetry. This generous bilingual edition—introduced by Robert Bly—includes the best poems from each of Hauge’s seven books, as well as a gathering of his last poems.

Ever sage and plainspoken—and bearing resemblance to Chinese poetry—Hauge’s compact and classically restrained poems are rooted in his training as an orchardist, his deep reading in world literatures, and a lifetime of careful attention to the beauties and rigors of the western fjordland. His spare imagery and unpretentious tone ranges from bleak to unabashedly joyous, an intricate interplay between head and heart and hand.

The rose has been sung about.
I want to sing of the thorns,
and the root—how it grips
the rock hard, hard
as a thin girl’s hand.

During a writing career that spanned nearly fifty years, Olav H. Hauge produced seven books of poetry, numerous translations, and several volumes of correspondence. A largely self-educated man, he earned his living as a farmer, orchardist, and gardener on a small plot in the fjord region of western Norway.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Olav Håkonson Hauge was a Norwegian poet. He was born in Ulvik and lived his whole life there, working as a gardener in his own orchard.

Aside from writing his own poems, he was internationally oriented, and translated poems by Alfred Tennyson, William Butler Yeats, Robert Browning, Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, Stephen Crane, Friedrich Hölderlin, Georg Trakl, Paul Celan, Bertolt Brecht and Robert Bly to Norwegian.

He was also inspired by classical Chinese poetry, e.g. in his poem "T`ao Ch`ien" in the collection Spør vinden (Ask the wind).

Hauge's first poems were published in 1946, all in a traditional form. He later wrote modernist poetry and in particular concrete poetry that inspired other, younger Norwegian poets, such as Jan Erik Vold.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a boat
without wind.
You were the wind.
Was that the direction I wanted to go?
Who cares about directions
with a wind like that!
*
This is the dream we carry through the world
that something fantastic will happen
that it has to happen
that time will open by itself
that doors shall open by themselves
that the heart will find itself open
that mountain springs will jump up
that the dream will open by itself
that we one early morning
will slip into a harbor
that we have never known.
*
Dare you do this —
open your eyes
and look around?
Yes, you're here
here in this world,
you're not dreaming,
it's just as
you see it, things here
are like this.
Like this?
Yes, just like this,
not otherwise.
How long did you sleep?

[Jovan Arsić · Rating 5 out of 5]

The mellow-spoken words of one’s life, choices and situations. Sometimes the words so simple with yet a meaningful description supporting it gave me a glimpse of situation each poem is describing. I read some of them couple of times, where O.H. really got me off guard with “the cold and solitude winter” type of atmosphere.

[Arpenik Kroyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved almost every poem in this collection. They span time of generations, depths of human souls and natures constructs, they resonate with little and large pains of living. Warmly recommended ❤️

[Víctor Bermúdez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Havet

Dette var havet.
Sølve ålvoret,
veldigt og grått.
Men liksom hugen
i einslege stunder
brått opnar
glidande spegelsyn
mot gåtefulle djup
soleis kan ög havet
ein blå morgontime
opna seg
mot himmel og einsemd.
Sjå, blenkjer havet,
eg har dg stjernor
og blåe djup.



This is the ocean

Vast and gray,
gravity itself.
Yet just as the mind
in solitary moments
suddenly opens
its shifting reflections
to secret depths
so the ocean
one blue morning
can open itself
to sky and solitude.
See, the ocean gleams,
I, too, have stars
and blue depths.

[Athena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why it is, perhaps the long winter darkness, or the remote landscape, but many Scandinavian poets have a little of the surrealist to them, a wry, unsurprised attitude toward the world. Hauge's poem satisfy deeply.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever year I chose a winter poem to give to friends and family for winter solstice. After 20 years, I was running out of choices so I decided to explore Norwegian poets. What a serendipitous decision. The poetry of Olav Hauge is sparse, almost like Norwegian haiku. Fjords are featured and distilled truths. Just like poetry should be.

[Joe Imwalle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like these plain spoken mellow poems. A handful stuck out as great and the rest are not for me but worth sifting through to get the ones that work for me. My favorites are “I Open The Curtains”, “Evening Clouds”, “winter morning”, “this is the dream”, “Leaf huts and snow houses”, “one poem a day”, “the dream”, and “big scales”

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m very glad I read these poems. I really like them a lot. In a few brief words he opens/unlocks worlds. He gives sight to understand both the inner and outer worlds in which we live. The fjords of Norway seem to be reflected - large, and simple, and beautiful, and dramatic. They have it all.

[Michael Sasson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a handful of poems that I loved (This is the Dream, Years of Experience with Bows and Arrows, You are the Wind, probably a few more...).

About 2/3 of the poems didn't speak to me at all. And then another dozen were good enough to read twice but still..

[Miguel W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant poems that are strongest when making observations about nature, creating rich yet simple images, images that are calm, and slow moving. Most poems, however, are of minor interest.

[John Bly · Rating 5 out of 5]

the only book of poetry you need

[Zackary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is tremendous. I'm very grateful to the translators for making Hauge's work available to English-speaking readers.

[Tod Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendid!

[Bill Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful poems!!! And fine translations. This book is a treasure.

[Sarina Bosco · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems that I loved in this collection, I REALLY loved. They carried the ones that I found mediocre or uninteresting.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dream We Carry is a collection of both selected and final poems by Olav H. Hauge, featuring his ruminative style that blends observations of nature with deep introspection. This collection highlights his farming background as well as the western Norwegian landscape. His poems do an excellent job of encapsulating a bittersweet feeling, with a combination of joy and solemnity throughout the collection.

I really enjoyed this collection. It offers a nice mix of more hopeful poems alongside those that lean more toward the somber side. As someone who loves reading poems about nature, this collection particularly stood out to me because it draws so deeply from his background as a farmer. You can really feel how much he values and appreciates nature. I can't wait to read some more of his work.

Some of my favorite poems from this collection were:
•The Gold Rooster
•Don't Come to Me with the Entire Truth
•Smoke
•It's Cold in Big Houses
•The Everyday
•Erratic Boulder
•Across the Swamp
•Harvest Time
•Anxiety
•Leaf Huts and Snow Houses
•I Have Lived Here
•I Aim a Little Higher
•Animal Grave
•The Big Scales

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love poetry but had never heard of Olav H Hauge until about 10 years ago when I read The Dream We Carry, the poem, not the book. I love it so much that I have written it inside my medicine cabinet in the bathroom, so every time I reach for the toothpaste or the deodorant I must first glance at his magic words. It begins "Its the dream we carry/ that something wondrous will happen/ that it must happen…" Later I learned that this poem was recited (did Hauge himself say it? I don't know.) at a Nobel Prize ceremony.

The title poem is so buoyant that I was surprised to learn that Hauge suffered mental anguish, at least in the early part of his life. In the introduction to this collection of Hauge's poems, Robert Bly tells us Hauge married an artist when he was 65, and it sounds as if he thrived from then on, until he died at age 86 in the same Norwegian village where he had lived all his life, farming just three acres and writing poems. His poems are brief and simple and deep.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had heard of Hauge before, but never gotten the chance to read any of his works. An unfortunate delay. His poems are direct, simple, and profound, much like his life. The quick biography at the beginning is a wonderful set up for how his life was the inkwell of the poems.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful introduction to a wonderful poet. Hauge was a Norwegian farmer and poet whose minimalist poems are reminiscent of some classic Chinese poems. This collection includes the selected poems in both Norwegian and the English translation by Robert Bly and Robert Hedin. Highly recommended.

[Petya Kokudeva · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

my favorite poem of the collection:

THERE IS NOTHING SO SCARY

There is nothing so scary
about grasshoppers sharpening scythes.
But when the troll's flea whispers,
be careful.

[Saxon]

Poems to turn to in winter.

[Gwendolyn Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite collection of poetry.

[Swensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the goat

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olav Hauge has written some beautiful poems - so authentic.