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 hoiherlig over mig
som en af Nattens vingede Cheruber
for dodeliges himmelvendte Oine, etc.

But lines like these have an admirable and perfect loveliness:

naar han skrid um dan seinleg-sigand' Skyi
og sigler yver hoge 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 _Prover 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, Naerkona aat Vettom.
So lita som ein Adelstein i Ringen
paa fremste Fingren paa ein verdug Raadsmann,
ho kjoyrer kring med smaa Soldumbe-Flokar
paa Nasanna aat Folk, dan Tid dei sov.
Hjulspikann' henna er av Konglefoter,
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 Mol,
som minste Vaekja krasa kann med Fingren.
Til Vogn ho fekk ei holut Haslenot
av Snikkar Ikorn elder Natemakk,
som altid var Vognmakarann' aat Vettom.[15]

[15. Ivar Aasen: _Skrifter i Samling_. Christiania. 1911, Vol. I,
p. 166.]

The translation ends with Mercutio's words:

And being thus frightened, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again.

In my opinion this is consummately well done--at once accurate and
redolent of poesy; and ce