Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

Peer Gynt

Translated by Robert Farquharson Sharp

Act IV

Scene 10

(A summer day. Far up in the North. A hut in the forest. The door, with a large wooden bar, stands open. Reindeer-horns over it. A flock of goats by the wall of the hut.)

(A middle-aged woman, fair-haired and comely, sits spinning outside in the sunshine.)

THE WOMAN (glances down the path, and sings). Maybe both the winter and spring will pass by, and the next summer too, and the whole of the year;—but thou wilt come one day, that know I full well; and I will await thee, as I promised of old. (Calls the goats, and sings again.) God strengthen thee, whereso thou goest in the world! God gladden thee, if at his footstool thou stand! Here will I await thee till thou comest again; and if thou wait up yonder, then there we’ll meet, my friend!

Act IV Scene 9

Act IV Scene 11