Hans Børli

Hans Børli (December 8, 1918 – August 25, 1989) was a Norwegian poet and writer, who besides his writings worked as a lumberjack all his life. He was born in Eidskog, in South-Eastern Norway, close to the Norwegian border to Sweden. He was buried at Eidskog Church.

Biography

Hans Børli was raised on a small farm, in an area with not roads, it was part of the woods in Eidskog Kommune. The experience of poverty and hardship would leave a deep imprint on his later art. However, the positive effects of living close to nature, the wisdom of tradition and the solidarity between workers would also have a huge bearing on his writings. Extensive reading spawned an early urge to write. This was both a way of expressing personal feelings, frowned upon in a masculine worker's environment, and too a possible way of literally escaping a position of economic and social inferiority. His mother's father, himself one of the last great oral narrator of legends and stories of the area, Ole Gundersen Børli, is also considered an important influence on the young, writer to be, Hans Børli. A strict Christian upbringing would leave Børli forever struggling with the counteractive forces of rebellion and a deeply embedded sense of religious awe.

In a social milieu where any education beyond the obligatory was very rare, young Hans, considered a gifted boy, was given a free place in Talhaug Mercantile School, in Kongsvinger which a he later left later he was admitted to a military academy in Oslo, but this education was aborted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Børli fought the Germans, and was involved in some intense battles in Vardal, and was captured in Verdal. After being released, he went back to Eidskog and worked as a teacher and forest worked for the rest of the war. He was also involved in activity, leading people, illegally, across the Swedish border for the remainder of the war. All the while he was preparing his first collection of poetry "Tyrield" (Pine Passion) (1945)

Hans Børli was by his own account (ref) heavily influenced by the Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge.

Publications

Poetry

*1945: "Tyrielden" ("Pine Passion")
*1948: "Villfugl" ("Wild Bird")
*1949: "Men støtt kom nye vårer" ("But Spring Would Always Come")
*1952: "Likevel må du leve" ("Still There is Life")
*1954: "Ser jeg en blomme i skogen" ("When I See a Flower in the Forest")
*1957: "Kont-Jo" ("Timber Joe")
*21/10-1958:"Dagene" ("Days")
*1960: "Jeg ville fange en fugl" ("I Wanted to Catch a Bird")
*1962: "Ved bålet" ("By Campfire")
*1964: "Hver liten ting" ("Every Little Thing")
*1966: "Brønnen utenfor Nachors stad" ("The Well by Nachor")
*1968: "Når menneskene er gått heim" ("When Humans Have Gone Home")
*1978: "Dag og drøm" ("Day and Dream")
*1969: "Som rop ved elver" ("Like Roars by Rivers")
*1970: "Isfuglen" ("The Ice Bird")
*1972: "Kyndelsmesse" ("Candlemas")
*1974: "Vindharpe" ("Wind Harp")
*1976: "Vinden ser aldri på veiviserne" ("The Wind Never Beholds the Pathfinder")
*1979: "Når kvelden står rød over Hesteknatten" ("Evening Red over the Horse Hummock")
*1984: "Frosne tranebær" ("Frozen Cranberries")

Prose

* 1946: "Han som valte skogen" ("He Who Chose the Forest"), novel
* 1949: "Det small et skott" ("A Shot was Heard"), novel
* 1951: "Sølv og stål" ("Silver and Steel")
* 1953: "Under lomskriket" ("The Cry of the Loon"),
* 1987: "Tusseleiken" (fortellinger og skisser)
* 1988: "Med øks og lyre. Blar av en tømmerhuggers dagbok" ("With Axe and Lyre. Sheaths of the Diary of a Lumberjack"), autobiography
* 1991: "Smykket fra slagmarken" ("Gem from a Battlefield"), novel

Other

About Hans Børli:

*1998: "Syng liv i ditt liv. En biografi." ("Sing Life in Your Life.- A Biography.")

In Translation:

*"We Own the Forests: And Other Poems", sixty of Børli's poems in a parallel Norwegian-English edition, translated by Louis Muinzer

External links

* [http://www.borli.org/ The Norwegian Hans Børli Society (Norwegian web site only)]