The life and works of Olav H. Hauge
		HAUGE, Olav Håkonson, 1908-1994. Author. Born in Ulvik, August 18th. 1908. Parents: farmer Håkon Hauge (1877-1954) and Katrina Hakestad (1873-1975). Lived with Bodil Cappelen (1930-) from 1975, married in 1978.
		Written by Idar Stegane, translated by Mari Skjerdal Lysne
		Olav H. Hauge went to a private middle school in Ulvik 1925-26. Later he went to agricultural school at Hjeltnes in Ulvik (1927 and 1933-34). He spent four years in gardening apprenticeship, in 1930 at Norges Landbrukshøgskole (the Norwegian Agricultural University College) and 1931-33 in the State’s Experimental Farm in Hermansverk, Sogn. Already as a child Hauge read a lot. He made diligent use of the public library and was a good friend of the librarian, Magnus Hakestad, who had lived 37 years in America. He lent Hauge books, and talked to the young boy about books and magazines. Hakestad also ordered literature in English, and Hauge got immediate use for the English he learned in school. He also received English literature from his uncle, Edmund Hakestad (1885-1937), who lived in the United States for many years. He also received knowledge of a life outside the local community from construction workers. Among these was his father, who had worked as chargehand on the Bergen railway before he married Katrina and became a farmer in Ulvik. Hauge’s livelihood was for years fruit growing in the farm combined with gardening work in various gardens, amongst them the parsonage. There, he also conversed with the parson and borrowed books. Hauge had learned how to speak German in middle school. On his own, he learned French, and he developed his knowledge of the three foreign languages by reading and later translating poetry.
		As a poet, Hauge started on the outskirts of the literary institution. He made his debut in 1927, with the poem “Slåttesong” in the newspaper Gula Tidend. During his stay at Hermansverk, he got several of his own and poems he translated published in different newspapers in Sogn. He had poems in the magazines For Bygd og By (Oslo 1912-32), Den 17de Mai, Norsk Tidend, Norsk Hagetidend and For bygd og by (Bergen 1940-46). In his first collection, Glør i oska (Embers in the Ashes) (1946), some of his original poetry from this period was printed, but still there are almost 50 poems, original and translated, which are a only printed in newspapers and magazines, and not found in books. From his youth up until his fifties, Hauge occasionally suffered from mental problems. He was admitted in a psychiatrical hospital several times. When he was young he was reserved and shy. This may explain his late debut, at 38 years of age. Seven years earlier he got a refused manuscript. After his debut, new books with his own poetry were published every fifth year until 1971. The eight collections, Janglestrå (A Few Blades of Grass), was a part of Dikt i samling (Collected poems) in 1980. Finally he published the children’s book ABC with Bodil Cappelen in 1986, where there is a poem for every letter in the alphabet. The collected works, Dikt i samling, has been published in six editions from 1972 to 1995. Also some smaller selections of his poems have been published. Recordings of Hauge reading his own poetry has also been published. Parts of his production have also been published in other languages (English, Icelandic, Swedish, Hungarian and Spanish). In addition to his own poems, Hauge published various collections of translated poetry from 1967. These were both anthologies, and collections of separate writers, all in all seven books. He was one of the contributors in the large anthology Framande dikt gjennom fire tusen år (1968, edited by H. Kiran, S. Skard and H. Moren Vesaas) and in Robert Bly's Odin House, Madison, Minnesota. Utvalde dikt (1972, edited by O. M. Mæland).
		Although Hauge published a few prose articles, he has been seen almost purely as a poet. All thoughm, his largest work is a prose work. When he died, it was revealed that he had kept a diary from the age of 15. In books, this constitutes five volumes and about four thousand pages, Dagbok 1924-1994 (2000). In size, this is the largest literary diary in Norwegian. Hauge was also an industrious letter writer. His letters to the Norwegian author Jan Erik Vold (Under Hauges ord, 1994, new edition 1996) and Bodil Cappelen (Brev 1970-1975, 1996) are both published. From first glance, Hauge’s poems show a double background. On one side, subject matter and imagery have it's base in rural life and nature. At the same time, an extensive interest for literature can be seen, and this interest is apparent already from early efforts to translate random lesser-known poets as well as great names in the English literary tradition, including William Shakespeare and Robert Browning. The early contact with English language and literature was not the least due to letters and books from his uncle in America. In his first collection, intertextual ties to both Norwegian and English romanticism are apparent.  Through out Hauge’s whole production of poetry, there are patterns of dialogue with older and sometimes contemporary poetry and other literature and art, expressed both openly and more indirectly. Hauge’s statements about poetry changed throughout the years. In 1946 (“Song til stormen”) and in 1951 (“Til Shelley”) they are marked by a religiously coloured, idealistic language. Later the tone is different. In 1966 it is more about tying the art of poetry to a closer, more intimate human and work oriented process, sometimes humorously or even ironically formulated: “If you can turn a verse / a farmer can approve of / you should be content. / A smith you can never fathom. / The worst to please is a joiner.” (“Vers”. Translation by Robin Fulton, “Verse”). Later it is more quiet, partly (self) ironic, partly wistful: “From mornings long ago / happiness beats faintly on its copper shield.” (“I natt har graset vorte grønt”. Translation by R. Fulton, “Overnight the grass has turned green”); “…and I sing. / Sorrow is the well of strength” (“Upp gjennom elvedalen”, 1980. Translation by R. Fulton, “Up Through the River Valley”.) In Glør i oska (Embers in the Ashes) (1946), the outer form of the poems is – mostly – fully traditional, with verse, end rhyme and a regular metric system. Free verses are dominating from 1951 (Under bergfallet / Beneath the Crag). In his diary, Hauge expresses scepticism towards traditional poems; in the respect that he thinks the poetic may be lost to the definite form. Still, he gives up neither the verse, nor the rhyme as rhetoric means. But apart from the sonnet, which is present throughout his production, he chooses simpler and less definite verse.
		In the late 1960s, the young writers connected to the radical periodical group Profil, saw Hauge as an older master in the trade they could look up to. They emphasized an imagery that was straightforward and perceptible. The collection by Hauge which most strongly favours this sort of reading is Dropar i austavind (Drops in the East Wind), published in 1966, exactly in the period of question. The book also had clear statements about poetry which pointed in the same direction: “A good poem should smell of tea. / Or of raw earth and newly split firewood.” (“Eg har tri dikt”. Translation by R. Fulton, “I Have Three Poems”), and “After work you can fry bacon / and read Chinese poems” (“Kvardag”. Translation by R. Fulton, “Everyday”.) The reference to Chinese is not arbitrary. Hauge was inspired by the simplicity of Chinese poetry, and it is reflected in several of the poems  published from 1961 to 1971. The dialogues in Hauge’s poems stretch widely within the literary field. When he, in his three last collections, conversed intertextually with other poets, it could just as well be pre-romantic, classic European, classic Chinese or Norse poetry as post-romantic European modernists. A similar dialogic diversity is present in the translated poems. This is a large part of Hauge’s production. The last edition of Dikt i umsetjing (Translated poems) from 1992 is almost as extensive as his own original Dikt i samling (Collected poems).
		Photos
		1. Olav H. Hauge (Photo: Scanpix / Line Møller) 2. Olav H. Hauge (Photo: Private) 3. The cover of Seint rodnar skog i djuvet frå 1956. (Photo: Ulvik lokalhistoriske arkiv) 4. Olav H. Hauge. Cropped from a larger image. (Photo: Jens Haukaas / Ulvik lokalhistoriske arkiv)