The biography is written by Idar Stegane and translated by Dag Gjerde. Foto: Odd E. Nerbø, BT

HAUGE, Olav Håkonson, 1908–1994. Writer. Born 18/08/1908, in Ulvik. Parents: Farmer Håkon Hauge (1877–1954) and Katrina Hakestad (1873–1975). Cohabitant with Bodil Cappelen (1930–) from 1975, married 1978.

Hauge attended the private Ulvik intermediate school in 1925–1926. Later he went to Hjeltnes Horticultural School in Ulvik (1927 and 1933–34). He was a gardening apprentice for four years; in 1930 at the National Agricultural College at Ås and in the years 1931–1933 at Hermannsverk State Experimental Farm.

Already in his childhood years, Hauge read a lot. He was a frequent user of the local public library and became good friends with the librarian there, Magnus Hakestad, who had returned after spending 37 years in America. He provided young Olav with books and periodicals and discussed them with him. Hakestad also ordered literature in English, which made it possible for Hauge to apply his skills in English acquired at school. His maternal uncle, Edmund Hakestad (1885–1937), who lived in the USA for many years, also sent him American literature. In addition, construction workers, including Hauge’s own father, who had been a foreman during the construction of the Bergen Railway before he married and settled as a farmer in Ulvik, provided Olav with knowledge about the world outside his home village. For many years, Hauge earned his living growing fruits at his farm and performing gardening services for his fellow villagers, the vicar being one, whom Hauge also liked to discuss with and borrow books from.

At the intermediate school, Hauge had learnt German. Hauge also learnt French by himself, and through reading and later translating poetry, he improved his skills in these three languages.
Hauge started his career as lyric poet well outside the mainstream of poetic tradition. His debut as a poet came with the poem "Slåttesong", published in Gula Tidend in 1927. During his stay at Hermannsverk, he published both self-written poems and translated poems in various newspapers in Sogn. He also published poems in For Bygd og By (Oslo, 1912–32), Den 17de Mai, Norsk Tidend, Norsk Hagetidend and For bygd og by (Bergen, 1940–1946). Some of his own poems were included in his first book, Glør i oska (1946), but some 50 poems, both translated poems and his own, have never been published outside the above mentioned periodicals and newspapers.
From his youth until he was in his fifties, he suffered from recurring mental disturbances, and he had several stays in the Valen Mental Hospital. As a young boy, Hauge was very shy and restrained. This might explain the fact that he had reached the age of 38 before his first book was published, although one manuscript of his had been rejected seven years earlier, in 1939.

After his debut, Hauge published collections of poems every five years until 1971. His eighth collection, Janglestrå, was part of his retrospective collection, Dikt i samling, 1980, and, finally, he and his wife, Bodil Cappelen, published their picture book ABC (1986), which contained one rhyme for each letter of the alphabet. Hauge’s Dikt i samling came in six editions from 1972 to 1995. Some smaller selections of his poems have also been published, recited by himself on tape and CD. Some selections have also been published in other languages (English, Icelandic, Swedish, Hungarian and Spanish). In addition to his collections of poems, Hauge from 1967 onwards published collections of translated poems, both anthologies and selections of individual poets, seven books in total. He also took part in the large anthology, Framande dikt frå fire tusen år (H. Kiran, S. Skard and H. Moren Vesaas (eds.), 1968) and in Robert Bly’s: Odin House, Madison, Minnesota. Utvalde dikt (O.M. Mæland (ed.), 1972).

{mospagebreak}Despite the fact that Hauge published some minor prose texts, he has always been regarded as a pure lyric poet. But one prose text stands out. When Hauge died, it turned out that he had kept diaries from the age of 15. These diaries make five thick books with 4,000 pages in all, Dagbok 1924– 1994 (2000). This makes it the largest published body of diaries in Norwegian. Hauge also wrote a great number of letters. His letters to Jan Erik Vold (Under Hauges ord, 1994, new edition, 1996) and Bodil Cappelen (Brev 1970–1975, 1996) have been published.
Hauge’s poems always featured two distinct qualities. On the one hand, Hauge uses themes and imagery that are closely related to the village way of life and to nature. On the other hand, Hauge shows a keen interest in the literary tradition, manifest in his translations of more or less famous English-speaking writers, including William Shakespeare and Robert Browning. His early interest in the English language was inspired by books and letters from his maternal uncle in America. His first collection contains intertextual references to both Norwegian and English romantic poetry.
Both directly and indirectly, Hauge’s literary work contains dialogue with and presence of older and contemporary lyric poetry, other literature and art culture.

His perception of poetry changes. In 1946 (Song til stormen) and 1951 (Til Shelley), his poems are characterized by a religious, idealistic language. Later the tone in his language changes. In 1966, his poetry centres on man’s everyday emotions and labour, more freely, sometimes humorously, expressed, often by the use of irony: "Can you write a verse / appreciated by farmers, / be content. / You will never be able to understand a blacksmith. / Humouring a carpenter is the hardest thing." ("Vers".) Later on, his poems are toned down, partly (self-)ironic, partly sad: "From distant morrows / Joy faintly beats her copper shield." ("I natt har graset vorte grønt", 1971); "…and I sing. / Sorrow is the spring of force" ("Upp gjenom elvedalen", 1980).

In Glør i oska, the formal structure of the poems is traditional, with stanzas and end rhymes and regular metres. From 1951 (Under bergfallet) onwards, Hauge applies free verse extensively. In his diary, Hauge conveys scepticism against conventional poetry in the sense that he thinks formal structures may be used at the sacrifice of poetic content. Yet, he does not altogether abandon stanzas or rhymes as rhetorical instruments. But apart from the sonnet, which permeates his entire production, he chooses simpler and less rigid stanzas.
The young writers in the ”Profil” group late in the 60s, looked up to Hauge among the older writers. They liked the directness and the physical quality of his imagery. The best example of this, Dropar i austavind, 1966, was published in this period. Moreover, this book contained statements about writing that pointed in the same direction: "a good poem shall smell of tea / or of raw soil and freshly split wood" ("Eg har tri dikt"), and "after the toil you can fry bacon and read Chinese poems" ("Kvardag"). The reference to China is not accidental; by and by Hauge became particularly interested in the simplicity of classical Chinese poetry, a preoccupation that manifested itself in some of the poems in his collections from 1961 to 1971.

The dialogic parts of Hauge’s poems use references from a wide range of the literary tradition. Other poets or literature that are mentioned or used intertextually in his poems, may be pre-romantic, classical European, classical Chinese poets, Norse poems, romantic poetry, and post-romantic European modernists.
This dialogic diversity is also evident in his translations of poems. This makes a significant part of Hauge’s lyric production. The last edition of Dikt i umsetjing (Translated poems) (1992) is almost as extensive as his own collected poems, Dikt i samling.