Set by Carl Nielsen in 1891 (opus 4 no. 4 - 'Irmelin Rose'; I have a few recordings of this all on the set "The Historic Carl Nielsen Collection, volume 6 - Songs, Choral Works" released by Danacord Records some years back, an unneeded copy of which was sent me by a friend.)
The first stanza in Danish:
Se, der var engang en konge, mangen skat han kaldte sin
Navnet på den allerbedste vidste hver Irmelin,
Irmelin Rose, Irmelin Sol, Irmelin alt hvad der er dejligt.
(from http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=8841)
In English:
Once upon a time there was a king
many treasures, did he possess.
The name of the very best
as everyone knew, was Irmelin,
Irmelin Rose,
Irmelin Sun
Irmelin, All that was Lovely.
(from the notes to the recording.)
(The song itself, all four brief stanzas from very early in the life of a remarkable modern Danish turn-of-the-20th composer, is great. I'm not endorsing what the author's attitude is or seems to be; the refrain especially has stayed much too much in my head and so I post this.)
