Djurhuus's parents were Óla Jákup Djurhuus (1832–1909) and Else Marie
née Poulsen, from
Hósvík (1847–1897). He was a great-grandson of
Jens Christian Djurhuus. Djurhuus said that his "poetic baptism" came in school, when he heard
Jákup Dahl (later a
provost and
Bible translator and author of the first school grammar of the Faroese language) declaim
Jóannes Patursson's
Nú er tann stundin komin til handa (Now is the hour come for acting), the anthem of the
Christmas Meeting of 1888 which began the rise of Faroese nationalism. Djurhuus trained as a lawyer. After passing the preliminary examinations in 1897, he went to Denmark for university preparation, first in
Copenhagen and then in
Bornholm. He passed the qualifying examinations in 1900, graduated with the
cand. jur. degree in 1911, and then practised in Copenhagen until the late 1930s, when he returned to the Faroes to practise there. However, he kept in touch with his homeland through students. He published four further collections of poems. Djurhuus had also studied
classical philology, and also published accomplished Faroese translations of Ancient Greek and Latin works, including some of
Plato's Dialogues and poetry by
Sappho, and (posthumously) a poetic translation of the
Iliad. (He also published translations of poetic works by
Goethe,
Dante,
Heinrich Heine and
Gustaf Fröding). There is a story that on one occasion when a Greek steamer called at Tórshavn, he went on board and sent a cabin boy for the captain. On his arrival, he began to recite the
Odyssey in Ancient Greek. The astonished captain joined in. The language of his poems draws on both modern Faroese and the language of
the traditional ballads, as well as ancient and modern poetry in other Scandinavian languages; their rhythm is also influenced by ancient Greek and modern German poetry. ==Literary reputation==