Tomas Tranströmer (1931–2015)

This is a small selection from Tranströmer's lyric verse, in translations selected by editor Daniel Halpern from among the numerous English versions available, sandwiching the poet's childhood memoir "Memories look at me".

I enjoyed the memoir, where Tranströmer writes about growing up in Stockholm before and during World War II and going to the Södra Latin Grammar School (which featured in an Ingmar Bergman film). But it was difficult to get a grasp of the poems, possibly because of the show more profusion of different translators involved.

One or two appealed to me at first reading — "Grief Gondola No.2", for instance, a poem about Liszt and Wagner in Venice (but it's weird seeing the title of Liszt's piece translated into English when it's normally left in Italian); "Motifs from the Middle Ages"; and the "Vermeer" poem that ends the selection. Others left me baffled with their incongruous or surreal images and leaps of subject. Perhaps he's a poet you need to read in the original, but I didn't really see anything in this selection that would have made me go out and learn a bit more Swedish. At best it seemed good, but not earth-shattering. show less

Man känner sig alltid yngre än man är. Inom mig bär jag mina tidigare ansikten, som ett träd har sina årsringar. Det är summan av dem som är "jag". Spegeln ser bara mitt senaste ansikte, jag känner av alla mina tidigare.

56 sidor bara, från de tidigaste minnena till ögonblicket i en latinlektion där han förstår kopplingen mellan modern poesi och Horatius, där tiden upphävs och diktaren Tomas Tranströmer föds utan någon stor fanfar (som allt han gjorde).

Genom formen show more (Formen!) kunde något lyftas.

Det är en enkel liten berättelse, en pojke som växer upp, utan stora trauman, den vuxne som i efterhand förstår vad han plockade ihop av insektssamlande, museibesök och krig. Prosaisten Tranströmer är inte lika koncentrerad som diktaren, och ändå lyckas han utan några trumpeter och fanfarer skapa små bilder som står upp och lyser. show less

"Unistused on koduteel" (Dreams are On the Way Home) from 2013 is Swedish poet and Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer's 2nd collection of poetry translated into Estonian. It was preceded by 1989's "Luulet" (Poetry) which was translated by Jaan Kaplinski.

This newer anthology concentrates on 1989 & later works in order to expand the selection of Estonian translations, primarily from "For the Living and the Dead" (1989) and "The Sorrow Gondola" (1996), although some earlier and later poems are show more also included.

There isn't a titular poem in the collection, but the title seems to be derived from the concluding poem in the short cycle "Six Winters" (my amateur translation from Estonian):

Tonight there are snow mists, moonshine.
A medusa of moonlight itself floats in front of me.
Our smiles are on the way home.
Down a bewitched alley.

Tranströmer evokes both the moment of stillness and the reach of eternity in deceptively simple poems. I enjoyed all of these and the translations by Arnover felt completely natural in Estonian.

I became interested in reading Tranströmer after seeing Teju Cole's Oct. 6, 2011 New Yorker essay* "Miracle Speech: The Poetry of Tomas Tranströmer" where he writes:

"Tranströmer casts a spell all his own, and in fact the strongest associations he brings to my mind are the music of Arvo Pärt and the photography of Saul Leiter."

*The essay is also collected in 2016's "Known and Strange Things: Essays". show less

A massive collection of poems and essays, rich with metaphor and imagery that will stop you in your tracks. Multiple times while reading through this collection, I found myself whispering, "Wow," as the words sank into my soul.

The author's powerful voice brings nature to life and connects disparate readers to a shared human experience. I didn't want this book to end.

Favorite Poems: Autumnal Archipelago, Mariner's Tale, Face to Face, Through the Woods, Lament, A Winter Night, Winter's show more Formula, The Outpost, Icelandic Hurricane, Black Postcards, The Nightingale in Babelunda, Snow Falling show less