Tomas Tranströmer

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Tomas Gösta Tranströmer ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 15 April 1931 – 26 March 2015) was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator.<ref>Tomas Tranströmer är död. SVT Nyheter, 27 March 2015.</ref> His poems captured the long winters in Sweden, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature.<ref name="nyt"/> Tranströmer's work is also characterized by a sense of mystery and wonder underlying the routine of everyday life, a quality which often gives his poems a religious dimension.<ref name="PE">Template:Cite news</ref> He has been described as a Christian poet.<ref name="CPR">Template:Cite news</ref>

Tranströmer is acclaimed as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since the Second World War. Critics praised his poetry for its accessibility, even in translation.<ref name="nyt"/> His poetry has been translated into over 60 languages.<ref name="nyt">Template:Cite news</ref> He was the recipient of the 1990 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the 2004 International Nonino Prize, and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.<ref name="ap nobel">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Life and workEdit

Early lifeEdit

Tranströmer was born in Stockholm in 1931 and raised by his mother Helmy, a schoolteacher, following her divorce from his father, Gösta Tranströmer, an editor.<ref name="ap nobel"/><ref name="guardian">Template:Cite news</ref> He received his secondary education at the Södra Latin Gymnasium in Stockholm, where he began writing poetry. In addition to selected journal publications, his first collection of poems, 17 Poems, was published in 1954. He continued his education at Stockholm University, graduating as a psychologist in 1956 with additional studies in history, religion and literature.<ref name="wp nobel">Template:Cite news</ref> Between 1960 and 1966, Tranströmer split his time between working as a psychologist at the Roxtuna centre for juvenile delinquents (sv) and writing poetry.<ref name="ap nobel"/> He also worked as a psychologist at the Labor Market Institute in Västerås from 1965 to 1990.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

PoetryEdit

Tranströmer is considered to be one of the "most influential Scandinavian poet[s] of recent decades".<ref name="ap nobel"/> Tranströmer published 15 collected works over his extensive career, which have been translated into over 60 languages.<ref name="ap nobel"/> An English translation by Robin Fulton of his entire body of work, New Collected Poems, was published in the UK in 1987 and expanded in 1997. Following the publication of The Great Enigma, Fulton's edition was further expanded into The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems, published in the US in 2006 and as an updated edition of New Collected Poems<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in the UK in 2011. He published a short autobiography, Minnena ser mig (The Memories see me), in 1993.

By the mid-1960s, Tranströmer became close friends with poet Robert Bly. The two corresponded frequently, and Bly would translate Tranströmer's poems into English. In 2001 Bonniers, Tranströmer's publisher, released Air Mail, a work consisting of Tranströmer's and Bly's day-to-day correspondence on personal, contemporary and literary matters c. 1965–1991 – in a style that vividly conveyed how close friends the two had soon become.<ref name="ap nobel"/> Bly also helped arrange readings for his fellow poet in America. The Syrian poet Adunis helped spread Tranströmer's fame in the Arab world, accompanying him on reading tours.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Tomas Transtromer and Modhir Ahmed.jpg

Tranströmer (right) with Iraqi-Swedish artist Modhir Ahmed, 2007

In the 1970s, other poets accused Tranströmer of being detached from his own age, since he did not deal overtly with social and political issues in his poems and novels. His work, though, lies within and further develops the Modernist and Expressionist/Surrealist language of 20th-century poetry; his clear, seemingly simple pictures from everyday life and nature, in particular, reveals a mystic insight to the universal aspects of the human mind. A poem of his was read at Anna Lindh's memorial service in 2003.<ref name="bbc nobel">Template:Cite news</ref>

Tranströmer went to Bhopal immediately after the gas tragedy in 1984, and alongside Indian poets such as K. Satchidanandan, took part in a poetry reading session outside the plant.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tranströmer suffered a stroke in 1990 that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak; however, he continued to write and publish poetry through the early 2000s. One of his final original volumes of poetry, Den stora gåtan, was published in 2004, and translated into English in 2006 as The Great Enigma.

MusicEdit

Tranströmer played the piano throughout his life; after his stroke, which paralyzed the right side of his body, he taught himself to play only with his left hand. He often said that the playing was a way for him to continue living after the stroke.<ref name="guardian"/><ref>Poetry Foundation "Tomas Tranströmer Plays Piano in New Short Doc on New Official Website" 1 November 2011</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Jean-Pierre Thiollet, 88 notes pour piano solo, Neva Editions, 2015, p.154-155. Template:ISBN</ref>

Tranströmer's daughter Emma is a concert singer. In 2011 she released the album Dagsmeja, containing songs based on Tranströmer's poems.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Many composers and musicians have worked with his poems. Among these are Jan Garbarek, Ulf Grahn, Madeleine Isaksson, Margareta Hallin, Lars Edlund, Sven-David Sandström, Jan Sandström and Anders Eliasson.<ref>Swedish Music Information Centre</ref>

DeathEdit

Tranströmer died in Stockholm on 26 March 2015 at 83.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

List of worksEdit

Books of poetry

17 Poems ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), Bonniers, 1954
Secrets on the Way (Hemligheter på vägen), Bonnier, 1958
The Half-Finished Heaven (Den halvfärdiga himlen), Bonnier, 1962
Bells and Tracks (Klanger och spår), Bonnier, 1966
Seeing in the Dark (Mörkerseende), Författarförlaget, 1970
Paths (Stigar), Författarförlaget, 1973, Template:ISBN
Baltics (Östersjöar), Bonnier, 1974
The Truthbarrier (Sanningsbarriären), Bonnier, 1978, Template:ISBN
The Wild Market Square (Det vilda torget) Bonnier, 1983, Template:ISBN
For the Living and the Dead ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), Bonnier, 1989
The Sorrow Gondola (Sorgegondolen), Bonnier, 1996, Template:ISBN
Prison (Fängelse), Edition Edda, 2001 (from 1959), Template:ISBN
The Great Enigma (Den stora gåtan), Bonnier, 2004, Template:ISBN

Other

Memories Look at Me (Minnena ser mig), Bonnier, 1993, prose memoir Template:ISBN
Air Mail: Brev 1964-1990, Bonnier, 2001, correspondence with Robert Bly Template:ISBN
Galleriet: Reflected in Vecka nr. II (2007), an artist book by Modhir Ahmed

Translations of his workEdit

in English

Twenty Poems tr. Robert Bly, Seventies Press, 1970<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Night Vision: Mörkerseende tr. Robert Bly, London Magazine Editions, 1972, SBN 900626 74 7
Windows and Stones tr. May Swenson & Leif Sjoberg, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972; Template:ISBN
Selected Poems, Tomas Tranströmer, tr. Robin Fulton, (included with Paavo Haavikko), Penguin Modern European Poets, 1974; Template:ISBN
Baltics: Östersjöar, tr. Samuel Charters, Oyez, Berkeley, 1975 Template:ISBN; new edition Tavern Books 2012, Template:ISBN
Baltics: Östersjöar, tr. Robin Fulton, Oasis Books, London, 1980; Template:ISBN
Selected Poems, translator Robin Fulton, Ardis Publishers, 1981, Template:ISBN
The Blue House: Prose Poems, Thunder City Press, 1983
The Wild Market Square: Det vilda torget tr. John F. Deane, Dedalus Press, Dublin, 1985; Template:ISBN
Collected Poems, Translator Robin Fulton, Bloodaxe Books, 1987, Template:ISBN
Tomas Tranströmer: Selected Poems, 1954–1986, Editor Robert Hass, Publisher Ecco Press, 1987 Template:ISBN
Sorrow Gondola: Sorgegondolen, tr. Robin Fulton, Dufour Editions, 1994, Template:ISBN; Dufour Editions, Incorporated, 1997, Template:ISBN
For the Living and the Dead: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, tr. John F. Deane; The Dedalus Press, Dublin, 1994; Template:ISBN
New Collected Poems tr. Robin Fulton, Bloodaxe Books, 1997, Template:ISBN
Selected Poems Transtromer, Translator May Swenson, Eric Sellin, HarperCollins, 1999, Template:ISBN
The Half-Finished Heaven tr. Robert Bly, Graywolf Press, 2001, Template:ISBN
The Deleted World tr. Robin Robertson, Enitharmon Press, 2006, Template:ISBN; Enitharmon Press, 2006, Template:ISBN
Template:Cite book; republished 2011<ref>Excerpts on Google Books</ref>
The Sorrow Gondola tr. Michael McGriff and Mikaela Grassl, Green Integer, 2010, Template:ISBN
The Deleted World tr. Robin Robertson, Farrar, Straus and Giroux USA, Enitharmon Press UK, 2011; Template:ISBN
New Collected Poems tr. Robin Fulton, expanded edition Bloodaxe Books, 2011, Template:ISBN
Inspired Notes, tr. John F. Deane, Dedalus Press, Dublin, 2011 (combining his 1985 and 1994 translations above); Template:ISBN
Bright Scythe: Selected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer, tr. Patty Crane, Bilingual edition, Sarabande Books, 2015; Template:ISBN
The Blue House: Collected Works of Tomas Tranströmer, tr. Patty Crane, Bilingual edition, Copper Canyon Press, 2023; Template:ISBN

in other languages

Milan Richter has translated Tranströmer into Czech
J. Bernlef has translated Tranströmer's entire work of poetry into Dutch.
Jacques Outin translated them into French.
Hanns Grössel has translated several works of Tranströmer into German.
Galit Hasan-Rokem has translated Tranströmer's entire work of poetry into Hebrew.
Maria Cristina Lombardi translated some works of Tranströmer into Italian.
Eiko Duke-Soei has translated The Sorrow Gondola into Japanese.
Morteza Saghafian has translated Tranströmer's work into Persian.
Leonard Neuger has translated several of Tranströmer's anthologies into Polish.
Dan Shafran has translated A Page of the Night-Book (Nattboksblad) Pagini din cartea nopții: poeme (Polirom, 2003) and The Great Enigma (Den stora gåtan) Taina cea mare (Polirom, 2005) into Romanian.
Milan Richter has translated the collected poems of Tranströmer into Slovak (Medzi allegrom a lamentom, 2001)
Roberto Mascaró has translated Tranströmer's work into Spanish.