Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Nobel Prize Laureate and beloved Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer (1931-2015) was born in Stockholm and worked as a psychologist. He wrote ten collections of poems that the Nobel Prize Committee praised for their "condensed, translucent images that give us fresh access to reality." The best-known Scandinavian poet of the postwar period, and the most widely translated, his other books available in English include Selected Poems 1954-1986; The Half-Finished Heaven; For the Living and the Dead; Night Vision; and Windows and Stars. For many years after being seriously debilitated by a stroke, Tranströmer continued write. He was also an avid pianist and released a recording of classical piano pieces performed with his left hand. Tranströmer received numerous public recognitions for his poetry including the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Bonnier Award for Poetry, Germany's Petrarch Prize, the Bellman Prize, the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize, the August Prize, and a Lifetime Recognition Award in 2007 from The Griffin Trust. In 2011 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Robin Fulton, a Scottish poet and longtime resident of Norway, has been translating Tranströmer for over thirty-five years.

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The Great Enigma

New Directions Publishing Corporation

Contents

Foreword......................................................................xiii17 POEMS (17 DIKTER), 1954I Prelude.....................................................................3II Autumnal Archipelago:Storm.........................................................................4Evening-Morning...............................................................4Ostinato......................................................................5III Five Stanzas to Thoreau...................................................6Gogol.........................................................................7Sailor's Yarn.................................................................8Strophe and Counter-Strophe...................................................8Agitated Meditation...........................................................9The Stones....................................................................10Context.......................................................................10Morning Approach..............................................................11There Is Peace in the Surging Prow............................................11Midnight Turning Point........................................................12IV Song.......................................................................13V Elegy.......................................................................17Epilogue......................................................................21SECRETS ON THE WAY (HEMLIGHETER P VGEN), 1958I Solitary Swedish Houses.....................................................27The Man Who Awoke with Singing over the Roofs.................................29Weather Picture...............................................................29The Four Temperaments.........................................................30Caprichos.....................................................................31II Siesta.....................................................................32Izmir at Three O'Clock........................................................33III Secrets on the Way........................................................34Tracks........................................................................34Kyrie.........................................................................35IV A Man from Benin...........................................................36Balakirev's Dream.............................................................38V After an Attack.............................................................40VI The Journey's Formulae.....................................................41PRISON (FNGELSE), 1959Prison........................................................................45THE HALF-FINISHED HEAVEN (DEN HALVFRDIGA HIMLEN), 1962I The Couple..................................................................49The Tree and the Sky..........................................................49Face to Face..................................................................50Ringing.......................................................................50Through the Wood..............................................................51November with Nuances of Noble Fur............................................52II The Journey................................................................53C Major.......................................................................55Noon Thaw.....................................................................56When We Saw the Islands Again.................................................57From the Hilltop..............................................................58III Espresso..................................................................59IV The Palace.................................................................60Syros.........................................................................61In the Nile Delta.............................................................62V A Dark Swimming Figure......................................................63Lament........................................................................64Allegro.......................................................................65The Half-Finished Heaven......................................................66Nocturne......................................................................67A Winter Night................................................................68BELLS AND TRACKS (KLANGER OCH SPR), 1966Portrait with Commentary......................................................71Lisbon........................................................................72From an African Diary.........................................................73Crests........................................................................74Hommages......................................................................75Winter's Formulae.............................................................77Morning Birds.................................................................79About History.................................................................80Alone.........................................................................82On the Outskirts of Work......................................................84After Someone's Death.........................................................85Oklahoma......................................................................86Summer Plain..................................................................87Downpour over the Interior....................................................88Under Pressure................................................................90Open and Closed Spaces........................................................91An Artist in the North........................................................92In the Open...................................................................93Slow Music....................................................................95SEEING IN THE DARK (MRKERSEENDE), 1970The Name......................................................................99A Few Minutes.................................................................99Breathing Space July..........................................................100By the River..................................................................101Outskirts.....................................................................102Traffic.......................................................................103Night Duty....................................................................104The Open Window...............................................................105Preludes......................................................................106Upright.......................................................................108The Bookcase..................................................................109PATHS (STIGAR), 1973To Friends Behind a Frontier..................................................113From the Thaw of 1966.........................................................113Sketch in October.............................................................114Further In....................................................................115The Outpost...................................................................116Along the Radius..............................................................118Looking Through the...