Tomas Tranströmer

Tomas Tranströmer (born April 15, 1931, Stockholm, Sweden—died March 26, 2015, Stockholm) was a Swedish lyrical poet noted for his spare but resonant language, particularly his unusual metaphors—more transformative than substitutive—which have been associated with a literary surrealism. His verse was at once revelatory and mysterious. Tranströmer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011.

Tranströmer was brought up by his divorced mother, who was a teacher, and her extended family. As a young man, he performed the then-obligatory service in the Swedish military. After earning a degree from Stockholm University College (now Stockholm University) in 1956, he made his living as a psychologist and social worker.

Tranströmer’s first collection of poetry, 17 dikter (1954; “Seventeen Poems”), showed the influence of Modernism in its spare language and startling imagery, and it met with critical acclaim. His next volumes, Hemligheter på vägen (1958; “Secrets Along the Way”), Den halvfärdiga himlen (1962; “The Half-Finished Heaven”), and Klanger och spår (1966; “Resonances and Tracks”), are composed in a more-personal style, with plainer diction and personal perspective more in evidence. In those and later books, Tranströmer’s poetic observations of nature combine richness of meaning with the utmost simplicity of style. As one critic put it: “Tranströmer’s poems are acoustically perfect chambers in which all of these contradictory vibrations can be heard without straining.” During the mid-1960s, however, Tranströmer began to fall out of favour with a new generation of poets and some critics who accused him of a lack of political commitment. Also in the 1960s he established a correspondence and friendship with the American poet Robert Bly, who translated many of Tranströmer’s poems into English.

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Bly’s first translation of an entire book by Tranströmer was Mörkerseende (1970; “Seeing in the Dark”; Eng. trans. Night Vision), written during a difficult time for the Swedish poet. Tranströmer’s next volume, Stigar (1973; “Paths”), included translations into Swedish of some of Bly’s work. The Baltic coast, which captured Tranströmer’s imagination as a boy, is the setting for Östersjöar (1974; Baltics). His later works include Sanningsbarriären (1978; The Truth Barrier), Det vilda torget (1983; The Wild Marketplace), and För levande och döda (1989; For the Living and the Dead).

In 1990 Tranströmer was awarded the Neustadt Prize for literature. That same year he had a stroke that robbed him almost entirely of the ability to speak. Nevertheless, he published a memoir, Minnena ser mig (1993; “Memories Look at Me”), and two more books of verse: Sorgegondolen (1996; Sorrow Gondola), inspired by Franz Liszt’s La lugubre gondola, and Den stora gåtan (2004; The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems). A volume of Tranströmer’s collected work, Dikter och prosa 1954–2004 (“Poetry and Prose 1954–2004”), was issued in 2011. Air Mail (2001; Airmail) collected his correspondence with Bly between 1964 and 1990.

Tranströmer’s direct language and powerful images made him the most widely translated Scandinavian poet in the English-speaking world in the later 20th century. Bly’s collections of Tranströmer include Friends, You Drank Some Darkness: Three Swedish Poets, Harry Martinson, Gunnar Ekelöf, and Tomas Tranströmer (1975), Tomas Tranströmer: Selected Poems 1954–1986 (1987; with other translators), and The Half-Finished Heaven: The Best Poems of Tomas Tranströmer (2001). Tranströmer’s poetry was translated into many other languages as well.