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Winner of the Neustadt Prize for Literature, Tomas Transtromer has a prestigious worldwide reputation. His work has been translated into some 30 languages. Longtime friend and editor of Transtromer, Robert Bly, translates a carefully chosen selection of the poet's definitive works.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Tomas Transtromer, as the cover of the book advises, is probably Sweden's best-known living writer. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize several times. It will surprise many if he does not win one year. He is possibly the greatest living poet in any language.
He writes poems in free verse with great economy of words and startling images. These often inhabit a landscape that lies on the edge between waking and dreaming.
But then Transtromer was a psychologist as well as a poet. So, perhaps, this has soaked into his vision. It is a modern landscape of countryside and machinery. One inhabiting many turns of mind: from bewilderment and loss to great happiness. He is a poet of both joy and sorrow.
Robert Bly was one of the first to translate Transtromer into English and is a friend of the great man. These translations give a wonderful impression of great poetry. The language is so beautiful. One forgets they are translations and leaves the book wanting more.
And there are more. Robin Fulton's New Collected Poems from Bloodaxe has these as well as different translations of the same poems done with equal dexterity. But that is not that much more, as Transtromer has been as economical in the production of poems he has been language used in individual poems.
Bur which ever volume you choose, one finishes the book with only one sadness: that that there is not more! If you want a "Selected", go for Bly. If you want the lot go for Fulton. But for the best of all possible worlds get both!
He writes poems in free verse with great economy of words and startling images. These often inhabit a landscape that lies on the edge between waking and dreaming.
But then Transtromer was a psychologist as well as a poet. So, perhaps, this has soaked into his vision. It is a modern landscape of countryside and machinery. One inhabiting many turns of mind: from bewilderment and loss to great happiness. He is a poet of both joy and sorrow.
Robert Bly was one of the first to translate Transtromer into English and is a friend of the great man. These translations give a wonderful impression of great poetry. The language is so beautiful. One forgets they are translations and leaves the book wanting more.
And there are more. Robin Fulton's New Collected Poems from Bloodaxe has these as well as different translations of the same poems done with equal dexterity. But that is not that much more, as Transtromer has been as economical in the production of poems he has been language used in individual poems.
Bur which ever volume you choose, one finishes the book with only one sadness: that that there is not more! If you want a "Selected", go for Bly. If you want the lot go for Fulton. But for the best of all possible worlds get both!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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5 reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Great intro to major poet
28 Dec 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I knew little of Transtromer's work and nothing about him. Bly's translations are the best way to enter Mr. T's world, I think. I now have other translations. In some cases, 2 others of a poem for comparison. I do not know Swedish at all, although I would like to look at it sometime--but none of the books I have is bilingual. I don't miss it here. I can tell that Bly translates as he has elsewhere: he reads and receives the original poem and then writes a poem-to-poem translation, rather than word-for-word. I've found other parts that I prefer or find a bit more interesting in other translations, but for overall poem-ness and poetic satisfaction, I don't think Bly's can be beat. You know you're reading poetry, not simply translation. For those who'd like to compare and don't mind some overlap, I'd recommend Robin Fulton's collected poems The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems and Robert Hass's selected poems Tomas Transtromer: Selected Poems, 1954-1986. In some cases, you'll get 3 translations for triangulation. For me, I'm seeking out more of Bly's translations, many of which are out of print.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Thanks to the Nobel Prize committee
5 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Like most aging ex-English majors/literati caught up in just trying to stay afloat in this crazy economy, its hard enough to find the time to read much less stay abreast with the world of great literature. I heard about this Swedish poet who recently won the Nobel on NPR's "All Things Considered." Curious, I did an online search. The first poem (happened to be the one this collection is named for) and I was hooked. I have two volumes now, this one being my favorite. In these frantic, digitized, vampiric times, Transtromer's poems are an oasis of green pastures and still waters. And even though they are, in the words of English translator Robert Bly's excellent introduction to this volume, "mysterious because the images have traveled a long way to get here" they remain, at least I found them, curiously accessible. If you aren't into poetry (we should all make ourselves dabble at least as a intellectual and spiritual discipline) this book is worth giving a try. Put it by your bedside and, after prayers or even along with them, read one every night before turning off the light. (BTW, I am a Christian who takes Jesus, the Bible, the Church and my faith very seriously. I am not precisely sure where Transtromer is coming from in relation to spiritual matters, but his is at least, to paraphrase O'Connor, a very Christ and Holy Spirit-haunted world.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Magical
4 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this collection of poems recently after Transtromer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Beautiful poems! The characters in his poems are so realistic and at the same time it feels like you are entering a dream.
As Transtromer says himself:"So much that can neither be written nor kept inside!"
As Transtromer says himself:"So much that can neither be written nor kept inside!"
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