Published in 1978, Schubertiana, a poem from Tomas Tranströmer’s eighth volume of poems, Sanningsbarriären (Truth Barriers), explores the ways in which music functions as an antidote to the fragmentation that often defines contemporary life. As typically happens in Tranströmer’s work,… Read More ›
This poem, Bön till solen, appeared in Karin Boye’s fourth and final collection of poetry, För trädets skull (For the Tree’s Sake, 1935). (A fifth collection, De sjudödssynderna [The Seven Deadly Sins], was published posthumously in 1941.) This poem is… Read More ›
I Want To Meet … Armed, upright and shielded in armourI went forth –but from fear was the coat of mail castand from shame. I want to throw down my weapons,sword and shield.All the stark hostilitywas my coldness. I have… Read More ›
It may seem strange that a poet known primarily for his nature writing would win a Nobel Prize in 1974 for a long narrative poem that narrates the nuclear destruction of the world and its aftermath. But Harry Martinson’s literary… Read More ›