Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (Swedish:[ˈtʊ̌mːasˈjœ̂sːtaˈtrâːnˌstrœmːɛr]; 15 April 1931 – 26 March 2015) was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator.[1] His poems captured the long winters inSweden, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature.[2] 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.[3] He has been described as aChristian poet.[4]
Tranströmer is acclaimed as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since theSecond World War. Critics praised his poetry for its accessibility, even in translation.[2] His poetry has been translated into over 60 languages.[2] He received many awards for his poetry, including the2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.[5]
Tranströmer was born inStockholm in 1931 and raised by his mother Helmy, a schoolteacher, following her divorce from his father, Gösta Tranströmer, an editor.[5][6] He received his secondary education at theSödra LatinGymnasium 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 atStockholm University, graduating as a psychologist in 1956 with additional studies in history, religion and literature.[7] Between 1960 and 1966, Tranströmer split his time between working as a psychologist at theRoxtuna centre for juvenile delinquents [sv] and writing poetry.[5] He worked as a psychologist at the Labor Market Institute inVästerås from 1965 to 1990.[8]
Tranströmer is considered to be one of the "most influential Scandinavian poet[s] of recent decades".[5] Tranströmer published 15 collected works over his extensive career, which have been translated into over 60 languages.[5] An English translation byRobin Fulton of his entire body of work,New Collected Poems, was published in the UK in 1987 and expanded in 1997. Following the publication ofThe Great Enigma, Fulton's edition was further expanded intoThe Great Enigma: New Collected Poems, published in the US in 2006 and as an updated edition ofNew Collected Poems[9] 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 poetRobert Bly. The two corresponded frequently, and Bly translated Tranströmer's poems into English. In 2001Bonniers, Tranströmer's publisher, releasedAir 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.[5] Bly also helped arrange readings for his fellow poet in America. The Syrian poetAdunis helped spread Tranströmer's fame in theArab world, accompanying him on reading tours.[10]
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 theModernist andExpressionist/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.[citation needed]
Tranströmer went toBhopal immediately after thegas tragedy in 1984, and alongside Indian poets such asK. Satchidanandan, took part in a poetry reading session outside the plant.[11] Late in his life, he tried his hand at some Swedishhaiku.[12]
One of his poems was read at the assassinated[13] politicianAnna Lindh's memorial service in 2003.[14] Tranströmer suffered astroke in 1990 that left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak; however, he continued to write and publish poetry through the early 2000s.[12]
Tranströmer played the piano throughout his life; after his stroke, he taught himself to play with his left hand. He often said that the playing was a way for him to continue living after the stroke.[6][15][16][17]
Tranströmer's daughter Emma is a concertmezzo-soprano. In 2011 she released the albumDagsmeja, containing settings of 18 of Tranströmer's poems.[18]
Tranströmer (right) signsVecka nr. II, a book by Iraqi-Swedish artist Modhir Ahmed (left). The book is a reflection of his poem "Galleriet", which was first published in the 1978 collectionSanningsbarriären.
Dan Shafran has translatedA Page of the Night-Book (Nattboksblad) Pagini din cartea nopții: poeme (Polirom, 2003) andThe Great Enigma (Den stora gåtan) Taina cea mare (Polirom, 2005) intoRomanian.
Milan Richter has translated the collected poems of Tranströmer intoSlovak (Medzi allegrom a lamentom, 2001)
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