Review Summaries

• Widely recognized as a poet whose influence extends far beyond Scandinavia into world literature. His concise yet vivid imagery reveals the mystery hidden in everyday life, and his work has profoundly shaped poets and readers across generations.

• The nominating juror praised Tranströmer for breathing life into the most uninspiring realities of modern existence and greatly expanding the range of poetic vision. His political independence combined with deep compassion for human suffering was also cited as a hallmark of his achievement.

Reviews

• ノーベル賞作家詩集

  ２０１１年のノーベル文学賞受賞者の代表作「悲しみのゴンドラ」が掲載されています。 １度読んだだけで理解は不十分ですが、作者の独自の美的世界があると思いました。 世の中と景色の見方が変わるような現代詩集です。 Haikuという詩もたくさんあり、日本の俳句に傾倒していたことが推察されます。 日本では残念ながら一部しか翻訳されておらず、本作の翻訳がのぞまれます。 手元において何度も読めば楽しめると思います。 巻末に著者の子供時代から学生時代までの生い立ちが書かれており、興味深いです。

• extremely beautiful

  I recommend this book to poetry lovers anywhere, the poems are dynamic and powerful. everty metaphor cries out with soul and intent for a deciphering of Transtromer's powerful angst and view. I highly recomend it .

• Transtromer: More than Meets the Eye

  When I first learned that Poet Tomas Transtromer was this year's Nobel Laureate in literature, I was both ecstatic and perplexed--the former because I had another opportunity to read and to respond to what the literary community regaled as this year's crowning achievement, and the latter because I had never heard of him even though I have been reading, writing, and teaching literature most of my adult life. If you do not remember, last year's winner was Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian writer whose historical fiction novel Feast of the Goat--a story about the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic--set my heart ablaze with his ability to describe poignant historical events. My only minor critique was that his style and content sounded reminiscent of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. With Tomas Transtromer, there is no real comparison. He has been by far the most original, the most satisfying, and the most complete modern poet (he probably is upset that I have called him modern and a poet!) I have encountered. What is even more impressive about him is that literature has never been his field of study (that would be history, psychology, and amazingly geography)even though he has been writing prodigiously for the last forty years. It is truly fortuitous that the rest of the world now has the opportunity to enter this "silent rebel's mind," for we can benefit from his poetry in so many capacities. An amateur compared to those who have followed Transtromer's life and works, my prosody may likely sound frenetic for the simple reason that my training has been in English, and, honestly, that is a slight limitation since Transtromer purposely tries to be an atypical poet. What I wish to convey is the approach that I have taken to understand and to enjoy his poems for one must remember that Transtromer envisions the world from the apex of the universe, not the pedestrian sidewalk. If you are new to Transtromer and lack a solid background in poetry, do not panic. My background could not have prepared me for what I was about to read either. In the foreword Robin Fulton suggests that the reader not attempt to read the text chronologically, as the poems do not necessarily build upon themselves. In an interview Transtromer commented that his later poetry was a reaction to his overly romantic ones in his early twenties, but that does not mean that they are less worthy than what he produced later in his life. If anything, Transtromer characterizes his youthful poems as too insular or possibly too bound to his home topography. However, strangely enough, when I finished reading the sections 17 Poems and Secrets on the Way, I found myself befuddled at a conscious level but somehow dreaming "better" at an unconscious level, as if the poems' meanings were only clairvoyant during the REM stage of sleep. While some may yearn for this interior struggle, I quickly embraced Fulton's advice and shifted my focus to Transtromer's memoir. Written in 1993, "Memories Look at Me" is Transtromer's benevolence heaped upon us. It is here where I made my deeper connections and here where I understood that Transtromer does not function as what we think of the "typical" poet. We happen upon his childhood and the fact that his journalist father left his wife and son early on, and, as a result, the young Transtromer grew up poor. There is his grandfather, whose nineteenth century lexicon lingered in his mind; a rich childhood friend who possessed so much while he had so little. It is as if he provides this biography only to tell us what he is not. Interestingly, of likely lasting impact was his awareness at the age of eight that he was "special" from the other students; for example, he loved touring museums and reading books from the adult section of the library or at his father's party from cover to cover. There is his time in primary and especially secondary school where both teachers and students quickly recognized his geniuses not only in writing but above all in geography! He may be private today, but some of his adolescence could be characterized as passive-aggressive. During World War II, he recalled how he was thoroughly anti-Nazi even though most of his secondary teachers were ardent supporters. There was his rebellion against one of his teachers who hated that he refused to write conventional poems with proper capitalization (which likely explains the lowercase lettering of the title of his book!) Ultimately, though, there is nothing political, nothing peculiar, and nothing scintillating other than, well, himself. There is the poet, the "great enigmas," and likely a spiritual realm that he describes throughout much of his poetry. As one can tell from the number of previous paragraphs, there is much to be gained from reading his memoir. The next step is to understand how Transtromer uses a multitude of physical settings and historical events as a springboard into an ironic dream-like awareness of a spiritual transcendence. I hesitate to use the word "routine" because that is misleading, but even Fulton comments that much of Transtromer's poetry starts with the concrete in order to climb toward a "larger context." The "cycle" of much of Transtromer's poetry is one in which a season--i.e. fall, winter, spring, summer--is invoked, often followed with a specific month such as June, November, December, and February--and then paired with a particular hour such as midnight and two a.m. He uses this physical context as a way to depict an epiphanous moment, an unconscious feeling, an indescribable yet definite sense of otherworldliness, or an unlikely reaction that only takes formation in a dream. There is also the historical event--the Nile Delta, Lisbon, a man from Benin, an African diary, history itself, and women of the nineteenth century--who populate his poetic canvas, and, frankly, appear to live outside the confines of what one would consider traditional European history. Though the people are caught up in their historical moments, they also transcend theirs; leaving us with the impression that Transtromer disagrees with the concept of contextualizing poetry. The tone of his poems is quiet to the point of deathly silence, but then again it is at these moments that we often make our greatest discoveries. There is a structure to Transtromer's events, but there is not a clearly defined structure to his poem--it is largely image driven. Then again, as we rethink history, often that is what it becomes over time: an image that becomes a part of who we are. Finally, there is Fulton's foreword, which includes an extensive analysis of Transtromer's poetry. My suggestion is that you read this after you have finished reading his poems. As you can tell from my paltry attempt, analysis has its limits when it comes to his poetry. His poetry is not something that can be summed up or broken apart but rather must be approached in the right manner. In my humble opinion, that can only occur when you accept that he has chosen to allow you into his world of ideas. Once inside, do not take your admission for granted, for leaving it will be as challenging as entering it! This is likely my longest review of a book that I have done on Amazon, but I think Transtromer is worthy of one. As enigmatic as my review has been (usually, I am quite the concrete-sequential thinker), I feel as if it has been the most rewarding because this is the most organic understanding I have had of the human condition save for a religious institution. If you are willing to invest the time, "the great enigma" we call life becomes less perplexing and certainly more cherished.

• Mon poète préféré

  Je suis ravi de partager mon enthousiasme pour cette superbe édition d'un de mes poètes favoris. Cette version parvient à capturer l'essence même de l'œuvre en question. La traduction anglaise est réalisée avec finesse, préservant l'intégrité des poèmes originaux tout en les rendant accessibles à un public plus large. L'attention portée au design est tout aussi admirable. Le choix d'un design sobre et épuré est en parfaite harmonie avec le style de Thomas, qui était lui-même un champion de la simplicité. Cela crée une synergie entre le contenu et la forme, permettant aux lecteurs de véritablement se plonger dans l'univers poétique de l'auteur. En somme, cette édition est une réussite à bien des égards. Elle offre une porte d'entrée captivante vers l'univers de ce poète exceptionnel, tout en rendant hommage à sa philosophie littéraire. Si vous recherchez une manière authentique et élégante de découvrir ou redécouvrir les poèmes intemporels de Tomas Tranströmer, je vous recommande chaleureusement cette édition.

• One of the best books of poems by one of my favorite poets

  Transtromer is a wonderful poet. There is something beautiful, minimal, surreal, severe about his poems. There is a musical quality to much of his writing. This book is a great collection of his poems. There are other Transtromer books that have the Swedish on one page and the English on the other page--this one only has English, which I appreciated, since I can't read Swedish. Highly recommended to all who enjoy reading poetry.

• The Great Enigma

  A review of a Nobel prize winner? Not my place, but I will make a few comments here that are simply opinion. First, I'd recommend reading the forward and his memories at the end of this collection before the rest. Helps to place him in geography , history, and his general reactions to specific points in his life. Overall this collection reveals a very personal sort of poet. By that I mean he seems to write from his own recollections and impressions just to express the experience in words. He doesn't seem to attempt any commentary about politics or such like. Second, all the technical stuff related to poetry like meter etc. is way beyond my knowledge level, but as a plain old reader I liked most of this collection. It tended to the somber with little splashes of color here and there---generally as spring return to the countryside. Have to wonder how much the climate affected his life and writing. Last. Would I return to his writing? Yes, that's one of the beauties of poetry. It can be fresh at each reading.

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