Tomas Tranströmer

Poet

• Born: April 15, 1931
• Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
• Died: March 26, 2015

Swedish poet

Biography

Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (TRAHNS-trur-mur) was widely regarded as Sweden’s best poet since World War II. He was born to Gösta and Helmy Tranströmer, who divorced when Tomas was only three, leaving him with a strong sense of the absence of a father figure. Tranströmer graduated from the University of Stockholm in 1956, married Monica Blach in 1958, and raised two daughters. He maintained a dual career as a psychologist and poet. Tranströmer worked at the Psychological Institute in Stockholm from 1957 to 1959, later worked in a boys’ reformatory in Roxtuna from 1960 to 1965, and subsequently worked as a special consultant and counselor for delinquent boys and people with disabilities in Vaesteraas.

Tranströmer’s career as a poet began when he was only sixteen and was quickly established by his first collection, 17 Dikter, published in 1954 when the poet was only twenty-three. This early work immediately identified Tranströmer as one who loved landscapes and specialized in joining images rarely associated with one another. He and others called his work surrealistic, introducing the unreal or supernatural in the midst of the seemingly familiar.

Tranströmer’s second work, Hemligheter på vâgen (1958), was inspired by the poet’s travels in the Balkans, Italy, and Turkey, and by his experiences with the paintings of Vincent van Gogh and Francisco Goya. With his third volume, Den halvfärdiga himlen (1962), Tranströmer further developed the tensions in his poetry between the positive and the malevolent sides of life. Some of his best poems from this volume are those treating music, such as “Allegro,” “C Major,” and “Nocturne.” His fourth volume, Klanger och spår (1966), continues to develop themes involving travel and music but utilizes looser poetic forms, sometimes shifting to a prose form. His next volume, Night Vision (1971), confirmed his reputation among English-language readers as a significant contemporary poet. Since that time his work has come to be translated into many different languages, and he had been translated into English more than any other living Swedish poet.

Aside from several collections consisting primarily of previously published works, Tranströmer’s next major work was Baltics (1974), translated skillfully by Samuel Charters, treating the life of his grandfather and other family members on an island off the east coast of Sweden. This lyrical narrative of life on the island demonstrates well the author’s ability to control and interweave images throughout a sequence of poems, making this book one of his finest poetic achievements.

His eighth major work, Truth Barriers (1980), translated by Robert Bly, one of Tranströmer’s best translators, demonstrates well the range of his styles and use of images. In this work one finds the familiar references to places and music and art, but convictions are still refreshingly personal and new. For example, “Schubertiana” describes the reality that music creates, which is greater than the bustling business of New York City or any other place. As Bly did in Friends, You Drank Some Darkness: Three Swedish Poets (1975), which includes a fine selection of Tranströmer’s poetry, he included the original Swedish version of the poems for reference.

Identifying the specific qualities of Tranströmer’s poetry that make it viable in Swedish as well as many other languages is not easy. His finely crafted style, his use of surprising images, and his love of nature, family, and art all play a prominent role. The lyrical qualities of his work sometimes remind one of Dylan Thomas or Gerard Manley Hopkins. Tranströmer’s love of music and his skill in playing the piano are evident in both the content and the style of his poetry. Furthermore, his religious sensibilities, while not entirely predictable or orthodox, are prominent and genuine, giving depth to his work. Finally, his work as a psychologist caused him to look deeply into the nature of life.

Tranströmer noted, “My poems are meeting places. Their intent is to make a sudden connection between aspects of reality that conventional languages and outlooks ordinarily keep apart.” He added (in a letter to Hungarian poets), “What looks at first like a confrontation turns out to be connection.” The gaps between his images are well placed and neatly used. Tomas Tranströmer’s career as a poet was punctuated by important prizes, such as the Petrarca Prize in 1981, the Bonniers Poetry Prize in 1983, the Grand Prize of the Nordic Council in 1989, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1990, the Nordic Prize of the Swedish Academy in 1991, and the Horst Bienik Prize of the Bayerische Akademie des Schönen Kunste in 1992 for his career achievements. His work steadily gained maturity and much-deserved recognition.

Although a stroke in 1990 had left Tranströmer unable to speak for the most part and unable to use his right arm, he had learned to continue to write. In 2011, he received one of the highest honors when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work. By the time of his death, he had compiled over fifteen collections of poetry that had been translated in several different languages. On March 26, 2015, Tranströmer passed away in Stockholm. He was eighty-three.

Bibliography

Bankier, Joanna. “Breaking the Spell: Subversion in the Poetry of Tomas Tranströmer.” World Literature Today 64.4 (1990): 591. Print.

Bly, Robert. “Tomas Tranströmer and ‘The Memory.’” World Literature Today 64.4 (1990): 570–73. Print.

Ivask, Ivar. “The Universality of Openness: The Understated Example of Tomas Tranströmer.” World Literature Today 64.4 (1990): 549. Print.

Kaplinski, Jaan. “Presentation to the Jury.” World Literature Today 64.4 (1990): 552. Print.

Rossel, Sven H. Rev. of Tolkningar, by Tomas Tranströmer. World Literature Today 74.1 (2000): 253. Print.

Sjoberg, Leif. “The Architecture of a Poetic Victory: Tomas Tranströmer’s Rise to International Pre-eminence.” Scandinavian Review 78.2 (1990): 87. Print.

Soderberg, Lasse. “The Swedishness of Tomas Tranströmer.” World Literature Today 64.4 (1990): 573. Print.

Weber, Bruce. "Tomas Transtromer, Swedish Poet Who Won Nobel, Dies at 83." New York Times. New York Times, 27 Mar. 2015. Web. 29 Dec. 2015.