Swedish poet wins Nobel Prize

AFP/Stockholm

Transtroemer: his poetry is filled with imagination

Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer, whose simple but mystical imagery addresses themes of nature, history and death, has won the 2011 Nobel Literature Prize.Transtroemer, 80, was honoured “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality”, the Swedish Academy’s jury said.His poetry is filled with imagination and emotion, but is also riddled with the unexpected, making his work at times both disorienting and refreshing.Scandinavia’s most famous living poet, Transtroemer has been called a master of mysticism who often presents a dream-like consciousness in which time slows to allow for dissection of the relationship between the inner self and the surrounding world.“Most of Transtroemer’s poetry collections are characterised by economy, concreteness and poignant metaphors. In his latest collections ... Transtroemer has shifted towards an even smaller format and a higher degree of concentration,” it added.Transtroemer suffered a stroke in 1990 which left his speech slurred.At a press conference yesterday, a smiling Transtroemer said receiving the accolade felt “very good”. His wife, Monica, answered the other questions for him.An amateur pianist, he plays the piano every day with his undamaged left hand and spends his mornings listening to classical music.He was listening to music when yesterday’s call came from the Swedish Academy.The Academy’s permanent secretary, Peter Englund, told Swedish television that Transtroemer had been nominated for the prize every year since 1993.His work is “about death and history and memory, watching us, creating us, and that makes us important because human beings are sort of the prison where all these great entities meet”, Englund told the nobelprize.org website.“It makes us important, so you can never feel small after reading the poetry of Transtroemer,” he added.“He has quite a small production really, you could fit it into a not-too-large pocket book, all of it. So he has a very fast and very well-contained production. He is not a prolific author,” Englund said.Transtroemer’s reputation in the English-speaking world owes much to his friendship with American poet Robert Bly, who has translated much of his work into English, one of 60 languages in which his poems have appeared.His work paints simple pictures from everyday life and nature, as seen in this extract from the poem After a Death, translated by Bly: “Once there was a shock/that left behind a long, shimmering comet tail./It keeps us inside./ It makes the TV pictures snowy./ It settles in cold drops on the telephone wires.”His introspective style, described by Publishers Weekly as “mystical, versatile and sad”, is in contrast with Transtroemer’s life, which shows a constant, active commitment to working for a better world – and not just by writing poems.In his parallel careers as psychologist and poet, he also worked with the disabled, convicts and drug addicts while, at the same time, producing a large body of poetic work.His wife Monica told Swedish news agency TT her husband was surprised to win the prestigious accolade.“He did not think he would get to experience this,” she said.Transtroemer has sold thousands of volumes in his native country, and his work has been translated into more than 60 languages.Just minutes before yesterday’s announcement, Serbia’s state-run RTS television erroneously announced that fiercely nationalist Serb writer and ex-politician Dobrica Cosic had won the prize. Fooled by a fake website, it later apologised for the mistake.Transtroemer, the seventh Swede to win the prestigious prize, will receive the 10mn Swedish kronor ($1.48mn) award at a gala ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prize creator, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.Last year, the honour went to Spanish-Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa.