telegrams from this world

I *really do* like the pictured Tomas Tranströmer, 'New Collected Poems' (2011 Edition), all as translated from the Swedish by Robin Fulton ...

... I must have owned this copy for 2 or 3 years now, and still quite frequently go back to it, and read through the whole volume :-)

Here's another favourite poem from within:


Lament

He laid aside his pen.
It rests still on the table.
It rests still in the empty room.
He laid aside his pen.

Too much that can neither be written nor kept silent!
He is paralysed by something happening far away
although the wonderful travelling-bag throbs like a heart.

Outside it is early summer.
From the greenery come whistlings - men or birds?
And cherry trees in bloom embrace the lorries which have come home.

Weeks go by.
Night comes slowly.
The moths settle on the window pane:
small pale telegrams from the world.

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Tomas Tranströmer (1931 - 2015)

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