THE SWEDISH Academy has awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature to one of its own: the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer.
Tranströmer becomes the eighth European to win the world’s premier literary award in the past 10 years, following the German novelist Herta Muller in 2009, the French writer JMG le Clézio in 2008 and the British novelist Doris Lessing in 2007.
Sweden’s most famous poet becomes the 104th literature laureate, and is the first poet to take the laurels since Poland’s Wislawa Szymborska in 1996. Praised by the judges for his “condensed, translucent images”, which give us “fresh access to reality”, Tranströmer’s surreal explorations of the inner world and its relation to the jagged landscape of his native country have been translated into more than 50 languages.
Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, admitted the choice of a Swede could be seen as controversial internationally but said that it had not happened for almost 40 years; in 1974, Swedish authors Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson took the prize jointly.
“It’s not that we spread them around on Swedes each and every year,” he said. “We have been quite thoughtful about this. We have not been rash in choosing a Swede.”
The Scottish poet Robin Fulton, who translated the volume New Collected Poemsand has worked on Tranströmer's writing for years, said: "In some sense the win was expected – it's looking back on a life's work. He's terribly famous already, just about as famous as a poet could be. Some writers become famous after they get the Nobel – he was famous before."
The poet Robin Robertson, who wrote versions of Transtromer's poems for the collection The Deleted World, said: "Readers of Tomas Tranströmer had almost given up any hope that this extraordinary poet might ever be recognised by his own country and receive the Nobel prize."
He called the decision “a happy end to a long wait: joy with a wash of relief. Tranströmer is not only Scandinavia’s most important poet, he is a writer of world stature – and that has finally been publicly acknowledged.”
Fulton said: “Some poets use their own language so densely they won’t translate at all. Tranströmer is not one of these. In many ways the language he uses is relatively unadventurous and simple [but] he gives people unusual images [which are] sometimes very surprising and give the reader a shock. That should be what poets do.”
Although Englund said that Tranströmer’s production had been “sparse – you could fit it into a not-too-large pocket book, all of it” – he praised the poet’s “exquisite” language.
“He is writing about the big questions – death, history, memory, nature. Human beings are sort of the prism where all these great entities meet and it makes us important. You can never feel small after reading the poetry of Tomas Tranströmer.”
Born in Stockholm in 1931 and raised by his mother, a teacher, Tranströmer studied at the University of Stockholm and worked as a psychologist at an institution for young offenders.
His first collection of poetry, 17 Dikter(17 Poems), was published in 1954, while he was still at college. He has since reflected on his travels in the Balkans, Spain and Africa, and examined the troubled history of the Baltic region through the conflict between sea and land.
He suffered a stroke in 1990 that affected his ability to talk, but has continued to write, with his collection Sorgegondolen(The Sorrow Gondola) selling 30,000 copies on its publication in 1996. At a recent appearance in London, his words were read by others, while the poet, a keen amateur musician, contributed by playing pieces specially composed for him on the piano with his left hand.
“He is very gifted,” said Fulton. “He has hardly any words, though. His wife communicates for him.”
Tranströmer has described his poems as “meeting places”, where dark and light, interior and exterior collide to give a sudden connection with the world, history or ourselves.
According to the poet: "the language marches in step with the executioners. Therefore we must get a new language." – (Guardianservice)