[New-Poetry] Transtromer in English

[David Graham]

I have on my shelf an edition of TT from Ardis Press from 1981,  
containing Fulton's translations up to that point.  It's a selection,  
with (for example) only five of the 17 poems from TT's first book  
included.

The new book from New Directions contains, as its final section, a  
group of poems titled "The Great Enigma," which is dated 2004.  So I  
don't see how this could be the same book Bloodaxe put out in 2002,  
anyway.

TT's been translated often into English, and I like various editions  
for various reasons.  Of books available in the U.S., May Swenson may  
have been first out of the gate with her *Windows & Stones*, from  
1972, though Robert Bly published some TT with his Seventies Press in  
1970.  (Then in 1975 his *Friends, You Drank Some Darkness* featured  
TT along with Harry Martinson & Gunnar Ekelof).  I grew up on  
Swenson's & Robert Bly's versions, and later found Fulton, Samuel  
Charters, and others.  I'm very fond of Charters's version of TT's  
only long poem, *Baltics*, from Oyez Press in 1975.  Robert Hass put  
out a very interesting selection from Ecco (1987), which gathered his  
favorite translations by various hands.  And Bly brought out his  
collected translations (many done decades before) with Graywolf's  
*The Half-Finished Heaven* in 2001.

If you ever run across it in the used bookshops, grab up the TT  
tribute issue of the late lamented *Ironwood* magazine (#13, 1979).

Worth underlining is that the recent New Directions title appears to  
be the first time that all of TT's work has been rendered into  
English in one book.  That's one reason I think this is such a big  
deal; this is a book I've been hankering for for 30 years.  Likely to  
be *the* definitive TT for some time.

Another reason is simply that I think Transtromer is a major figure,  
a peer of poets like Milosz, Heaney, Montale, et al.


On Dec 15, 2006, at 7:37 AM, Robin Hamilton wrote:

> More on Fulton and Transtromer ...  [continued]
>
> Mooching around abebooks to see what's available (some quite cheap  
> this side of the Pond), it looks as if Fulton's translations of  
> Transtromer were brought together by Bloodaxe as the _Collected  
> Poems_ in 1987, and reissued/reprinted as _New Collected Poems_ by  
> them in 2002.
>
> 'Nuff.
>
> Robin

==========================================
David Graham
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