Kelly Nelson

Erasures and Translations of Tomas Tranströmer

 

In a room not far from the racetrack

from “Paret” (The Deleted World, 1962)

släcker lampan
ög
onblick innan
en
tablett


s
over                      sleeping
deras hemligaste tankar          their most secret thoughts
och
flyter våta papperet


n
att                        night
står hopträngd                crowds in
ansikten.

 

The Letter

from “Höstlig Skårgård” (The Deleted World, 1962)
         

Plötsligt vandraren här den      Sudden
jätteeken, lik en
framför septemberhavets

sina
M
ånens                    the moon’s

Snåren                    thicket
Ut på trappan.

 

One spring break on Maui

from “Islandsk Orkan” (Det vilda torget, 1983)

men förbi
fler
a kilometer från

in avskedsansökan
Pa
niken                  the panic

drunknar                 the drowning
sprinters över lavaslätten

 

Prostitute at Career Day Q & A

from “Nattboksblad” (Sorgegondolen, 1997)

där gräs
Jag sluttningen

I färgblinda
vit
a stenar                 white stones
månen tidrymd

någr
a minuter lång
b
ortom kusten

Människor
i st
ället för ansikten.          instead of faces


Tomas Tranströmer was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1931 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011. Along with many collections of poetry, he published a memoir and a book of letters from his 25–year correspondence with the poet Robert Bly.

Kelly Nelson is the author of the chapbooks Rivers I Don’t Live By and Who Was I to Say I Was Alive. Her erasure–translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Structo; Jet Fuel Review; Forklift, Ohio; Hinchas de Poesía; Best Experimental Writing; and elsewhere. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Brandeis University and teaches Interdisciplinary Studies at Arizona State University.