Glad this was useful. Tranströmer rocks! He should get a Nobel.

As for other Swedish poetry in English, I can recommend Artur Lundkvist’s Agadir, which I wrote about briefly here, and Harry Martinson’s epic science fiction poem Aniara, possibly one of the bleakest things I have ever read, which has only been translateed in its entirety once, by Stephen Klass and Leif Sjorberg for Story Line Press.

There’s one other major 20th-century Swedish poet whom I haven’t yet read: Gunnar Ekelof. Leif Sjoberg co-translated him with Muriel Rukeyser for Twayne back in ’67, according to the Wikipedia. My poetry-reading habits are really haphazard and not really shaped by national boundaries, but I’m sure I’ll get around to looking up that Ekelof translation sooner or later.

Thanks again for the comment.

I liked your site very much. Greatly enjoy Tomas Transtromer’s poetry and, when able to read different translations, find the various translators interpretations most interesting.
I too, as one person commenting in your feedback, found the word gross (obviously intended meaning being large) unpleasant because of present day connotations.

I’ve read three translations of ‘Breathing space (or room) July, one by May Swenson, another by Robert Fulton and the last one, by Robert Bly. They’re all rather good as one might expect at this level of work, but some lines appeal more than say others and this is across each of the 3 translations of this poem…

e.g. I liked Bly’s inclusion of ‘the shade’ in the line “will fall asleep at last inside the shade of his blue lamp,” and Swenson’s translation generally, and various words and lines of Fulton’s work as well.
How do you view the various translations of Transtromer’s work?
I live in Australia (coming from New Zealand) and have not found it easy to come by the poets work. I’m presently awaiting a copy of ‘The great enigma.’
Are there any good translations in English by Swedish writers that you can recommend? Well, thanks re your interesting site.

Regards
Narda M