The Half-Finished Heaven: Selected Poems
From the Winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature
An expanded edition by the Nobel laureate Tomas Transtr?mer, translated by the award-winning poet Robert BlyEvery person is a half-open door
leading to a room for everyone. The endless field under us. Water glitters between the trees. The lake is a window into the earth.
--from "The Half-Finished Heaven" Tomas Transtr?mer's celebrated career earned him a place among the twentieth century's essential global voices. Translated into more than fifty languages, his poetry draws readers to its power and resonance, its shaping of landscapes both outer and interior, stark and yet alive to the luminous. In 2011, Transtr?mer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality." The National Book Award-winning poet and renowned translator Robert Bly first introduced American readers to Transtr?mer's poetry in his seminal English translations, all of which are collected here for the first time in this expanded edition. With an updated introduction and fourteen additional poems, The Half-Finished Heaven presents the best of Transtr?mer's poetry in one indispensable volume.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1555977839
ISBN13:9781555977832
Release Date:May 2017
Publisher:Graywolf Press
Length:154 Pages
Weight:0.54 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.9" x 8.9"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Great intro to major poet
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 17 years ago
I knew little of Transtromer's work and nothing about him. Bly's translations are the best way to enter Mr. T's world, I think. I now have other translations. In some cases, 2 others of a poem for comparison. I do not know Swedish at all, although I would like to look at it sometime--but none of the books I have is bilingual. I don't miss it here. I can tell that Bly translates as he has elsewhere: he reads and receives the original poem and then writes a poem-to-poem translation, rather than word-for-word. I've found other parts that I prefer or find a bit more interesting in other translations, but for overall poem-ness and poetic satisfaction, I don't think Bly's can be beat. You know you're reading poetry, not simply translation. For those who'd like to compare and don't mind some overlap, I'd recommend Robin Fulton's collected poems The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems and Robert Hass's selected poems Tomas Transtromer: Selected Poems, 1954-1986. In some cases, you'll get 3 translations for triangulation. For me, I'm seeking out more of Bly's translations, many of which are out of print.
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