Tomas Tranströmer
Swedish poet born 1931 in Västerås Sweden, as only child to Gösta and Helmy Tranströmer. Moving to Stockholm.
Very early his parents divorced and he stayed with his mother in Stockholm.The father was a journalist also working with pictures.
His mother working as a schoolteatcher.
He only met occasionally with his father during his upbringing. Sometimes only once a year, on christmas eve.
Most of his time he spent with the nanny .This might have influenced the lonly undertone you can recognize in his lyrics.
When he was 15 he had an attack of cramp, possibly an attack of epilepsia.This changed his life. He banged on the piano and used music as an help toward his anxiety for the attacks that frightened him so
.
Often he went to the library where among gegraphystudies and other subkjects he found" Nils Holgerssons underbara resa "by Selma Lagerlöf.(The wonderful joourney of Nils Holgersson.) Now he did worldwide maps and plans to become an explorer of unknown environments on earth. His fascination for the mystery of nature has followed him through his entire writing career.
At the age of 23 he was stydying History of Religions at the Stockholm University and then made his debut as a poet with the collection made by and called "17 Poems". It was as it would continue to be for Tranströmer, a "thin" book but with very comprimed and lively energy in the poems.
He continued stydying and we find him working as a physchologist during the 60s in Västerås and later on in the same bransch for AMI , Arbetsmarkandsinstitutet, that is an governmental runned institution for work and development of the market for employment.
At the age of 35 he has already got an insurance of his income from the government , in case his ordinary salary would not be enough to support him as a wrighter. This is an tribute to himand of his greatness as an poet
In my opinom he is THE National Poet.
Poetry:
17 dikter (1954)
Hemligheter på vägen (1958)
Den halvfärdiga himlen (1962)
Klanger och spår (1966)
de fyra första samlingarna i volymen Kvartett (1967)
Mörkerseende (1970)
Stigar (1973)
Östersjöar (1974)
Sanningsbarriären (1978)
Dikter 1954-1978 (1979), Den Svenska lyriken
PS (1980)
Det vilda torget (1983)
För levande och döda (1989)
Minnena ser mig (1993)
Sorgegondolen (1996)
Dikter 1954-1989
Tolkningar (1999)
Air mail - brev (1964-1990)
Samlade dikter (1954-1996)
Klangen säger att friheten finns (2002)
Den stora gåtan (2004)
Tomas Tranströmer is for me the greatest of lyrics. Maybe I feel some special connection to my inner source through him and also can realize there are some special connections that has stretched both our lifes.
First my father Ragnar Källström was during his whole life influenced by his panic attacs around epileptic experiences during his teenageperiod, someting tat came to run the whole familysituation during my uppbringing.
Second I also stydied The History of Religion at Stockholm University
Third when I did my Studies in Science of Litterature at Stockholm Univesity, on the C level , 60 points, my subject was Nils Holgersson and his journey, but from the point of vue of the authors intention to educate yuth on an moralic, ethical level.
Tomas Tranströmer has in my opinion , tone of mystic path in combination with clarity and asketism in definition of amount of words.
His voyage through lonely woods in the language, that takes you to a new and another new perspective ,is astonishing and so enriching.
Every time I get in contact with his energy my soul is vibrating with joy and love.
One of the greatest of our time.Tomas Tranströmer
wrote about Nils Holgerssons underbara resa
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