ahha- 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Tomas Tranströmer, “because, through his condensed translucent images he gives us fresh access to reality.”
The Couple
Tomas Tranströmer
They turn the light off, and its white globe glows
an instant and then dissolves, like a tablet
in a glass of darkness. Then a rising.
The hotel walls shoot up into heaven’s darkness.
Their movements have grown softer, and they sleep,
but their most secret thoughts begin to meet
like two colors that meet and run together
on the wet paper in a schoolboy’s painting.
It is dark and silent. The city however has come nearer
tonight. With its windows turned off. Houses have come.
They stand packed and waiting very near,
a mob of people with blank faces.
(translated by Robert Bly)
After A Death
Tomas Tranströmer
Once there was a shock
that left behind a long, shimmering comet tail.
It keeps us inside. It makes the TV pictures snowy.
It settles in cold drops on the telephone wires.
One can still go slowly on skis in the winter sun
through brush where a few leaves hang on.
They resemble pages torn from old telephone directories.
Names swallowed by the cold.
It is still beautiful to feel the heart beat
but often the shadow seems more real than the body.
The samurai looks insignificant
beside his armour of black dragon scales.
(translated by Robert Bly)
Further In
Tomas Tranströmer
On the main road into the city
when the sun is low.
The traffic thickens, crawls.
It is a sluggish dragon glittering.
I am one of the dragon’s scales.
Suddenly the red sun is
right in the middle of the windscreen
streaming in.
I am transparent
and writing becomes visible
inside me
words in invisible ink
which appear
when the paper is held to the fire!
I know I must get far away
straight through the city and then
further until it is time to go out
and walk far in the forest.
Walk in the footprints of the badger.
It gets dark, difficult to see.
In there on the moss lie stones.
One of the stones is precious.
It can change everything
it can make the darkness shine.
It is a switch for the whole country.
Everything depends on it.
Look at it, touch it…
(translated by Robin Fulton)
The Tree and the Sky
Tomas Tranströmer
There’s a tree walking around in the rain,
it rushes past us in the pouring grey.
It has an errand. It gathers life
out of the rain like a blackbird in an orchard.
When the rain stops so does the tree.
There it is, quiet on clear nights
waiting as we do for the moment
when the snowflakes blossom in space.
(translated by Robin Fulton)
樹與天空
托馬斯‧特蘭斯特勒默
我們身旁，在這片傾灑著的灰色中，
這棵樹急事。它從雨中汲取生命
猶如果園裏黑色的山雀，
雨歇了，樹停住了脚步。
它挺拔的軀體在晴朗的夜晚閃現，
和我們一樣，它在等待著那瞬間
當雪花在天空中綻開。
(北島譯)
果戈理
托馬斯‧特蘭斯特勒默
外套破舊得像狼群。
面孔像大理石片。
坐在書信的樹林裏，那樹林
因輕蔑和錯誤沙沙響，
心飄動像一張紙穿過冷漠的
走廊。
此刻，落日像狐狸潜入這國度
轉瞬間點燃青草。
空中充滿犄角和蹄子，下麵
那馬車像影子滑過我父親
亮著燈的院子。
彼得堡和毀滅在同一緯度
(你看見傾斜的塔中的美人了嗎)
在冰封的居民區像海蜇漂浮
那披斗篷的窮漢。
這裏，那守齋人曾被歡笑的牲口包圍，
而它們早就去往樹綫以上的遠方。
人類搖晃的桌子。
看外邊，黑暗怎樣焊住靈魂的銀河。
快乘上你的火焰馬車離開這國度!
(北島譯)
