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1901
2012
Prize category:

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2011

Tomas Tranströmer

Poetry

 

The Half-Finished Heaven

Despondency breaks off its course.
Anguish breaks off its course.
The vulture breaks off its flight.

The eager light streams out,
even the ghosts take a draught.

And our paintings see daylight,
our red beasts of the ice-age studios.

Everything begins to look around.
We walk in the sun in hundreds.

Each man is a half-open door
leading to a room for everyone.

The endless ground under us.

The water is shining among the trees.

The lake is a window into the earth.

 

From Tomas Tranströmer, New Collected Poems, translated by Robin Fulton (Bloodaxe Books, 1997/2011)
http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/

Poem selected by Lars Rydquist, head librarian, Nobel Library of the Swedish Academy

 

TO CITE THIS PAGE:
MLA style: "Tomas Tranströmer - Poetry - The Half-Finished Heaven". Nobelprize.org. 22 May 2013 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2011/transtromer-poetry_heaven.html