POETRY IS LIKE TAKING A DEEP BREATH

Sunday 29 April 2012

APRIL AND SILENCE




Spring lies desolate.
The velvet-dark ditch
crawls by my side
without reflections.

The only thing that shines
is yellow flowers.

I am carried in my shadow
like a violin in its black case.

The only thing I want to say
glitters out of reach
like the silver in a pawnbroker's.



Tomas Transtroemer
1931

translated by Robin Fulton




Tomas Transtroemer is a Swedish poet, writer and translator who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2011.