Tomas Tranströmer, 1932 - 2015

Selected Haiku (1996-2004)

The sun is low now.
Our shadows are giants.
Soon all will be shadow.

*

The presence of God.
In the tunnel of birdsong
a locked seal opens.

*

Oak trees and the moon.
Light. Silent constellations.
And the cold ocean.

*

Thoughts standing still, like
the colored mosaic stones in
the palace courtyard.

*

Gaunt tousled pine trees
on the same tragic moorland.
Always and always.

*

Borne by the darkness.
I met an immense shadow
in a pair of eyes.

*

And blueweed, blueweed
keeps rising from the asphalt.
It's like a beggar.

*

The darkening leaves
in autumn are as precious
as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

*

A revelation.
The long-standing apple-tree.
The sea is close by.

*

Ash-colored silence.
The blue giant passes by.
Cool breeze from the sea.

*

Birds in human shape.
The apple trees in blossom.
The great enigma.



Evening/Morning

Moon--its mast is rotten, its sail is shriveled.
Seagull--drunk and soaring away on currents.
Jetty--charred rectangular mass. The thickets
founder in darkness.

Out on doorstep. Morning is beating, beats on
ocean's granite gateways and sun is sparkling
near the world. Half-smothered, the gods of summer
fumble in sea mist.

[17 Poems; 1954]

-- Tomas Tranströmer