by Robert Bly
Västerås 8-2-72
Dear Robert,
I pause in the terrible and exciting job of making an income declaration for 1971. This is extremely complicated for a Swedish citizen, and especially for a writer with his many odd small salaries from different places...In that case the future seems bright. The lawyer of the Swedish Writer’s Union had never met this problem before—I seem to be the first Swedish poet who has made a reading tour in the U.S.A.! Is that possible? The next one could be the mystic Mr “Kristoffersson” Elizabeth Kray mentioned. No one here has ever heard about a poet named Kristoffersson. I think it must be Sjöstrand. An exciting possibility is that it is Håkan Berggren himself, disguised with a false beard and appearing before a New York audience, reading his own, till now unknown, poetry. I can see him at his own party afterwards running between the kitchen (for changing clothes, putting on his beard) and back to the drawing room and back again etc.
How is it possible to have a poetry reading class in Madison? You have the dentist Scherer of course and he is a magnificent judge of poetry, as I remember from our evening in his house.
About “The Scattered Congregation”:
The begging bowl problem. It is a general begging bowl, could be old, lifting itself up from the floor (like a flying saucer) and slowly going in the aisle. In Swedish churches we don’t pass a plate ourselves while taking collection. A chuchwarden is slowly going with a sort of bag net, reaching it to the people who drop money in it. But this is not a bag net, it is a bowl. It is passed as if by an invisible man. I got this fancy once during a sermon. Now I don’t know if I would imagine the church to be empty or not.
“Måste gå under jorden”...“måste” could be both present and past tense. “Gå under jorden” is both literal and symbolic. Angela Davis had to “gå under jorden” when she was wanted by the police etc. I think the expression is simply “go underground.” In Sweden religion is suspect. People (especially intellectuals) are often ashamed of their secret religious beliefs or longings. In the old times religion was organized and honored, at the top of the hierarchy, public, high up (like the church bells). But now the church bells have to go to a more humble position, almost like the first Christians in the Roman catacombs. But they get more strength down there.
I would think the most difficult problem in this poem is the translation of the very first line. “Vi ställde upp” is colloquial, almost slangy. Means “We joined in.” Example: “We are going to have a party next Friday, ställer ni upp?” Another example: The sergeant: “I need two men for a dangerous mission out there, ställer ni upp?” It means that you agree to take part in something, in the poem it is to represent the welfare state before a visitor.
Alan Ross wrote me that it is too late to change the title of the London Magazine edition. But the title is Night Vision and Other Poems, so it is not too bad, after all. He is a true instant publisher, and that is good.
I am still waiting for the copies of Night Vision and 20 poems and my leftover books mailed in October. Everything must be delayed by the old longshoreman strike. Or are these hardhats making sabotage against Sweden?
Have you written some short poems that you really like yourself the latest months? Please send them!
Love Tomas
12 March, ’72
Dear Tomas,
Thank you for the Worm Digging Poem! It is terrific. I have one or two queries: Does “lätta” suggest “not heavy” as well as “easy”?
“Nära et slott” sounds odd, though it is exactly what the English says. As I recall the dream, a man was working with stones, perhaps on a flying buttress of a castle. I started fooling with the stones in a careless way while I talked, and soon the entire wall of the castle began to come down.
If you prefer, you can leave out “och gick tvärs igenom”—that was added in a late draft, and I’m not sure yet whether the phrase is necessary or not.
“Slott” is correct, I’m sure. I wonder if “Allegro” is in this poem? Let’s hope so. My poor poem needs all the joy it can get!
Your friend,
Robert
Västerås 5 april [1972]
Dear Robert,
a friend of mine just convinced me—scientifically—that there is no statistical and political possibility for anyone at all to be nominated Democratic candidate. You will have to stick to your old peace president Trick E. Dixon.
Today a snowstorm. I am angry. Yesterday a rotten critic wrote that my Night Vision was an example of the influence of criticism. Tranströmer has become “prosaic” because he was attacked for the previous book and he has now tried to write in a style that would satisfy the Swedish critics. “Actually Mörkerseende is written by Tranströmer’s critics.” Of course I have nothing against his opinion that I am “prosaic” etc., but the attack on my CHARACTER, the idea that I for a fraction of a second could have felt a remote responsibility of being EXPEDIENT, SUBMISSIVE in relation to the people who are ruling this Inferno of Stupidity that is Swedish Cultural Life. AUGH!
Here is your wonderful Hawaiian crab. Can you send me the Voznesensky-reading poem too? And I ask once again. What happened to Andrei in the U.S.A.? I saw in Life that Yevtushenko is a good friend of James Dickey. Somatotonia always finds companions when it comes to large audiences, bombs and money.
It was warming to look at the pictures from Madison, I just got them from the photo shop. How good it is to think about you all.
Tomas
Can I trust Leif Sjöberg when he tells me that a new issue of The Seventies is out?
8 April, ’72
Dear Tomas,
Seventies #1 is out, and should be in this same mail. Enclosed find check for “Out in the Open” in same issue!
By the way, do you remember if you were paid any royalties for Twenty Poems, and if so, how much? It seems to me I sent a small sort of check in advance, maybe $50 or $100—but nothing since? Am I right? I’m not saying you’ll get any more, just wondering...
Thank you for the photographs! They are lovely, and a joy to have. How Emma and Paula have grown! They look so spirited and feminine.
I haven’t read your Maui translation yet, Carol has the letter! What appears to be a Hindi poem is actually an account of all your flaws and failures, drawn from interviews with your old schoolteachers, bosses, and girlfriends—it’s being distributed hand to hand all over India.
Faithfully,
Robert
Västerås 1 May -72
Dear Robert,
it has been hard times with Nixon still going wrong and a terrible threat against Europe—the CDU efforts to make Willy Brandt’s Eastern policy collapse. I have been lying, grinding my teeth, in a transparent coffin, except for some trips—one a reading trip together with Gunnar Harding to Norrkörping and Växjö. In Norrkörping we read from the U.S. issue of Lyrikvännen (did they send it to you?) so “Hair” got its Swedish premier (I was making some arm movements too when reading it). I also read the now 4 completed parts of Östersjöar. (In the next letter when my energy has returned I will copy nr 3 and 4 for you—in the meantime, take this shorter poem that does not belong to Östersjöar.)
I liked the “jump-issue” of The Seventies very much. I think, being published there, I have reached the absolute summit of my public life.
The day before yesterday I saw Östen and Ella Sjöstrand in Mariefred (a small town 40 miles from here) just before they left for the U.S.A. They are present at a Scandinavian conference in Madison, Wisc. Are you invited? What a fantastic combination of people: Lars Gustafsson, Eric Sellin, Leif Sjöberg, you, Östen and Ella, plus Prof. Vowles. If you are there, give me a vivid description of the drama!
I hope everything is fine with you and your family in spite of the ugly times.
Love
Tomas
24 May, ’72
Dear Tomas,
I’ve studied “Pa Mauis Klippor” now, a
nd I think the translation is wonderful! So much energy in the Swedish verbs! Superb!
I have a thought about the “arameiska” passage. I think the phrase needs more “s”’s—(I noticed Arabs were especially fond of the letter “s”—) (“w” they hated—and “d” they were just indifferent to as they were to all numerals)—so I think you might use some word for “understand”—i.e., “en demon some forstar arameiska.”...
I’m not sure he’s reading the prayers out of books—maybe the prayers are silent ones he is making up in the same way the ocean keeps making up new waves ...
Late, gorgeous spring here! We’re going tomorrow to visit the Muskrat Heaven...the angels with a low IQ ...
I didn’t get to meet Östen Sjöstrand—I was too tired (of humans and distance) after my spring tour to drive the 3 hours into Mpls to see him...and besides his Dream Is No Facade book was too intellectual...and there was too much defense of poetry in it...whoever heard of defending a mountain against detractors...and saying “A Mountain Is No Facade” or “A Badger is No Facade”...the female badger knows that...
Thank you from the
Arab nation
Robert
P.S. Do either of your girls collect stamps?
Västerås 1-6-72
Dear Robert,
so good to hear from you. I don’t have Martinson’s book, so you have to wait a week or so for comments. But I can tell you about the 2 words that are absent in your dictionary. “Kåckel” is an invention by Martinson, an onomatopoeic word, built on “kackel” which is a dictionary word for “cackle.” So if there is no other English word called COCKLE I think that would be best—or “cawkle”? “Slutarlika” means “shutter-like.” “Slutare” is a part of a camera, my dictionary says the English word is “shutter.”
I will try to bring more s’s into the Aramaic part of the crab poem. “Läsa sina böner” does not primarily mean that he is reading from a book. A child in a religious family “läser sina böner” every evening and that means simply “saying prayers.”
About “Seeing through the Ground.” It has one grand mistake in it: Line 7, “almost through it” is wrong. You think that the Swedish word “fast” means the same as the German word “fast.” But in Swedish it means “but.” And “tvärtom” means “contrary.” So the lines mean
“like aerial photos of a city at war
but the opposite”/contrary/reverse. The mole is taking his picture from below, he is a reverse pilot/photographer.
Line 1:
“Rinner ut”—well, maybe “runs out” is the best. It should be the expression you use about a pat of butter in a hot stew. Line 8: “dova färger.” “Dova” is mostly used about sounds, dull, hollow, dark sounds. I don’t think there is an exact synonym for it in English. Something in the direction of “gloomy.” Paula sometimes takes a stamp from the envelopes. I put some strange stamps on this letter, if your children do it. They are—as you can see—the stamps of the People’s Republic of Sweden. Love Tomas
26 June, ’72
Dear Tomas,
I heard from Fort Collins today that you were due there on Nov 1st. When are you to be in Pittsburgh? How long will you be in this country? Have you set a date for the Univ of Minn? Will you visit us? Do you want me to set up any other readings? How many readings do you want to do? Do you floss your teeth everyday? What hobbies do you pursue at present? Do you prefer the shoulder strap or the abdomen strap? Do you have friends on other planets?
Signed,
Ole Bull
[8-7-72]
Walking Running Crawling
Walk among fallen trees a year after the storm.
Wing-sound. Torn up roots
turned toward heaven, stretching out
like skis on someone jumping.
Thirsty wasps hum low over the moss.
And the holes, they resemble the holes
after all those invisible trees
that have also been uprooted these last years.
I don’t even have wings. I pull my way forward
in my life—the labyrinth
whose walls you can see through—
walking running crawling.
(translated by RB)
Big Brother, will you cast your horse-dealer’s glance on this small thing. My Pittsburgh coronation ceremony is around Oct. 23–24. I don’t know how many readings Sam Hazo will arrange, I hope not too many, because if you could arrange something IN THE SOUTH or very near your chicken house, I would be most happy. So if things turn out as I hope there will be 2–3 Pennsylvania readings (Hazo) and the rest in more exotic places (Bly). But I have not heard anything from Sam Hazo about it. I know that the Swenson book is out, I got a review from the Library Journal, a kind one. Even you are mentioned:
Robert Bly’s translations of the later poems (in Tranströmer’s Night Vision, Lillabulero Pr.) are sometimes better, sometimes not; but this [Swenson’s] is a generally excellent translation....
Monica sends her best, she asks about the sponsored child especially. Do you succeed with Micah’s education?
Runmarö Thunder and rain
from
your old friend
Tomas
8 July, ’72
Dear Tomas,
Mary and I are going to the Black Hills today (of So. Dakota) to walk for a couple of days. Then on July 17th I go to Norway to brood for 3 weeks. Will you be in Runmarö all that time? Send me your telephone number.
Love from all your
poor relations
among the savages of North
America,
Robert
10 July, ’72
Dear Tomas,
A friend, Bill Holm, wants you to read at Hampton Institute, a black college in Virginia, this fall. If you want to, save a date for that. You could go down from Pittsburgh. He said, “They won’t put out money for a white man, but they might for a Swede!”
Micah says ciao,
Robert
Runmarö 28-7-72
Dear Robert,
as you can see we have moved into Runmarö, and are perfectly healthy and almost nudists—the sun is so strong today, the birds are singing, but from the radio: new war crimes.
You ask about Håkanson’s “flimmer.” It is a noun made from the verb “flimra” which you, in my poem “Track,” translated “flicker.” So I think it’s right to say “That this flickering disturbs me is a fact.” “Flimmer” is often used when you speak about the way a wrongly adjusted TV-screen behaves. The poem is not bad and quite translatable.
Martinson’s “The Hill in the Woods” will be an excellent translation when completed. I will help you, but I did not have the book, so I wrote to a friend for a photo-copy of this poem—it arrived today. The 3 lines you don’t understand are typical Martinson word play with old-fashioned, folklore expressions. I will think it over. A problem is the word “berg,” that can mean anything from “rock” to “mountain.” “Hill” is probably OK but so soft, such a mild word, while “berg” is full of harshness and scars. The line you have translated “She was mad all right” should word by word be translated “She was hillstrong” or “rockstrong.” “Bergstark” is a Martinson invention and very expressive—I think you misunderstood it as “berserk” or something. But the girl is simply stronger than the boys and gave them a beating (she did not have to use a club).
Look at the stamp I put on this envelope!
Give the whole Bly clan my sponsor blessings!
Your old
Tomas
Gatan 13038 Runmarö
30-7-72 [postcard]
Dear globetrotter,
I wrote to Carol and got this incredible name: Steinshylla. (You forgot to give me any Norwegian addresses.) You must visit. We are in Västerås now tel. 0954621 021-11 10 45, the address you know perfectly
well. Write or call soon. I can even pick you up at the Arlanda airport if necessary (have a car now).
In a hurry
your friend Tomas
Thursday [4-8-1972]
Dear Tomas,
Your note has just this moment come! And now, alas, there is no more time! I have to go back Sunday.
I knew you were on the island, and I didn’t want to disturb you—you would have had to take the boat all the way to the quai, drive to Stockholm, etc.—it is too much! And go all the way back...
Besides, you might mistake me for one of those Americans—or Canadians—who say, with a wide grin, “I’m coming to live with you this summer!”
And double besides, I didn’t want to wear out my welcome—I want to bring Carol and the children and live with you all a whole week one summer on the island!! (So you see, I am one of those after all...)
I am just doing—up here in Steinshylla’s hytte—the last work on my long poem “Sleepers Joining Hands,” and I’m all excited and jumping about...I’m too modest to say it’s good...but I’m proud of it, as I am of Noah and Micah and Mary and Biddy...Your godchild by the way is the most forward child seen in Madison for many a year—barely 1 year old, he opened the top of the big record player cabinet the other day, climbed in, sat on the turntable, and turned it on! Of course Carol is convinced he’s a genius, and tells him so about 45 times a day—it’s doubtful if he’ll ever achieve humility, like the rest of us...Love to Monica—
Your Norwegian country
cousin, Robert
Västerås 9-8-72
