Franz Schubert’s handwritten sheet music
The opening lines of Tomas Tranströmer’s poem ”Schubertiana” from 1978 are:
In the evening darkness at a place outside New York, an outlook where
you can perceive eight million people’s homes in
a single glance.
The giant city there is a long flickering drift, a spiral galaxy
from the side.
But soon, after the snapshots of the grim and chilly human conditions of the giant city, the first part of the poem ends with these relief-giving lines:
I know too – without statistics – that Schubert’s being played in
some room there and for someone the tones at this moment
are more real than anything else.
In the evening darkness at a place outside New York, an outlook where
you can perceive eight million people’s homes in
a single glance.
The giant city there is a long flickering drift, a spiral galaxy
from the side.
But soon, after the snapshots of the grim and chilly human conditions of the giant city, the first part of the poem ends with these relief-giving lines:
I know too – without statistics – that Schubert’s being played in
some room there and for someone the tones at this moment
are more real than anything else.
Read the rest of Niklas Schiöler on Tomas Tranströmer. I still haven't gotten around to posting the promised "Tranströmer reader." This will help fill that procrastination gap. Mind you, I have yet to return to the Laureate reader (also promised). Whatever. Take what you can get and a look at the Berfrois poetry section while you are there. Besides, how can you resist a site subtitled "Intellectual Jousting in the Republic of Letters"?
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