''The Sorrow Gondola'' () is a 1996 poetry collection by the Swedish writer
Tomas Tranströmer
Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (; 15 April 1931 – 26 March 2015) was a Swedish poet, psychologist and translator. His poems captured the long winters in Sweden, the rhythm of the seasons and the palpable, atmospheric beauty of nature. Tranströmer' ...
. The title refers to the composition ''
La lugubre gondola
''La lugubre gondola'', a piano piece, is one of Franz Liszt's most important late works, written in 1882.
History
Its genesis is well documented in letters from which we know that Liszt was Richard Wagner's guest in the Palazzo Vendramin on th ...
'' by
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...
. It was the first collection by Tranströmer published after his 1990
stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
. It received the
August Prize
The August Prize () is an annual Swedish literary prize awarded each year since 1989 by the Swedish Publishers' Association. The prize is awarded to the best Swedish book of the year, in three categories. The Swedish Publishers' Association also ...
.
Reception
The book was reviewed in ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'', where the critic wrote that while the author's stroke is never mentioned explicitly, the collection "centers unmistakably on the controlled anguish that the 66-year-old poet's physical condition--and encroaching mortality--imposes." The review continued: "What saves the collection from morbidness is the formal beauty and remorselessly compressed clarity of the writing. Indeed, the almost telegraphic brevity of the poems is the volume's only concession to Transtromer's handicap. With the exception of the four-page title poem, a meditation on
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
's final months, most of the pieces are only a few stanzas long, yet they retain all the force of the poet's earlier work."
See also
*
1996 in poetry
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish poetry, Irish or French poetry, France).
Events
* April – National Poetry Month established by the Academy of American Poets as a wa ...
*
Swedish literature
Swedish literature () is the literature written in the Swedish language or by writers from Sweden.
The first literary text from Sweden is the Rök runestone, carved during the Viking Age circa 800 AD. With the conversion of the land to Christi ...
References
1996 poetry books
Poetry by Tomas Tranströmer
Swedish poetry collections
Albert Bonniers Förlag books
August Prize–winning works
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