Authors:

Tomas Transtromer Quotes

We always feel younger than we are. I carry inside myself my earlier faces, as a tree contains its rings. The sum of them is me. The mirror sees only my latest face, while I know all my previous ones.

We always feel younger than we are. I carry inside myself my earlier faces, as a tree contains its rings. The sum of them is me. The mirror sees only my latest face, while I know all my previous ones.

Tomas Transtromer
Mirrors, Tree, Faces
Tomas Transtromer (2011). “The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems”, p.249, New Directions Publishing

In the middle of life, death comes to take your measurements. The visit is forgotten and life goes on. But the suit is being sewn on the sly.

Tomas Transtromer
Goes On, Measurement, Suits
Tomas Transtromer (2014). “The Deleted World: Poems”, p.31, Macmillan

The airy sky has taken its place leaning against the wall. It is like a prayer to what is empty And what is empty turns its face to us and whispers: 'I am not empty, I am open'.

Tomas Transtromer
Prayer, Wall, Taken
Tomas Transtromer (2017). “The Half-Finished Heaven: Selected Poems”, p.126, Graywolf Press

It is still beautiful to hear the heart beat but often the shadow seems more real than the body.

Tomas Transtromer
Beautiful, Real, Heart
Tomas Transtromer (2017). “The Half-Finished Heaven: Selected Poems”, p.59, Graywolf Press

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

Tomas Transtromer
Black, Shadow, Violin
Tomas Transtromer (2011). “The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems”, p.199, New Directions Publishing

Every abstract picture of the world is as impossible as a blueprint of a storm. Don't be ashamed because you're human: be proud! Inside you, vaults behind vaults open endlessly. You will never be finished, and that's as it should be.

Tomas Transtromer
Storm, World, Proud
"Swedish Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer dies aged 83" by Andrew Brown, www.theguardian.com. March 27, 2015.

A ship's engine far away on the water expands the summer-night horizon. Both joy and sorrow swell in the dew's magnifying glass. Without really knowing, we divine; our life has a sister ship, following quietly another route. While the sun blazes behind the islands.

Tomas Transtromer
Summer, Night, Knowing

I am still the place where creation does some work on itself.

Tomas Transtromer
Doe, Creation, Stills

A person shows himself for an instant as in a photograph but clearer and in the background something which is bigger than his shadow.

Tomas Transtromer
Shadow, Photograph, Bigger
"Following Words Through a Labyrinth" by David Orr, www.nytimes.com. October 6, 2011.

It's always so early in here, before the crossroads, before the irrevocable choices. Thank you for this life! Still I miss the alternatives. The sketches, all of them, want to become real.

Tomas Transtromer
Thank You, Real, Choices

You May Also Like: