Evening Land
1953
First Published
4.31
Average Rating
109
Number of Pages
Poetry. Translated from the Swedish by Anthony Barnett. P„r Lagerkvist (1891-1974) was one of Sweden's greatest, most prolific, twentieth-century novelists and short story writers. EVENING LAND is the first complete translation of Lagerkvist's ninth and final volume of poetry, the deceptively simple Aftonland (1953). An intensely private man who refused to court publicity, the author was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1951. Barnett's translation (his translation of Robert Giroux's BLANK from the French is also available at SPD) sets straight an earlier, unfinished and otherwise compromised version by W. H. Auden and Leif Sj"berg. "All things exist, only I exist no more,/ everything remains, the fragrance of rain in the grass/ as I remember it and the sough of the wind through the trees,/ the flight of clouds and the human heart's disquiet.// Only my heart's disquiet no longer exists"-(from "The Dead")
Avg Rating
4.31
Number of Ratings
147
5 STARS
47%
4 STARS
40%
3 STARS
10%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
1%
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Author
Par Lagerkvist
Author · 21 books
Lagerkvist was born in 1891 in southern Sweden. In 1910 he went to Uppsala as a student and in 1913 he left for Paris, where he was exposed to the work of Pablo Picasso. He studied Middle Age Art, as well as Indian and Chinese literature, to prepare himself for becoming a poet. His first collection of poetry was published in 1916. In 1940 Lagerkvist was chosen as one of the "aderton" (the eighteen) of the Swedish Academy. Lagerkvist wrote poetry, novels, plays, short stories and essays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951 "for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind."
