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Samlade dikter
Den femtonde september 1907 föddes Gunnar Ekelöf - en av nittonhundratalets stora poeter i Sverige, om inte rentav den störste.
Vi uppmärksammar jubileet med att på nytt ge ut hans samlade dikter i en volym - allt ifrån debutboken sent på jorden från 1932 till Dîwân-trilogin som han fullbordade 1967.
Därtill kommer för första gången i ny utgåva den volym med efterlämnade anteckningar, skisser och dikter som Ingrid Ekelöf några år efter hans död sammanställde under titeln En självbiografi och som utgör en rik källa för den som vill lära känna hans författarskap.
Till Samlade dikter har Jan Olov Ullén skrivit ett förord och till Ensjälvbiografi Magnus Halldin ett efterord.
Vi uppmärksammar jubileet med att på nytt ge ut hans samlade dikter i en volym - allt ifrån debutboken sent på jorden från 1932 till Dîwân-trilogin som han fullbordade 1967.
Därtill kommer för första gången i ny utgåva den volym med efterlämnade anteckningar, skisser och dikter som Ingrid Ekelöf några år efter hans död sammanställde under titeln En självbiografi och som utgör en rik källa för den som vill lära känna hans författarskap.
Till Samlade dikter har Jan Olov Ullén skrivit ett förord och till Ensjälvbiografi Magnus Halldin ett efterord.
854 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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274 people want to read
About the author
Gunnar Ekelöf
112 books40 followersGunnar Ekelöf was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958. He won a number of prizes for his poetry.
Life and Works
Gunnar Ekelöf has been described as Sweden's first surrealist poet; he made his debut with the collection sent på jorden ("late on earth") in 1932, a work (written during an extended stay in Paris in 1929-30) that was too unconventional to become widely appreciated and which the author described as capturing a period of suicidal thoughts and apocalyptic moods.[1] It was, in a sense, an act of literary revolt akin to Edith Södergran's Septemberlyran a dozen years earlier. While not disavowing his debut, Ekelöf moved towards romanticism and received better reviews for his second poetry collection Dedikation (1934). Both of his first two volumes are strongly influenced by surrealism and show a violent, at times feverish torrent of images, deliberate breakdown of ordered syntax and traditional poetic language and a defiant spirit bordering on anarchism ("cut your belly cut your belly and don't think of any tomorrow" runs the black humorous refrain of a poem called "fanfare" in sent på jorden, which collection does away with the use of upper case letters). This defiant outsiderhood was grounded in his person; though he came from an upper-class background, Ekelöf had never felt committed to it - his father had been mentally ill and when his mother remarried, Ekelöf strongly disapproved of his stepfather and, by extension, of his mother who had let him in: he became a loner and a rebel already in his teens - and would never feel at ease with the mores of the established upper and middle classes or with their inhibitions and, as he perceived it, hypocrisy and back-scratching. Swedish critic Anders Olsson described Ekelöf's turn to poetry as a choice of "the only utterance that doesn't expurge the contradictions and empty spaces of language and of the mind"
Färjesång (1941), a finely expressed blend of romanticism, surrealism, and the dark clouds of the ongoing war spelled a mark of maturity and would influence later Swedish poets, as would his debut over time. From this point on, his transformations of style and imagery, his deep familiarity with a wide array of literary idioms, stretching far beyond modern writing, and an almost Bob Dylan-like propensity to make fresh departures in his writing and challenge critics' readings of his work in order to keep true to it, made him one of the most influential and, in time, widely read of Scandinavian modernist poets, a kind of father figure and challenging and inspiring model for many later writers not just in Sweden but also in Denmark and Norway. He has been translated into many languages and is a living classic of 20th century Swedish poetry.
Life and Works
Gunnar Ekelöf has been described as Sweden's first surrealist poet; he made his debut with the collection sent på jorden ("late on earth") in 1932, a work (written during an extended stay in Paris in 1929-30) that was too unconventional to become widely appreciated and which the author described as capturing a period of suicidal thoughts and apocalyptic moods.[1] It was, in a sense, an act of literary revolt akin to Edith Södergran's Septemberlyran a dozen years earlier. While not disavowing his debut, Ekelöf moved towards romanticism and received better reviews for his second poetry collection Dedikation (1934). Both of his first two volumes are strongly influenced by surrealism and show a violent, at times feverish torrent of images, deliberate breakdown of ordered syntax and traditional poetic language and a defiant spirit bordering on anarchism ("cut your belly cut your belly and don't think of any tomorrow" runs the black humorous refrain of a poem called "fanfare" in sent på jorden, which collection does away with the use of upper case letters). This defiant outsiderhood was grounded in his person; though he came from an upper-class background, Ekelöf had never felt committed to it - his father had been mentally ill and when his mother remarried, Ekelöf strongly disapproved of his stepfather and, by extension, of his mother who had let him in: he became a loner and a rebel already in his teens - and would never feel at ease with the mores of the established upper and middle classes or with their inhibitions and, as he perceived it, hypocrisy and back-scratching. Swedish critic Anders Olsson described Ekelöf's turn to poetry as a choice of "the only utterance that doesn't expurge the contradictions and empty spaces of language and of the mind"
Färjesång (1941), a finely expressed blend of romanticism, surrealism, and the dark clouds of the ongoing war spelled a mark of maturity and would influence later Swedish poets, as would his debut over time. From this point on, his transformations of style and imagery, his deep familiarity with a wide array of literary idioms, stretching far beyond modern writing, and an almost Bob Dylan-like propensity to make fresh departures in his writing and challenge critics' readings of his work in order to keep true to it, made him one of the most influential and, in time, widely read of Scandinavian modernist poets, a kind of father figure and challenging and inspiring model for many later writers not just in Sweden but also in Denmark and Norway. He has been translated into many languages and is a living classic of 20th century Swedish poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 12, 2018
I wish nothing more
I wish myself far far away
I wish myself far far away
August 4, 2022
A random used bookstore find, this was utterly strange but strangely satisfying. "Exotic" in a way, if not actually authentically so. There's a kind of fanaticism and an intense pursuit of something distant driving these poems, distance in both the spiritual and geographic sense.
Ekelöf was a 20th century poet writing in Swedish. My copy is a ragged 1971 Penguin Modern European Poets edition, translated by W. H. Auden and Leif Sjöberg. The text feels occasionally stiff, which could be the translation (feels a bit Auden-like), though it could also be the nature of the poems themselves, which are two massively long exercises in "Oriental mysticism", to quote the back cover, and which are both presented in extracted form here. Auden's introduction compares him to Cavafy, which I can see--they both wrote about distant, long dead cultures with an uncanny devotion, though the actual language is drastically different. Ekelöf operates in a primarily ecstatic mode - like a dervish of esoteric energy dreaming of mystical and mythical figures with an almost religious devotion.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this up on a whim. I'm still not quite sure what it actually is, but I enjoyed my time within this slim volume.
Ekelöf was a 20th century poet writing in Swedish. My copy is a ragged 1971 Penguin Modern European Poets edition, translated by W. H. Auden and Leif Sjöberg. The text feels occasionally stiff, which could be the translation (feels a bit Auden-like), though it could also be the nature of the poems themselves, which are two massively long exercises in "Oriental mysticism", to quote the back cover, and which are both presented in extracted form here. Auden's introduction compares him to Cavafy, which I can see--they both wrote about distant, long dead cultures with an uncanny devotion, though the actual language is drastically different. Ekelöf operates in a primarily ecstatic mode - like a dervish of esoteric energy dreaming of mystical and mythical figures with an almost religious devotion.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this up on a whim. I'm still not quite sure what it actually is, but I enjoyed my time within this slim volume.
September 25, 2020
I really should stop reading translated poetry, takes the essence of it away
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March 3, 2025Så söker min blick den mörka bärande punkt som finns överallt
men som är vansinne överallt
utom i dig
men som är vansinne överallt
utom i dig
November 3, 2021
Att ta sig igenom en diktares samlade produktion görs inte i en handvändning. Bra poesi kräver lite tid, speciellt när vi har med Gunnar Ekelöf att göra.
Denna samling har doserats med omsorg – så varierad och mångfacetterad som Ekelöf var i sitt skrivande bör man låta texten få det utrymme den förtjänar. Det är ett fantastiskt livsverk man ges här: bredden på innehållet är stor, här finner man allt från introverta kontemplationer och naturskildringar till episka verk med mytologiska och religiösa referenser. Stort att greppa och allt tilltalar inte lika mycket, men här finns alltid mer att upptäcka. Lägg till att diktningen inte saknar humor heller.
Denna lär jag återvända till, förmodligen ganska snart!
Denna samling har doserats med omsorg – så varierad och mångfacetterad som Ekelöf var i sitt skrivande bör man låta texten få det utrymme den förtjänar. Det är ett fantastiskt livsverk man ges här: bredden på innehållet är stor, här finner man allt från introverta kontemplationer och naturskildringar till episka verk med mytologiska och religiösa referenser. Stort att greppa och allt tilltalar inte lika mycket, men här finns alltid mer att upptäcka. Lägg till att diktningen inte saknar humor heller.
Denna lär jag återvända till, förmodligen ganska snart!
October 12, 2022
När livet krisar så är den bästa trösten att läsa och skriva poesi. Gunnar Ekelöf har på så sätt blivit en favorit med sitt målande språk som suger in läsaren och förflyttar denna till sin värld. Fascinerande för att uttrycka det milt. Känner att jag kommer att återvända gång på gång till honom. Får aldrig nog.
April 22, 2022
Rating the Penguin Modern European Poets (1971) selection.
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November 21, 2015Svenska akademiens senaste i Klassikerserien - en riktig nördutgåva, tjock med noter och kommentarer. Selling pointen är dock att alla samlingar presenteras i sina originalformer, innan Ekelöf hann redigera nyutgåvorna. Läste ett par samlingar från denna bredvid min gamla Bonniers-utgåva, spännande. Snygg formgivning också, och alla originalomslag är inkluderade. Allt som allt: väldigt värd upplaga, kul att återupptäcka Gunnar - hade glömt hur punk han är.
May 4, 2023
Oerhört bra, om än att det blir lite ojämnt på slutet.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews