Evening Land

Poetry. Translated from the Swedish by Anthony Barnett. Pär 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 Sjberg. 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)