At times my life suddenly opens its eyes in the dark.
A feeling of masses of people pushing blindly
through the streets, excitedly, toward some miracle,
while I remain here and no one sees me.

It is like the child who falls asleep in terror
listening to the heavy thumps of his heart.
For a long, long time till morning puts his light in the locks
and the doors of darkness open.

—Tomas Tranströmer

Rights & Access

From The Half-Finished Heaven, Swedish translation by Robert Bly, 2001
Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota

Copyright 2001 by Tomas Tranströmer.
All rights reserved.

Reprinted by permission of Graywolf Press from The Half-Finished Heaven, 2001. 

  • Tomas Tranströmer

    Tomas Tranströmer (1931-2015) was the recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature and the author of 15 poetry collections, including The Deleted World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011).