Published in 1965, ‘Diwan on the Prince of Emgion’ (in Swedish ‘Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión’) is a book of poetry by the Swedish writer Gunnar Ekelöf that was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1966. Also a critic and essayist, Ekelöf was one of Sweden’s most important 20th century poets: he debuted as a poet in 1932 with the surrealist-inspired collection of poetry ‘Sent på jorden’. Gunnar Ekelöf was considered an outsider constantly experimenting with poetic expressions, identities and attitudes to life. The motivation of the jury: “a cycle of poems, which in the guise of interpretations of Byzantine songs and myths, finds new and personal symbols for the experiences of the divine and of suffering and love as the basic human condition.” It is the first installment in a trilogy, that continued with ‘The Tale of Fatumeh’ and ‘Guide to the Underworld’
