Published in 1989, ‘For the Living and the Dead’ (Swedish: För levande och döda) is a collection of poetry by Swedish writer Tomas Tranströmer that received the ‘Nordic Council Literature Prize’ in 1990. Born and raised in Stockholm, Tranströmer is one of the most significant poets in the history of Swedish literature: despite never living as an independent writer (he worked as a psychologist during his working age), and his lyric production not being ‘big’ in terms of volume, Tranströmer won the 2011 ‘Nobel Prize’ in Literature. Following a stroke in 1990, he has been suffering from aphasia and right-sided paralysis: a devoted musician, after his stroke he has recorded an album with piano compositions for the left hand, many of them written for him personally. He made his literary debut in 1954 with the collection ’17 Poems’ and his poetry has not really undergone any essential changes since then: the forms seem to be organically based on contents, be it haiku or prose poems. According to the Adjudicating Committee, in a ‘poetic condensed language’ and in a ‘vision of world unity’, he reveals the hidden dimensions of existence and man’s infinite resources.
