Bruno K. Öijer has been one of the most popular and influential Swedish poets for decades, much like Tomas Tranströmer. As a member of the rebellious poetry group Vesuvius, Öijer published his first book, Song for Anarchism, in 1973. His now-classic Trilogy includes Medan Giftet Verkar (While the Poison Acts, 1990), Det Förlorade Ordet (The Lost Word, 1995), and Dimman av Allt (The Fog of Everything, 2001). He continues to publish books, as well as offer sold-out readings around Sweden.
Victoria Häggblom is a writer and translator with an MFA in fiction from Columbia University. She has received grants and awards from Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, Santa Fe Art Institute, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, PEN America Center, and Swedish Institute and was awarded the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Poetry Translation Prize for her translation of Bruno K. Öijer’s The Trilogy, which will be published by Action Books in 2019.
May/June 2019
Notes for One of Death’s Speeches
Translated from Swedish by Victoria Häggblom I was foretold, foretold to be foretold, foretold to show a way out of here, I was foretold to deal with things, foretold to […]