Outside the Calendar

Robin Fulton generously delivers precise translations of the renowned Swedish poet Kjell Espmark. Espmark may speak eloquently of a man without voice, without the sufficient language to act, as he writes in his poem "Silence" It's getting dark. The spruce trees blacken like the pages of my calendar. But turn the pages and let the blackness light your way. Yes, I usually speak in a borrowed voice, the voice of the woman who reads in me translating my Swedish into Swedish. Like pressing oneself through a keyhole and almost getting shoulders and hips through it. But this poet's words ring in our ears in a language beyond words, beyond continents or social strata; his voice is that of a man who has something to say that we all must hear.