Kjell Espmark

Outside the Calendar (Small Press Distribution (All Titles)) Kjell Espmark

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.