Harry Martinson

May 6, 1904, Mr.. - 11 February 1978
Swedish poet, novelist, essayist and journalist Harry Edmund Martinson was born in Yemshege, in the province of Blekinge in southern Sweden. His father, Martin Olofsson, sea captain, died when the boy was only 6 years old. Shortly thereafter, his mother threw Harry and his six sisters, and emigrated to America, and the children were placed in an orphanage, one of the poorest. Childhood Years M. held in various educational houses, of which often ran. At the end of World War I, still a teenager, Harry is sent to Gothenburg, where arranged as cabin boy on a ship. From 1920 to 1927. He worked as a stoker and the sailor, replacing 14 ships. He often ran away from the ship at the ports of India, China and South America, where he worked dockworkers or just wandering. Tuberculosis, from which M. subsequently recovered, forced him to eventually abandon nomadic life. After leaving the sea, M. begins to write poetry.
In 1929, Mr.. M. married to the writer Moa Schwartz, who was his senior by 14 years. In the same year he released a collection of poetry 'Ghost ship' ( 'Spokskepp'), inspired by Kipling in his 'Seven Seas', as well as poems of the Swedish critic and poet-modernist Arthur Lundquist. While the verses M., included in the anthology "Five young '(' Fern Unga '), also felt the influence of Kipling, Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg and Edgar Lee Masters, critics found it more independent than the first collection of poems.
. After the publication of a collection 'Nomad' ( 'Nomad', 1931), containing the first truly mature lyrical poem written by a white verse, for M
. acquired a reputation for budding poet. And although purists greeted with hostility unconventional poetic language and syntax of 'Nomad', many critics were impressed by their freshness and amazingly rich imagery. American poet and critic Alrik Gustafson explains complexity, experimental poetry M. 'habitual inability of language to express the strength and polysemy impressions of the poet'. Thematically, 'Nomad', 'modern poetry' ( 'Modern lyrik', 1931) and 'Nature' ( 'Natur', 1934) back to primitivism. In many verses of these collections is the idea of the good beginning, rooted in the nature and the nobility of ordinary workers, who are opposed to vices of modern society. The image of carefree vagabond is present in the travel sketches M. "Travel without purpose '(' Resor utan mal ', 1932),' cape farewell '(' Kar Farval! ', 1933). These essays were well taken criticism. London critic of the 'Daily Mail' compared 'cape farewell' to 'Negro "Narcisse"' Joseph Conrad.
After travel essays M. wrote his first novel, 'Nettle bloom' ( 'Nasslorna blomma', 1935), inspired by memories of his difficult childhood orphanage. A year after the first novel, followed by a second, 'The Path to Life' ( 'Vagen ut', 1936), which describes his teenage years M. Despite all the difficulties the writer brought forward, these novels, autobiographical material, and shaped by the Spirit, were completely devoid of bitterness. In the late 30-ies. M. produced three volumes of different style and content of articles about nature, which again contrasts the natural, innocent world of nature ruthlessness, callousness of the industrial age.
In 1934, Mr.. M. with his wife went to the Soviet Union, which participates in the I Congress of Writers. His impressions of Russia were not very encouraging. When in 1939. the Soviet-Finnish War, he enlisted in the Swedish volunteer corps, but was soon forced to demobilize on health. While undergoing treatment, M. wrote an essay 'The truth against death' ( 'Verklighet till dods', 1940), in which there is an appeal to the struggle against totalitarianism in Europe. The same, 1940. M. divorced his wife.
Although during the Second World War and in the years preceding it, M. was in a state of depression, poems from the book 'Passat' ( 'Passad', 1945) filled with concentrated calm. As in previous years, his poems, in 'Passat' a lot of talk about travel, journeys - only this time the spiritual. Wind trade wind, as he explained M., - a symbol of the human mind and the desire of man to the free expression of their personality.
The most significant post-war works of M. include the novel 'The Road to Klokrike' ( 'Vagen till Klockrike', 1948) and the epic poem 'Aniara. On Man, time and space '(' Aniara: En revy om manniskan i tid och rum ', 1956). In the novel - a book rather amorphous - the adventures of an elderly tramp Bolle, who is traveling to Sweden. This novel, written in the spirit of folk legend, was well received in English-speaking countries, despite the obvious disadvantages of composites, and thus M. was elected a member of the Swedish Academy, which was a huge honor for a writer-taught.
'Aniara' - a philosophical poem in 103 songs on the spacecraft, carrying 8 thousand. Refugees fleeing from the nuclear disaster on Earth. At the same time, a symbolic history of mankind, deprived of his spiritual values. M. not afraid of technical progress, but progress for the sake of progress seemed to him an endless journey into darkness. Some critics (such as Michael Meyer) considered this poem confusing and pretentious, others in t.ch. American critic Leif Sjoberg and American poet Robert Bly, called 'Aniara' masterpiece M. - And this despite the fact that the English translation of the poem was beneath criticism. Sam M. called the English translation of 'scandalous'. There is opera, written by Karl Birger Blomdalom explanation of this poem.
The critic Christopher Howell, wrote that 'in his poetry M. carries the subtle distinction between the mechanized world of people and harmony of nature '. Indeed, the theme of alienation is present in such later poetic cycle, as 'cicada' ( 'Cikada', 1953), 'Grasses in Thule' ( 'Grasen i Thule', 1958), 'The carriage' ( 'Vagnen', 1960). Collection 'The wagon' has caused contradictory responses, and M. decided not to write more poetry. However, in 1971. appeared 'Poems of light and darkness' ( 'Dikter om ljus och morker'), a 1973-m - 'on hummocks' ( 'Tuvor'). Among the few pieces he wrote the most significant is the 'Three knife from Wei' ( 'Tre Knivar fran Wei', 1964).
In 1974. M. was awarded the Nobel Prize (which he shared with his countryman Eyvind Johnson) 'for creativity, which has everything - from the drops of dew to the cosmos'. After the awards were handed out to vote, particularly in Sweden, the Swedish Academy in protest about favoritism, while M. and Johnson were the first winners after the Swedish Per Lagerkvist, awarded in 1951. In the opening speech a member of the Swedish Academy, Karl Ragnar Gierow said that M. and Johnson are 'representatives of the many writers who emerged from the working class, who broke into a broad front in the literature, to enrich it with its complicated story'. He also praised their 'creative energy', which is independent of parochial interests and limited editions.
. Summarizing the literary merits M., 'the first poet of the space age', Leif Sjoberg calls 'Aniara' 'one of the greatest poems of our time'
. Christopher Howell notes that the poetic language of M. 'imprecise and absolute calibrated'. For self-taught M. possesses remarkable erudition. 'Stylistic and linguistic innovation, MA - SjцІberg wrote, - can be compared only with innovation Strindberg'.
M. died in Stockholm in 1978. the age of 73 years.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, M. was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Gothenburg University (1954), and in 1972. He won an international prize Henrik Steffens.