The Forbidden Door: The Selected Poetry of Lasse Söderberg
Sweden’s foremost living poet, Lasse Söderberg appears here in the first comprehensive selection of his poetry in English, masterfully translated by one of America’s leading poets, Carolyn Forche, in collaboration with celebrated Swedish writer and translator Lars Gustaf Andersson.
The Forbidden Door invites readers to encounter a singularly emancipated sensibility for whom language serves as an instrument of transformation: “The air is like gold leaf,” he writes. “I take a deep breath/and become gilded inside.”
Inspired by both French and Spanish surrealists, Söderberg’s work reflects his singular synthesis of different cultures and political moments, gliding effortlessly from one reality to another: “When I got up from the park bench/I let my melancholy stay there.” As the translators note in a brief but illuminating introduction, “to be within poetry to is to be attentive toward everything that happens, including political life.”
Readers passing through his doors will quickly see why Ilya Kaminsky calls this “one of the most important and moving collections of poetry in translation that I have read this decade.”
Sweden’s foremost living poet, Lasse Söderberg appears here in the first comprehensive selection of his poetry in English, masterfully translated by one of America’s leading poets, Carolyn Forche, in collaboration with celebrated Swedish writer and translator Lars Gustaf Andersson.
The Forbidden Door invites readers to encounter a singularly emancipated sensibility for whom language serves as an instrument of transformation: “The air is like gold leaf,” he writes. “I take a deep breath/and become gilded inside.”
Inspired by both French and Spanish surrealists, Söderberg’s work reflects his singular synthesis of different cultures and political moments, gliding effortlessly from one reality to another: “When I got up from the park bench/I let my melancholy stay there.” As the translators note in a brief but illuminating introduction, “to be within poetry to is to be attentive toward everything that happens, including political life.”
Readers passing through his doors will quickly see why Ilya Kaminsky calls this “one of the most important and moving collections of poetry in translation that I have read this decade.”
Sweden’s foremost living poet, Lasse Söderberg appears here in the first comprehensive selection of his poetry in English, masterfully translated by one of America’s leading poets, Carolyn Forche, in collaboration with celebrated Swedish writer and translator Lars Gustaf Andersson.
The Forbidden Door invites readers to encounter a singularly emancipated sensibility for whom language serves as an instrument of transformation: “The air is like gold leaf,” he writes. “I take a deep breath/and become gilded inside.”
Inspired by both French and Spanish surrealists, Söderberg’s work reflects his singular synthesis of different cultures and political moments, gliding effortlessly from one reality to another: “When I got up from the park bench/I let my melancholy stay there.” As the translators note in a brief but illuminating introduction, “to be within poetry to is to be attentive toward everything that happens, including political life.”
Readers passing through his doors will quickly see why Ilya Kaminsky calls this “one of the most important and moving collections of poetry in translation that I have read this decade.”
