Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer became the 108th winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and joined the club of Scandinavian realist novelists or poets from Mediterranean or Latin countries we have hardly heard of. His “surrealistic works about the mysteries of the human mind won him acclaim as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since World War II.” The Swedish Academy said it recognised the 80-year-old poet “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality.”
However, authors as well as readers in India are largely clueless about the gentleman and his works. In their defence, they say a few of these prize winners, such as Orhan Pamuk, Herta Mueller and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio were previously known to only a small circle of admirers and the Nobel may make Transtromer a popular name here as well.
Author Manisha Lakhe, who knows a bit about Transtromer and has read a few of his translated poems says that these literary stalwarts are quite popular in their own country. “He is very famous in England. He said, a poet needs to search within for rather than from history. Before Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel, I don’t think many people knew about him. And now every bookstore has so much Pamuk. For example K. Satchidanandan is an awesome Malayalam poet, but only recently he has been translated and became known to people other than his staunch followers,” she says.
Curiosity came to writer Amandeep Sandhu’s mind when he heard about the news. “I lament the fact that he is not perhaps even available readily in India. How much of his works are in English? Why can’t Indian publishers publish authors like Tomas who are so famous in their regions but we don’t even know them.”
On the other hand author Mohyna Srinivasan feels that the Nobel can’t push people to rush out and buy his work.
Seconds Arunava Sinha, “I don’t think contemporary poets are well known at all in India. And because he’s a poet, no it won’t make him very famous, I suspect. How many people began to read Herta Muller, for instance?”