Gunnar Ekelöf
Gunnar Ekelöf | |
---|---|
Born | Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf 15 September 1907 Stockholm, Sweden |
Died | 16 March 1968 Sigtuna, Sweden | (aged 60)
Occupation | Poet |
Nationality | Swedish |
Period | 1932–1968 |
Literary movement | Modernism, Surrealism |
Notable works |
|
Spouse | Gunnel Bergström (1932) Gunhild Flodquist (1942–1951) Ingrid Flodquist |
Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf (15 September 1907 – 16 March 1968) was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958. He won a number of prizes for his poetry.
Life and works
Early life and debut
Gunnar Ekelöf was born on 15 September 1907 in
Mid-career
Färjesång (1941), showed influence from
Recognition
In April 1958, Ekelöf was elected a member of the Swedish Academy, succeeding author Bertil Malmberg on chair 18 in December the same year.[6] En Mölna-elegi ("A Mölna Elegy", 1960), a lengthy elegy Ekelöf had already begun composing in the 1930s, was a highly personal collection of free associations, moods and memories featuring intertextual references to Emanuel Swedenborg, Carl Michael Bellman, August Strindberg, Edith Södergran, and others. The poems deal with the Proustian theme of memory; the collection has been called Ekelöf's most Joycean work.[4] On its publication, the book received strongly positive reviews by contemporary critics.[7]
Last works
Ekelöf's last works, Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión (1965, ``
Legacy
Ekelöf is remembered as one of the first
On the 103rd anniversary of his birth, 40 Swedish poetry enthusiasts gathered in Salihli. Together with the deputy mayor, they honored Ekelöf's legacy in the city, which he had come to admire ardently on a visit in 1965, and had portrayed in several poems. A bust of Ekelöf by Gürdal Duyar was to have been placed there, but this was never done, and it now waits in the garden of the Swedish Embassy in Istanbul.[12][13][14]
Selected bibliography
In Swedish
- Sent på jorden "late on earth", poems (1932) (title in lower case lettering; this is retained in all reprints)
- Fransk surrealism "French Surrealism", translations (1933)
- Dedikation "Dedication", poems (1934)
- Hundra år modern fransk dikt "100 Years of Modern French Poetry", translations (1934)
- Sorgen och stjärnan "The Sorrow and the Star", poems (1936)
- Köp den blindes sång "Buy the Blind Man's Song", poems (1938)
- Färjesång "Ferry Song", poems (1941)
- Promenader "Walks", essays (1941)
- Non serviam "Non Serviam", poems (1945)
- Utflykter "Excursions", essays (1947)
- Om hösten "In Autumn", poems (1951)
- Strountes "Nonsense", poems (1955)
- Blandade kort "Shuffled Cards", essays (1957)
- Opus incertum "Opus Incertum", poems (1959)
- En Mölna-elegi "A Mölna-Elegy", poem (1960)
- Valfrändskaper "Elective Affinities", translations (1960)
- En natt i Otocac "A night in Otocac", poems (1961)
- Diwan över fursten av Emgión "Diwan on the Prince of Emgion", poems (1965)
- Sagan om Fatumeh "The Tale of Fatumeh", poems (1966)
- Vägvisare till underjorden "Guide to the Underworld", trans. Rika Lesser, poems (1967)
- Partitur "Score" (poems and drafts from his final year) (1969)
- Lägga patience "Solitaire Game", essays (1969)
- En självbiografi "An Autobiography", miscellaneous (1971)
- En röst "A Voice", sketches, diary notes, poems (1973)
A collected volume of Ekelöf's poetry, Dikter ("Poems"), was published by Mån Pocket in 1987.
In English
- Selected Poems of Gunnar Ekelöf, translated by Muriel Rukeyser and Leif Sjöberg, (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1967)
- Late Arrival on Earth: Selected Poems, translated by Robert Bly and Christina Paulston,(London: Rapp & Carroll, 1967)
- I Do Best Alone at Night, translated by Robert Bly and Christina Paulston, (Washington: The Charioteer Press, 1968)
- Selected Poems, translated by W. H. Auden and Leif Sjöberg, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1971)
Ekelöf made some substantial re-edits of the text and sequence of poems in later collected editions and anthologies of his work, especially relating to his 1930s books.
References
- ^ Lundkvist, Martinsson, Ekelöf, by Espmark & Olsson, in Delblanc, Lönnroth, Göransson, vol 3
- ^ Carl Olof Sommar Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi, Albert Bonniers förlag 1989
- ^ A. Olsson, "Ekelöfs nej" (Ekelöf's No), Mälden mellan stenarna, Stockholm 1981; the point is elaborated in his 1983 Ekelöf monograph of the same name.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Gunnar Ekelöf". authorscalendar.com. 2017.
- ^ Carl Olof Sommar Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi, Albert Bonniers förlag 1989, pp. 258, 349–350
- ^ "Ekelöf, Gunnar". Svenska Akademien.
- ^ Sommar, Carl Olof (1989). Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi (in Swedish). Albert Bonniers förlag. p. 511.
- ^ Sommar, Carl Olof (1989). Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi (in Swedish). Albert Bonniers förlag. pp. 559 ff.
- ^ "1966 Gunnar Ekelöf, Sweden: Dīwān över Fursten av Emgión". Nordic Co-operation.
- ^ Sommar, Carl Olof (1989). Gunnar Ekelöf: en biografi, Albert Bonniers förlag, p. 606
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses XI.140-144.
- ^ "İsveçliler, ünlü şairleri Ekelöf ü Salihli de andılar". Kazete. 16 September 2010. Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ Kayaoglu, Turhan (2 April 1994). "Ekelöf byst i Sardes". dn.kultur. Retrieved 1 September 2017.
- ^ Dragomanen (PDF), Visby: Svenska Forskningsinstitutet i Istanbul & Föreningen Svenska Istanbulinstitutets Vänner, 2014, p. 14, archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2018, retrieved 1 September 2017
Sources
- "Gunnar Ekelöf". Nationalencyklopedin. 2004.
External links
- The Gunnar Ekelöf society homepage (in Swedish)
- Petri Liukkonen. "Gunnar Ekelöf". Books and Writers.