National Poetry Day and Nobel Prize for Literature Today



So I hope everyone gets the time to read some poems today.

The Nobel Prize for Literature is also being announced today. Click here for their website.


107 individuals have received the in since 1901, among them, 12 are women.

See the complete list of odds here

TomasTranstromer ??? Bob Dylan ???, Haruki Murakami ???, Syrian poet Adonis 8/1. 


Who's your literary money on?
  
I'll be happy for any one of them but Tomas Transtromer caught my eye because I chose to read his poem below at my very first poetry workshop I attended in Spain a few years ago.


Espresso



Black coffee at sidewalk cafes
With chairs and tables like gaudy insects.

It is a precious sip we intercept
Filled with the same strength as Yes and No.

It is fetched out of gloomy kitchens
And looks into the sun without blinking.

In daylight a dot of wholesome black
Quickly drained by the wan patron...

Like those black drops of profundity
Sometimes absorbed by the soul

That give us a healthy push: Go!
The courage to open our eyes.

Translated from the Swedish by May Swenson and Leif Sjöberg

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