A Girl Named Wolf

Two Pictures of Tomas Tranströmer

Tomas Tranströmer won the Nobel Prize for literature today. A beautiful poet and lovely man. Many years ago, my mother invited Tomas and his wife, Monica, to Helsinki to participate in an evening of music and poetry she was organizing, and we spent the afternoon on a boat. It was a really beautiful day. I took pictures. He had a radiant, calm  presence of a kind I’ve only seen a few times in my life, and so I remember that afternoon very well. He reminded me of a Buddhist monk.

I remember taking a portrait of Tomas that I was especially happy with, but I wasn’t able to find a print of it today in my rather disorganized archives. However, I did find these photo store prints of two other pictures I took, and I found all my negatives, safe and snug in their paper sheets! These two were taken near the Hietalahti harbor, before we got on the boat. I do love this picture of Tomas and Monica together, the way their stances echo one another. Ever since Tomas suffered a stroke that (ironically enough for a master poet) hampered his speech, Monica has served as his interpreter when his physical voice has failed him. Their connection runs very deep.