Weather Painting

The October sea glistens coldly
with its dorsal fin of mirages.

Nothing remains of memory
of racing yachts’ white dizziness.

Amber light over the village.
And all sound in slow escape.

The barking dog’s hieroglyph painted
in the air over the garden

where the yellow fruit outwits
the tree and drops of its own free will.

By Tomas Tranströmer
translated, from the Swedish, by Meagen Youngdahl

 
Meagen Youngdahl is an undergraduate student in Film and English at the University of California, Berkeley. Tomas Tranströmer (1931-) is widely regarded as one of the most influential Swedish poets of the 20th century. He is the recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature.