Airmail (46 page)

new “book”—
Mörkerseende,
translated by RB as
Night Vision.

“Författarförlaget”—A left-leaning writers’ cooperative formed in 1969.

“Till vänner bakom en gräns”—Translated by RB as “To Friends behind a Border.” ordene sum “visar tänderna”—words baring their teeth.

Enclosed with the letter was a clipping of newspaper article on RB and Sen. McCarthy.

Voznesensky—Andrei Voznesensky, Russian poet.

a very LONG poem—“Östersjöar,” 1974; “Baltics,” not translated by RB, but English versions by Samuel Charters and Robin Fulton.

poem about roads—“Längre In,” translated by RB as “Further In.”

Canadian Thistle—Published as “Looking at a Dry Canadian Thistle Brought in from the Snow” in the first edition of
The Morning Glory,
1969, revised to “Looking at a Dry Tumbleweed Brought in from the Snow” in later editions.

“Renaissance Painting”—Published as “Leonardo’s Secret” in
The Morning Glory,
1969.

“The Hunter”—Published in
The Morning Glory,
1969.

“Helicopter”—“Going in a Helicopter from Riverside to the L.A. Airport,” published in
The Morning Glory,
1969.

“The Bookcase”—TT’s “Bokskåpet.”

“Skiss i oktober”—TT, “Sketch in October.”

Jag är jordens—“I am of the earth” (RT).

References are to “Namnet,” translated by RB as “The Name.”

The letter from the professor—Stephen Mooney, editor of the
Tennessee Poetry Journal.
Mooney had apparently reported being harassed by the Ku Klux Klan.

The letter included drafts of “At the Riverside,” later “Going with the Current” (“Med älven”) and “Breathing Space July.”

the Buckleys—William F. Buckley, conservative writer and pundit.

holy
barbarian—Possibly a reference to Lawrence Lipton’s book on the Beats,
The Holy Barbarians,
1959.

I know the power—RB’s solution is “identity books” in “The Bookcase.”

stakhanovite—A category of Soviet industrial worker rewarded with special privileges for productivity beyond the ordinary.

The concrete has a cement-headed foreman—Playful reference to TT poem “Summer Grass” (RB translation): “Grass and flowers—we are landing. / The grass has a green foreman. / I go and check in.”

cleaning oil off birds—On January 19, two tankers collided off Golden Gate, spilling 840,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay. An estimated 10,000 birds and millions of sea creatures were killed.

A book is planned—
Poesi från USA,
1972, included TT’s translations of RB, James Wright, and W. S. Merwin.

Din gamle vän—Your old friend.

She gave birth—Micah Bly.

George Young—editor of the journal
Granite.

my brother—James Bly, born 1925.

National Guard Camp poem—“Posteringen” translated by RB as “Guard Duty.”

“Spiritual Death” and “Sleeping Woman”—Unpublished. Described in 1999 RB note to Torbjörn Schmidt as “Two rejected poems.”

your Snowmelt poem—“Från snösmältningen—’66” translated by RB as “Snow- Melting Time, ’66.”

a woman I had been very close to—Gun Bergman, born 1916, translator of Slavic languages.

The Vladimir Mayakovsky quote is translated by Judith Moffett and Lars-Håkan Svensson.

“Sverige-Amerika-stiftelsen”—Sweden-America Foundation.

What is absurd—Refers to prose that became introduction to RB’s translations of Göran Sonnevi,
The Economy Spinning Faster and Faster,
SUN, 1982. RB sticks to his story that Sonnevi’s poem on the Vietnam war caused Swedish prime minister Olof Palme to change his position on the war.

Thank you for the 20 poems—
Twenty Poems,
The Seventies Press, 1970, featured a cover drawing by Franz Richter. In his notes, RB writes that TT is one of “three powerful poets in Sweden so far in this century.”

4-4-4 generalizations—4-4-4 refers to a balanced physical/personality type in psychologist William Sheldon’s body typology.

The letter included a clipping from the
Daily Iowan,
“Famed poet Bly condemns Writers’ Workshop makeup.”

Martinson—
Dikter om ljus och mörker,
title translated by RB as
Poems on Light and Dark.

“Hair”—Published in RB’s
Sleepers Joining Hands,
1973.

This is Senator Kennedy’s plane—Senator Ted Kennedy, while campaigning in 1964, survived a harrowing small-plane crash.

I took a long walk—This experience is recorded in RB’s prose poem “Opening the Door of a Barn I Thought Was Empty on New Year’s Eve” in
The Morning Glory,
1975 edition.

the troll poem—Translated by RB as “The Hill in the Woods.”

“företagsdemokrati”—A democratic workplace organizational principle that gave workers a greater part in decision making. “The aim was to do away with a top-down, hierarchical system” (RT).

Alan Ross—Publisher of London Magazine Editions.

Håkan Berggren—Swedish ambassador to the United States; at that time head of the Swedish Information Service in New York.

the dentist Scherer—James Scherer, friend of RB.

Worm Digging Poem—RB’s “Digging Worms,” published in
This Tree Will Be Here a Thousand Years,
1979.

your wonderful Hawaiian crab—RB’s prose poem “On the Rocks at Maui,” in
The Morning Glory,
1975.

a Hindi poem—This undated clipping has TT’s typed note: “Please, ask KABIR, next time you meet him. What poem of mine is this, translated into HINDI?”

the CDU—Christian Democratic Union, conservative party in Germany.

I was making some arm movements—Playful reference to RB’s habit of gesturing while reading poems.

take this shorter poem—“Markgenomskådande,” translated by RB as “Seeing Through the Ground.”

“jump-issue”—
The Seventies
1, Spring 1972, featured material that became the Beacon Press volume
Leaping Poetry,
1975. It contains TT’s “Out in the Open.”

RB May 24, 1972

“Pa Mauis Klippor”—“On the Rocks at Maui.”

My Pittsburgh coronation ceremony—TT received a prize from the International Poetry Forum.

the Swenson book is out—
Windows and Stones: Selected Poems,
translated by May Swenson with Leif Sjöberg, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972.

up here in Steinshylla’s hytte—up here in the tourist hut (RB).

my next “book”—
Stigar,
1973 (
Pathways,
RB translation), also included translations of RB and János Pilinszky.

Kjell Heggelund—Influential Norwegian publisher, poet, editor.

Keith Harrison—Australian poet and teacher living in Minnesota.

Franklin—Franklin Brainard, Minnesota poet ill with leukemia.

Keith Gunderson—Minnesota poet and philosopher, author of
3124 Lyndale Ave. So. Apt 24,
published by the Minnesota Writers’ Publishing House.

the terror bombings—Nixon’s infamous “Christmas” bombings of North Vietnam.

a small despair poem—TT’s “December Evening, ’72” (“Decemberkväll -72”).

the next Beacon book—Published as
Friends, You Drank Some Darkness,
1975.

Mr Booth—Martin Booth, British publisher.

the October poem—“Sketch in October.”

“Namnlöst”—Translated by RB as “No Name for It.”

Färjesång—RB renders as
Ferryman’s Song.

“Etyder”—Studies.

hear the stones roll—Reference to TT’s poem “Allegro.”

November birch—Reference to RB’s “Solitude Late at Night in the Woods.”

fruit-poem—“Sena maj,” translated by RB as “Late May.”

Your poems in
Stigar
: “Late Night in the Woods,” “Six Winter Privacy Poems,” “Walking in the Ditch Grass,” “Digging Worms,” “On the Rocks at Maui.”

the kamikaze poem—“Längs radien,” translated by RB as “Along the Lines.”

Mr Galin—Saul Galin, literature professor at Brooklyn College, New York. the rushingwaterpoem—“Snow-Melting Time, ’66.”

Ruth says—Ruth Counsel, who became RB’s second wife in 1980.

according to Daniela—The letter includes a brochure from Daniela Gioseffi.

APR—
American Poetry Review,
Jan./Feb. 1974, with RB’s essay “The Network and the Community.”

the book of seal poems—
Point Reyes Poems,
Mudra, Half Moon Bay, California.

2 Danish pamphlets—RB’s poems in translation from Husets Forlag.

I have recommended the book—
Earthwalk
by Philip Slater, discussed in “The Network and the Community.”

a thesis on my poems—Published as
Moving Inward: A Study of Robert Bly’s Poetry,
1977.

footnote: Jag gillar Jung, tvivla inte på det.—“I like Jung, be sure about that” (RT).

Another of your fads—See
Leaping Poetry,
“The Three Brains,” on the ideas of American neurologist Paul MacLean.

the Danton poem—“Citoyens.”

NFO farmers—The National Farmers Organization staged dramatic protests against the low prices of farm goods.

“The Poet’s Friend”—Reference to the name of the Swedish journal
Lyrikvännen.

Hemåt—Translated by RB as “Calling Home.”

And the other one—“Gläntan,” missing from this letter, was translated by RB as “The Clearing.”

This is not the roof—Reference to TT’s “Along the Lines.”

Svensson—Georg Svensson of Bonniers publishers.

“skalbagge”—Beetle in the last paragraph of “The Clearing.”

Old Man Rubbing
—The final poem in
Old Man Rubbing His Eyes,
Unicorn Press, is “Passing an Orchard by Train.”

the Snowbank poem—“Snowbanks North of the House” in
The Man in the Black Coat Turns,
1981.

“Båten, Byn”—“Båten—Byn,” translated by RB as “Boat, Town.”

“Skapande svenska”—Creative Swedish (or creative writing in Swedish) (RT).

Mr Hawley (Oyez boss)—Robert Hawley, cofounder of Oyez Press.

Here is a confessional poem—“Från vintern 1947,” translated by RB as “From the Winter of 1947.”

Skenet från den andra stranden
—“The light from the other shore” (RT).

“Hämtar ved”—“Fetching Firewood” (RT).

Can I use your idea—RB had mistakenly translated TT’s “trees” (“träd”) as “threads.”

“The left hand”—“The Left Hand” in RB’s
This Body Is Made of Camphor and Gopherwood,
Harper and Row, 1977.

Ett Tärningskast
—Throw of the dice.

“Övergångsstället”—Translated by RB as “Street Crossing.”

“Hastig promenad”—RB’s “Walking Swiftly” in
This Body Is Made of Camphor and Gopherwood.

the idea of “skum”—RB translates as “gloomy” in the attached draft titled “Place to Cross.”

Cry of the Loon—Near Laporte, Minnesota, where RB bought a house the next year.

I send you a prose piece—“Till Mats och Laila,” translated by RB as “For Mats and Laila.”

Brutal men invading—Published in verse form as “Visiting the Farallones” in
The Man in the Black Coat Turns,
1981.

Wonderful poem—“Frost on Window Panes” in RB’s
The Morning Glory.

Here is a small poem of mine—“Schubertiana.”

Not to be confused with the earlier poem, “C Major,” which appears for the first time in RB’s translation in Appendix 2 of this book.

“Finding the Father”—In
This Body Is Made of Camphor and Gopherwood.

have a look at this—See “The Gift the Prose Poem Gives” in RB January 31, 1977.

a few notes on “Tomales Bay”—“Sunday Morning in Tomales Bay” from
Point Reyes Poems.