A Sketch from 1844, Tomas Tranströmer | translation by Patty Crane

← v10n1, Spring 2011

William Turner’s face is browned by weather;

he’s set up his easel far off in the breaking surf.

We follow the silver-green cable down into the depths.

He wades out in the long shallows of death’s kingdom.

A train rolls in. Come closer.

Rain, rain travels over us.

translation art mortality

Patty Crane

Patty Crane’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in American Letters & Commentary , Bellevue Literary Review, RUNES, The Massachusetts Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, and West Branch , among other journals. Her awards include the 2004 Two Rivers Review Poetry Prize and Atlanta Review’s 2005 International Publication Prize.