Jane Hirshfield Recites Tomas Tranströmer

2 am: moonlight. The train has stopped
out in the middle of the plain. Far away, points of light in a town,
flickering coldly at the horizon.

As when a man has gone into a dream so deep
he'll never remember having been there
when he comes back to his room.

As when someone has gone into an illness so deep
everything his days were becomes a few flickering points, a swarm,
cold and tiny at the horizon.

The train is standing quite still.
2 am: bright moonlight, few stars.

Tracks, by Tomas Tranströmer

Robin Fulton translated the original Tranströmer poem from Swedish to English (above), and is curiously different than the translation Hirshfield read.