Quotes of Harry Martinson - Some thoughtful, inspiring, informative, entertaining, interesting thoughts of the great Swedish poetry reformer of the twentieth century, Nobel Prize winning poet, writer Harry Martinson

Harry Martinsson was born on 6 May 1904 in Jamshög, Sweden, a famous Swedish writer and poet. In 1949 he was elected to the Swedish Academy. He was awarded the joint Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974 with fellow Swede Eivind Johnson for writings that capture the dewdrop and reflect the universe. This selection was controversial, as both Martinson and Johnson were members of the Academy. By the way, he has been called the great reformer of Swedish poetry of the 20th century, the most original among the so-called proletarian writers.

Martinson's father died at an early age. His father died of tuberculosis in 1910, and a year later his mother left her children and moved to Portland, Oregon, after which Martinsson was placed as a foster child (kommunalbarn) in the Swedish countryside. At the age of 16 Martinson ran away and spent the next year aboard a ship touring countries around the world, including Brazil and India. The highly sensitive Martinson found it difficult to cope with criticism after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974, and she committed suicide by cutting her stomach with scissors on 11 February 1978 at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. It was said that this was a Hara-Kiri-like method.

One of Martinsson's most famous works is the poetic cycle Aniara, the story of the spaceship Aniara, in which the spacecraft loses its way during a space voyage and later floats without destination. The book was published in 1956 and became an opera in 1959, composed by Carl-Birger Blomdahl. The cycle has been described as an epic story of man's weakness and folly. Martinsson is widely considered the greatest Swedish writer since August Strindberg. The 100th anniversary of Martinsson's birth was celebrated throughout Sweden in 2004. Since that year the Cicada Prize has been awarded in memory of Harry Martinson. The Harry Martinson Society was founded in 1984 and presents the Harry Martinson Award to individuals or organizations who act in the spirit of Harry Martinson. The Swedish Academy awards a scholarship to an author writing in Swedish in memory of Harry Martinsson. Writers, poets, literature lovers etc. hold literary seminars on Martinson's birthday and death anniversary. Presented here are some of his thoughtful, inspiring, informative, entertaining and interesting statements -

The art of conversation is perhaps what most profoundly distinguishes man from animals, and it is the art and desire to communicate that has advanced man, raised him above animals.

Our soul is tired of dreams, we keep rubbing dream after dream in search of something real, and each new mummy becomes a stepping stone to the next dream-filled void.

Do you mean that truth should never be thought about? And that a real relationship should always be embellished?

For her, Christmas was a piece of cake, a festive yoke that she wore because she didn't dare to do anything else, know anything else or imagine anything else. If only he had had the courage, he would have rejected the begging and greedy gaze of the children under the Christmas star (food and sausages dipped). If he had only dared to think, he would have spat on Christmas, the special time of women's slavery. But he did not dare.

The fire of hunger is searching for fuel, towards the flame of the soul, so that the flame is not extinguished

Who really respects the earthworm, the farm laborer under the grass in the soil.