[Drömseminarium

Fyra miljarder människor på jorden. Och alla sover, alla drömmer. I varje dröm trängs ansikten och kroppar— de drömda människorna är fler än vi. Men de tar ingen plats. . . Det händer att du somnar på teatern. Mitt under pjäsen sjunker ögonlocken. En kort stunds dubbelexponering: scenen där framme överflyglas av en dröm. Sen finns det ingen scen mer, den är du. Teatern i det ärliga djupet!

<sup>5</sup> Translated by Robin Fulton in Tomas Tranströmer (2002): *New Collected poems*, pp. 141–42.

Mysteriet med den överansträngde teaterdirektören! De ständiga nyinstuderingarna. . . Ett sovrum. Det är natt. Den mörka himlen flyter genom rummet. Den bok som någon somnade ifrån är fortfarande uppslagen och ligger skadskjuten på sängkanten. Den sovandes ögon rör sig, de följer den bokstavslösa texten i en annan bok— illuminerad, ålderdomlig, snabb. En hisnande commedia som präntas innanför ögonlockens klostermurar. Ett enda exemplar. Det finns just nu! I morgon är alltsammans utstruket. Mysteriet med det stora slöseriet! Utplåningen. . . Som när turisten hejdas av misstänksamma män i uniform— de öppnar kameran, ruller ut hans film och låter solen döda bilderna: så mörkläggs drömmarna av dagens ljus. Utplånat eller bara osynligt? Det finns ett utom—synhåll—drömmande som alltid pågår. Ljus för andra ögon. En zon där krypande tankar lär sig gå. Ansikten och gestalter omgrupperas. Vi rör oss på en gata, bland människor i solgasset. Men lika många eller fler som vi inte ser finns inne i de mörka byggnader som reser sig på båda sidorna. Ibland går någon av dem fram till fönstret ochkastarenblicknerpåoss.]

The title "Drömseminarium" is informative of the mode of the poem. It tells us that the poem relates to a scientific discourse, and the poem also develops as a third-sided composition whose *exordium* (ll. 1–5), *exemplum* (ll. 6–34) and *peroratio* (ll. 35–46) evoke associations of a scientific statement or lecture. However, if at first glance the poem seems to relate to a scientific discourse, a closer inspection reveals a different picture. Not only are there actually far more fluid boundaries between the parts of the text than indicated by the above classification; a number of elements even undermine a common scientific perspective.

Already at the end of the first part of the poem, a discrepancy becomes clear between that which is scientifically demonstrable and measurable on the one hand, and the more fleeting and metaphysical nature of the dream on the other. This discrepancy reflects that although there are more people in dreams than in reality, they do not occupy space. The significance of the dream cannot be measured using the external standards of the world. Therefore, the examples used in the attempt to capture the essence of the dream also dissociate from a scientific area and relate to art; the theater and the book constitute the starting points of the description of the dream. Art—especially in its modern forms—represents a break with reality; art creates a world of its own, and so do dreams.

In the first example (ll. 6–13), a double exposure is described. While something is happening on a theater stage, for a moment the spectator falls asleep and is carried to another stage. The outer and inner dramas merge, and a new scene takes over: "The theater in the honest depths!" [Teatern i det ärliga djupet!] (l. 11). In the second example (ll. 14–28), the focus is on the difference between an open book in a dark bedroom and the illuminated comedy taking place behind closed eyelids. The latter dichotomy then leads to what we may either call a third example or consider an appendix to the second (ll. 29–34). Again, the dream is compared to a medium of an artistic character, namely the photograph. The example focuses on a situation in which a camera is opened, and the pictures are wiped out by the light. This is compared to what happens to dreams as night changes into day: "så mörkläggs drömmarna av dagens ljus" [so dreams are darkened by the light of the day] (l. 33).

While the example of the theatre related to the evening, and the second example focused on a nightly room, in the third example we move on into the day. The examples thus allude to a traditional time-period of sleep. However, while the first two descriptions end in an almost dethroning summary of the experiences in these remarks: "The mystery of the overworked director!" [Mysteriet med den överansträngde/teaterdirektören!] (ll. 12–13) and "The mystery of grea<sup>t</sup> waste!]" [Mysteriet med det stora slöseriet!] (l. 28), the third example remains more open. In the latter no attempt is made at a final averting fictionalization. Instead the question arises: "Annihilated or just invisible?" [Utplånat eller bara osynligt?] (l. 34). The mode of questioning in itself is essentially open, and likewise, the poem proceeds to invite another and more abstract way of reflecting the significance of the dream. The last part of the poem (ll. 35–46) does not address the dream as we recognize it from our own world of experience, i.e., as an activity that occurs for limited periods of time and often during the night. Instead, we move towards layers that transcend normal experience and time.

Having referred to states of dreaming that relate to the rhythms of the human being and the day, the poem moves towards a perception of the dream as an activity that is constantly taking place behind the visible world. It refers to the subconscious in the description of "a kind of out-of-sight dreaming/that newer stops" [ett utom–synshåll–drömmande/som alltid pågår] (ll. 35–36). A particularly interesting metaphor is: "A zone where creeping thoughts learn to walk" [En zon där krypande tankar lär sig gå] (verse 37). In this metaphor, the subconscious is depicted as the playpen of thoughts, and we start to imagine that behind the thoughts of which we are aware, others are slowly growing up before reaching us. However, many indications sugges<sup>t</sup> that the poem does not remain in this parallelization between the dream and the subconscious. Rather, it moves towards even deeper layers. The poem takes the form of a set of Chinese boxes in which every new form of the dream is hiding ye<sup>t</sup> another and more profound version of the nature of dream life.

Staffan Bergsten and Niklas Schiöler agree that the final image of the poem reveals a dimension that transcends both Freud's notions of the unconscious and Jung's psychology of archetypes (Bergsten 1989, p. 139; Schiöler 1999, p. 182). When the final image repeats the initial image of the poem, this therefore has a deeper resonance. The dreamed people are not just those who actually occupy our dreams and those who we therefore see, in some sense. They are also people who, while remaining unseen in the dark, see us (ll. 41–46). What was initially factual information converging with a scientific discourse is ultimately transformed into a metaphysical statement of a rather indeterminate nature. However, trying to explain the components of the image, which is the interpretative method proposed by Espmark, Bergsten and Schiöler, is not the only option. It is also an option to focus on the poem's form.

As the final picture clearly relates to the beginning of the poem, the poem itself resembles the figure of the palimpsest, which it also thematizes in its many double exposures. What happens over the course of the poem is that a world reappears that had otherwise been erased. The people who no longer pass the road in sunlight—which can be understood as an expression of the real and conscious—have therefore not disappeared completely. They have only moved to a more darkened side of existence. The poem represents a holistic perception of life where that which has disappeared is still present on another level.<sup>6</sup> It seems to sugges<sup>t</sup> that as our dreams illuminate inner worlds that exist in parallel with the external reality, a space for a larger history that exceeds our usual anchoring in time and space also exists. What seems to have disappeared is still going on, even without us to witness it. Thus, in Tomas Tranströmer's surreal universe, the dream is not just a guide to the inner world of man. It also points to the existence of worlds unfolding in parallel with and beyond what is immediately given, and in that way transcends the Surrealist position.
