Photo/Illutration American poet Louise Gluck meets media representatives Oct. 8 outside her home in Cambridge, Mass. Gluck, a professor of English at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature. (AP Photo)

"This morning I got a phone call at something like a quarter to seven (from) a man who introduced himself as the secretary of the Swedish Academy," said American poet Louise Gluck, the recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature, in an Oct. 8 interview with a U.S. newspaper.

Speaking to a pack of reporters who had gathered in front of her home in Cambridge, Mass., Gluck continued in a light tone: "(I was) completely flabbergasted that they would choose a white American lyric poet. I come from a country that is not thought fondly of now."

And she said of herself: "I’m a very sociable person. The fact that I dislike interviews doesn’t mean I’m a recluse,” explaining that she was accustomed to dining out with friends six nights a week before the novel coronavirus pandemic.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I never read any of her poems while I was on assignment in the United States. Upon learning she had joined the ranks of Nobel laureates, I scrambled to search her works online. But apparently none have been translated into Japanese, and I had to read them in their original English on the website of a U.S. literary organization.

Her poem, titled "The Past," contains these lines: "Smell the air/ It is my mother's voice you hear/ or is it only the sound the trees make/ when the air passes through them."

As a young girl, Gluck is said to have had a torturous relationship with her mother. She recalled that she was saved by devouring books on Greek mythology, and that after half a century, she still continues to write poems about Persepone.

"At the end of my suffering/ there was a door," starts her "The Wild Iris."

And "October" poses this question, "didn't we plant the seeds, weren't we necessary to the earth."

It is not her style to raise her voice to make a strong case for some cause. Her verse evokes profound lyricism through the depiction of common objects and sentiments born of separation and loneliness.

Her many collections of poetry include "The Triumph of Achilles" and "Faithful and Virtuous Night."

I eagerly await the publication of Gluck's works in Japanese by professional translators.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 10

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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