Gedda has elegantly captured Tomas Tranströmer seated in half profile at a table, his head lowered and his gaze fixed on his hand. His left arm, the only one he has the use of following a stroke, rests on the table top. To the right, a large scarab beetle is crawling out of the picture. It not only lends movement to the image, but also represents the poet’s great interest in insects. Tranströmer had a tumbling flower beetle named after him.