- On the occasion of Vietnam Poetry Day 2016, on Feb 21st in Hanoi, the Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam invites two renowned European poets, from France and Belgium, to participate in a Poetry Talk, together with Vietnamese poet and writers, with a view to facilitate cultural exchange and present European literature/poetry diversity to Vietnamese poetry lovers.
Life is journeys. The footsteps of people riding on the same journey are to find a certain destination. Life’s journeys are made by humans’ destinies. Each individual’s life’s paths meet, intersect, come together and diverge, making life history of each one as well as of human race. To live is to walk on the path, walk on one’s feet and walk with one’s destiny. On such life’s journey, humans have created poetry, or literature in general, to have a companion and to share their feelings, experiences and experiments about life. Stendhal, French writer once said each novel is like a mirror walking on the road, reflecting the high blue sky, and even a small puddle on the roadside. It can be added: the infinite universe inside everyone’s soul. How arduous are the human’s paths on earth, in desert paths, swamp paths, and plateau paths; Where are they – the little girls in fairy tales tasked with sprinkling flowers on such the paths, as the Swedish writer, Selma Lagerlof wrote. Is poetry such flowers on one’s own life’s journey? Please come and listen to the conversation between the three poets, Andre Velter (France), Jean-Pierre Orban (Belgium) and Nguyen Quang Thieu (Vietnam) under the facilitation of the literary critic Pham Xuan Nguyen in the atmosphere of Spring and traditional Tet (Lunar New Year) to think and discuss - Pham Xuan Nguyen, Writer, critic, translator, Chairman of Hanoi Writers Association wrote.
This talk show has the participation of MR. ANDRÉ VELTER, Poet, Winner of the Goncourt Prize for Poetry 1996; MR. JEAN-PIERRE ORBAN, Writer, poet, translator, researcher Winner of European Book Prize 2015; MR. NGUYEN QUANG THIEU, Writer and translator, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Writers Association, First Vice Secretary General of Association of Afro-Asiatic Writers.
PV