Asia Pacific Poetry Festival opens

According to Vice-president of the Vietnam Writers’ Association, poet Nguyen Quang Thieu, 82 foreign poets from 28 nations such as Russia, the US, the UK, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Canada, China and India, along with 40 Vietnamese poets, will participate in the festival.

The poets will take part in a seminar titled “Poetry for a peaceful, cooperative and developed Asia-Pacific” reading poems at an international poetry night in Ha Long on February 3rd, and returning to Hanoi to join in a gala poetry evening at the Temple of Literature on February 4th, after traditional Vietnam Poetry Day festivities on the morning of February 2nd to mark its 10th anniversary, and a meeting with State President Truong Tan Sang.

Korean poets Kim Jung Hwan, nominated for the 2011 Nobel Prize, and Ahn Kuyn Hwan who translated Ho Chi Minh’s noted poetry collection ‘Nhat Ky Trong Tu’ (Diary in Jail) and “Vo Nguyen Giap – Nhung nam thang khong the nao quen” (Vo Nguyen Giap’s Unforgettable Months and Years) into Korean; along with American poet Lady Borton who received the Peace Award from the War Resisters’ League under the London-based War Resisters’ International organization in 1988; Ban’ya Natsuishi, chairman of the Japanese Haiku Poem Association; and New Zealand author Sue Wootton will all join in the festival.

During the event, the poets from 27 countries and regions will meet and exchange ideas with Vietnamese poets and readers.

Participants will visit Thay Pagoda in Hanoi where they will also listen to a Zen poem recital by Buddhist monks and poets on February 6th. (Source: CPV)