Vietnamese
Poet won the Swedish Cikada Prize
Linh
Bui
12:05
03/12/2017
PSNews –
The Cikada Award ceremony of Sweden in
2017 took place in the Temple of Literature on December 1 evening, Hanoi. This
year-prize was awarded to the Vietnamese poet Mai Van Phan.
Delivering
the opening speech, Charge d’Affairs of the Swedish Embassy in Vietnam Ylva
Jansson stated that: “Since the diplomatic relations were established between
Sweden and Vietnam almost 50 years ago, we have seen a continuous exchange of
culture between our two countries. Literature and poetry have played an
important role in this and the Cikada Award has contributed and has deepened
the cultural exchange.
With
funding from the Swedish government, the work of Vietnamese and Swedish writers
have been translated and shared in both countries throughout the years. The
translations has given the Swedish people a better understanding of the culture
and everyday life in Vietnam.”
At the
ceremony, poet Mai Van Phan expressed delight as becoming this year-winner. He
said that he wants to show people how poetry can give us greater understanding
of the life and culture.
Poet Mai
Van Phan said: "We always have hope for a brighter future, like seeds that
are sown in the darkness and move towards the light".
He
explores the mystery and complexity of human nature and the natural world. A
radiant dawn, a worm in the leaf, and the sigh of a woman... Mai Van Phan sees
the world through the eyes of a poet who can see into another world.
With 14
poetry collections already published in Vietnam, Mai Van Phan is one of the
Vietnamese contemporary poet that have the most work published in other
countries. His poems have been chosen and translated into 24 languages such as
English, French, Russia, Swedish, Spanish, Arab, Japanese, Chineses, Korean and
Hindi.
He is
also represented in international anthologies, for instance the Swedish Till:
igår – tolv vietnamesiska poeter (Tranan, 2009), translated by Erik Bergqvist.
Later this year the publishing house Tranan will publish a special collection
of his poetry in Swedish, translated by Erik Bergqvist and Maja Thrane.
Previously,
in 2015 Vietnamese poet Y Nhi won the illustrious prize.
The
Cikada Prize was established in 2004 by the Swedish Institute on the occasion
of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Swedish Nobel Prize laureate in
literature 1974, Harry Martinson.
The name
of the award was inspired by Martinson’s poetry collection “Cikada which was
published in 1953. The Cikada Prize is given to an East Asian poet, who “in
his/her poems shows poetic sensitivity for the inviolability of life”.
By
Linh Bui