Poetry and Conflict
—International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong 2015
War and peace—one of humanity’s eternal themes. From 1945 to today, despite seventy years without another “world war,” our world has never been free from war, invasion, destruction, slaughter, and the degradation and spiritual trauma that follow. The progress of civilization seems to be the strong making fodder of the weak under the mantle of freedom in a quest for domination, as the globalization of power and capital continue to carve up the world to better rule it.
The year 1989 was a historical turning point, but while the Cold War between East and West reached a kind of culmination, the Cold War mentality has continued unabated. Less straightforwardly, the sea swell of globalization led by capitalism since the end of the twentieth century has swallowed heaven and earth, and the internet revolution’s information explosion has brought about both the fragmentation of knowledge and the transformation of the news media into amusement, thoroughly restructuring the old world order and overturning the “traditional” lifestyles of the middle-class along with it. At the same time, on the flip side of material ostentatiousness and brainwashing by the media, we remain shocked at the continuation of hostility and upheaval, the growing disparity between rich and poor, the depletion of natural resources, and the progressive degradation of rights such as freedom of speech.
Poetry and Conflict: the theme for the 2015 International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong.
Since antiquity, poetry has been sourced in humanity’s suffering, a driving force for the overcoming of darkness toward the light. Now, amid proposed conflicts between civilizations, histories, religions, and languages, what can poetry do? In the bedlam of the morbid fantasies of our world, what can poetry do? In retracing the source and course of our spiritual knocking at language’s door, what can poetry do?
詩歌與衝突
——香港國際詩歌之夜2015代序
戰爭與和平，是人類歷史的永恆主題之一。自1945年到現在，七十年過去了，第二次世界大戰雖已結束，但局部戰爭從未間斷，侵佔領土、摧毀家園、屠殺平民，以及相伴的屈辱和精神創傷，觸目皆是。所謂現代文明的進步，往往以公理與自由的名義，弱肉強食，稱霸天下，全球化的權力與資本在繼續瓜分並統治著世界。
1989年成為歷史的轉折，東西方冷戰格局基本結束，但冷戰思維依然存在。更為複雜的是，自二十世紀末以來，以資本主導的全球化如洪流，鋪天蓋地，而互聯網革命帶來的資訊爆炸，造成知識的碎片化和媒體的娛樂化，這一切徹底改變了舊的世界秩序，包括顛覆「傳統」的中產階級生活方式。與此同時，在物質浮華與娛樂洗腦的背後，令人觸目驚心的是侵略與戰亂，貧富日益懸殊，自然資源被掠奪，以及言論自由等條件進一步惡化。
詩歌與衝突，是本屆2015年香港國際詩歌之夜的主題。
自古以來，詩歌總是以人類苦難為源泉，成為穿越黑暗趨向光明的驅動力。而今天，在文明、歷史、宗教和語言等諸多衝突中，詩歌何為？在錯亂紛雜的現世的病態幻象中，詩歌何為？在土地與天空閉合的神秘時刻，詩歌何為？在追溯精神的源流中叩問語言之門，詩歌何為？
北島
2015年8月10日