An Ancient Enmity
—International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong 2017
Denn irgendwo ist eine alte Feindschaft / zwischen dem Leben und der großen Arbeit. “For somewhere there is an ancient enmity / between our daily life and the great work,” wrote the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, in one of his “Requiem” poems (Stephen Mitchell, trans.). For me, this line has always echoed with a persistent surge. Whether of the poem or of the poet, it is time to ask—particularly in our globalized era, with its heterogeneity in contention with isomorphism, with all its upheavals, its clamour and its lapses—whether or what ancient principles still exist in our poetry.
For there is an ancient enmity between life and poetry—because, I believe, hardship is the wellspring of poetry, its first motivating force, though it is also the hardships and oppressions of life that allow for poetry to transcend the bounds of history, nationality, religion, ideology, even of language. Why does the middle class lifestyle have such difficulty creating great work? Why is it so rare for great work to be “created” in institutionalized creative writing workshops? Why can’t great work be “invented” by robots and Artificial Intelligence?
The theme for the 2017 International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong is An Ancient Enmity.
In November of 2009 we hosted the first International Poetry Nights in Hong Kong, making this now our fifth “poetry event.” And now, we are not only able to bring poets to Asia from around the world, but then on from Hong Kong to five cities in the mainland, namely Wuhan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xiamen, and Guangzhou. And this is on top of our having published, since 2011, the work of all our invited poets in bi- or trilingual editions—the only such publication program to date of any international poetry festival.
It’s time that poetry revealed the heavenly secrets
It’s time
Bei Dao
18 July, 2017
古老的敵意
——香港國際詩歌之夜2017代序
奧地利詩人里爾克（Rainer Maria Rilke）在《安魂曲》中寫下這樣的詩句：「因為生活和偉大的作品之間／總存在某種古老的敵意」。對我來說，這詩句就像激盪而持久的迴聲。無論對於詩還是詩人，我們敢於不斷追問，尤其在一個異質與同構抗衡的全球化時代，一個巨大變革的時代，一個沉淪而喧囂的世代，在詩歌的寫作中，是否仍舊存在著某種古老的法則？
在生活與詩歌之間充滿著古老的敵意，我認為，那是因為苦難是詩歌的源泉，也是詩歌的原動力，是生活的苦難和壓迫讓詩歌超越了歷史、民族、宗教、意識形態，甚至語言的邊界。試問，為什麼中產階級生活方式不可能產生偉大的作品？為什麼體制中的詩歌創作課不可能「製造」偉大的作品？為什麼人工智慧與機器人寫作不可能「發明」偉大的作品？
香港國際詩歌之夜2017的主題是「古老的敵意」。
2009年11月，我們創辦了首屆香港國際詩歌之夜，這是第五屆的「詩歌事件」。幸運的是，來自各語種的國際詩人聚在一起，從全世界到亞洲，從香港到大陸，包括武漢、南京、杭州、廈門和廣州的五個城市。特別說明的是，自從2011年創辦起，我們為每位應邀詩人正式出版雙語或三語的個人詩集，這是迄今為止所有國際詩歌節的出版創舉。
是詩歌洩露天機的時候了
是時候了
北島
2017年7月18日