Hong Kong-based poet Bei Dao wins prestigious poetry prize
Beijing-born Bei Dao may yet get Nobel literature award after losing out last year
Oliver Chou
oliver.chou@scmp.com
A top mainland Chinese poet based in Hong Kong has been awarded a prestigious international award for poetry, putting him on track for a future Nobel Prize for literature.
Beijing-born Bei Dao, a Chinese University professor since 2007, is only the second Chinese, after Hubei native Lu Yuan in 1998, to receive the Golden Wreath Award of the Struga International Poetry Festival.
It was a unanimous decision by an international jury to name 65-year-old Bei Dao, whose real name is Zhao Zhenkai, the 50th winner since the annual award began in Macedonia in 1966, the organisers said last Friday.
"Bei Dao has been living in Hong Kong for many years now, so this award also brings honour to the city he calls home," Ngan Shun-kau, former chief editor and now senior adviser to Cosmos Books, said.
Some see the Macedonian prize as a step towards the Nobel; with previous winners, including Joseph Brodsky and Eugenio Montale, having been feted as Nobel laureates before.
Bei Dao was a nominee for last year's Nobel Prize, which eventually went to French novelist Patrick Modiano.
A leading Chinese poet, he speaks of abuses of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and '70s through his works.
In 1978, he co-founded Jin Tian, or Today, magazine in Beijing but it was banned two years later. Following the 1989 pro-democracy push at Tiananmen Square that ended in a crackdown, the poet went into exile for 18 years - during which he wrote some of his best poems, such as Old Snow (1991), Forms of Distance (1994), and Unlock (2000).
"Bei Dao has been free to travel to China since 2006," Ngan said in response to the organisers' remarks that "the festival often awards foreign poets who are considered dissidents in their countries".
"The award has important symbolic significance for modern poetry in China and is a huge encouragement for the genre, which has a small market compared to, say, novels."
The veteran publisher believed the true value of great works came not from their political content but from their literary worth, and that, he said, was Bei Dao's winning ticket.
Bei Dao has described his latest opus, Poetry for Children, as "good for steering the intuition and sensitivity a child is born with".
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as HK-based poet wins prestigious poetry prize
（South China Morning Post 28 March, 2015）
居港大陸詩人北島奪金花環獎桂冠成下屆諾貝爾獎熱門
香港特約記者甄樹基
因支持1989年民主運動而流亡海外的大陸詩人北島，獲得一項備受國際詩壇重視的大獎，為他贏得諾貝爾文學獎的機會，帶來更大的聲勢。
在北京出生的北島，自從2007年便在香港中文大學任教。他是繼1998年綠原之後，另一個大陸詩人奪得斯特魯加國際詩歌節金花環獎桂冠。
現年65歲、原名趙振開的北島，獲得評審團一致同意，贏得每年一度在馬其頓舉行的第五十屆國際詩歌節的大獎。南華早報引述香港天地圖書的前總編輯顏純鉤說：「北島在香港居住已經多年，這個獎可以為他已經視以為家的香港帶來榮譽。」
不少人都相信，在馬其頓奪獎可以增加諾貝爾文學獎的勝算，過去這個獎的得主，包括JosephBrodsy布羅茨基和EugenioMontale蒙塔萊在內，後來都獲得諾貝爾的文學獎。上屆諾貝爾文學獎，北島也是其中一個獲得提名的熱門人選，但最終由法國小說家JeanPatrickModiano莫迪亞諾贏得殊榮。
北島祖籍浙江湖州，1949年生於當時的北平。畢業於北京四中。1969年當建築工人，後做過翻譯，並短期在《新觀察》雜誌做過編輯。1970年開始寫作，1978年與芒克等人創辦《今天》雜誌。但兩年之後被當局禁止出版，1989年因支持民主運動，不能見容於中共，遂展開18年海外流亡生活。
針對外界認為馬其頓當局過去經常頒獎給異見分子的講法，顏純鉤說：「自從2006年開始，北島已經可以自由返回大陸。」
顏說：「這個獎對中國現代詩壇有重要的象征意義，而且是一莫大的鼓勵，因為出版詩歌，比起例如小說，畢竟仍是一個非常小的市場。」
北島為朦朧詩代表人物之一，先後獲瑞典筆會文學獎、美國西部筆會中心自由寫作獎、古根海姆獎學金等，並被選為美國藝術文學院終身榮譽院士。
他的代表作包括作於1976年文革結束後的《回答》，其中的「卑鄙是卑鄙者的通行證，高尚是高尚者的墓志銘」已經成為中國新詩名句。
（《希望之聲》二Ｏ一五年三月廿八日）
Beijing-born Bei Dao may yet get Nobel literature award after losing out last year
Oliver Chou
oliver.chou@scmp.com
Poet Bei Dao spent 18 years in exile. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
A top mainland Chinese poet based in Hong Kong has been awarded a prestigious international award for poetry, putting him on track for a future Nobel Prize for literature.
Beijing-born Bei Dao, a Chinese University professor since 2007, is only the second Chinese, after Hubei native Lu Yuan in 1998, to receive the Golden Wreath Award of the Struga International Poetry Festival.
It was a unanimous decision by an international jury to name 65-year-old Bei Dao, whose real name is Zhao Zhenkai, the 50th winner since the annual award began in Macedonia in 1966, the organisers said last Friday.
"Bei Dao has been living in Hong Kong for many years now, so this award also brings honour to the city he calls home," Ngan Shun-kau, former chief editor and now senior adviser to Cosmos Books, said.
Some see the Macedonian prize as a step towards the Nobel; with previous winners, including Joseph Brodsky and Eugenio Montale, having been feted as Nobel laureates before.
Bei Dao was a nominee for last year's Nobel Prize, which eventually went to French novelist Patrick Modiano.
A leading Chinese poet, he speaks of abuses of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and '70s through his works.
In 1978, he co-founded Jin Tian, or Today, magazine in Beijing but it was banned two years later. Following the 1989 pro-democracy push at Tiananmen Square that ended in a crackdown, the poet went into exile for 18 years - during which he wrote some of his best poems, such as Old Snow (1991), Forms of Distance (1994), and Unlock (2000).
"Bei Dao has been free to travel to China since 2006," Ngan said in response to the organisers' remarks that "the festival often awards foreign poets who are considered dissidents in their countries".
"The award has important symbolic significance for modern poetry in China and is a huge encouragement for the genre, which has a small market compared to, say, novels."
The veteran publisher believed the true value of great works came not from their political content but from their literary worth, and that, he said, was Bei Dao's winning ticket.
Bei Dao has described his latest opus, Poetry for Children, as "good for steering the intuition and sensitivity a child is born with".
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as HK-based poet wins prestigious poetry prize
（South China Morning Post 28 March, 2015）
居港大陸詩人北島奪金花環獎桂冠成下屆諾貝爾獎熱門
香港特約記者甄樹基
因支持1989年民主運動而流亡海外的大陸詩人北島，獲得一項備受國際詩壇重視的大獎，為他贏得諾貝爾文學獎的機會，帶來更大的聲勢。
在北京出生的北島，自從2007年便在香港中文大學任教。他是繼1998年綠原之後，另一個大陸詩人奪得斯特魯加國際詩歌節金花環獎桂冠。
現年65歲、原名趙振開的北島，獲得評審團一致同意，贏得每年一度在馬其頓舉行的第五十屆國際詩歌節的大獎。南華早報引述香港天地圖書的前總編輯顏純鉤說：「北島在香港居住已經多年，這個獎可以為他已經視以為家的香港帶來榮譽。」
不少人都相信，在馬其頓奪獎可以增加諾貝爾文學獎的勝算，過去這個獎的得主，包括JosephBrodsy布羅茨基和EugenioMontale蒙塔萊在內，後來都獲得諾貝爾的文學獎。上屆諾貝爾文學獎，北島也是其中一個獲得提名的熱門人選，但最終由法國小說家JeanPatrickModiano莫迪亞諾贏得殊榮。
北島祖籍浙江湖州，1949年生於當時的北平。畢業於北京四中。1969年當建築工人，後做過翻譯，並短期在《新觀察》雜誌做過編輯。1970年開始寫作，1978年與芒克等人創辦《今天》雜誌。但兩年之後被當局禁止出版，1989年因支持民主運動，不能見容於中共，遂展開18年海外流亡生活。
針對外界認為馬其頓當局過去經常頒獎給異見分子的講法，顏純鉤說：「自從2006年開始，北島已經可以自由返回大陸。」
顏說：「這個獎對中國現代詩壇有重要的象征意義，而且是一莫大的鼓勵，因為出版詩歌，比起例如小說，畢竟仍是一個非常小的市場。」
北島為朦朧詩代表人物之一，先後獲瑞典筆會文學獎、美國西部筆會中心自由寫作獎、古根海姆獎學金等，並被選為美國藝術文學院終身榮譽院士。
他的代表作包括作於1976年文革結束後的《回答》，其中的「卑鄙是卑鄙者的通行證，高尚是高尚者的墓志銘」已經成為中國新詩名句。
（《希望之聲》二Ｏ一五年三月廿八日）
沒有留言:
張貼留言