Message from the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, on the Occasion of World Poetry Day

联合国教科文组织总干事奥德蕾·阿祖莱世界诗歌日致辞

Dreams

梦想

Hold fast to dreams

坚持梦想

For if dreams die

如果梦想消亡

Life is a broken-winged bird

人生就像折翼之鸟

That cannot fly.

无法飞翔

Hold fast to dreams

坚持梦想

For when dreams go

如果梦想离去

Life is a barren field

人生就像一片荒野

Frozen with snow.

寒霜遍地

Langston Hughes

兰斯顿·休斯

These lines by the poet Langston Hughes are an invitation to a dream, an escape, an emancipation. Poetry is undoubtedly the best form for expressing this yearning, since it touches upon the personal and allows for all freedoms.

兰斯顿·休斯的这些诗句，是对梦想、驰骋、拥抱自由的邀约。诗歌也许是表达这种渴望的最恰当的方式：因为它直抵内心，解除一切束缚。

This poem is about the extraordinary power of words that open up infinite horizons, enhance our lives, change reality, embellish it, show it in a new light which has never been seen before.

这首诗传达的，是词语无与伦比的力量，它展现无穷的视野，让我们的生命更加精彩，它能使现实变得更加美好，让我们从意想不到的角度重新发现这个世界。

Poetry is not a trivial game of sounds, words and images: it has a creative, transformative power. Poet, writer, playwright and leader of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, Langston Hughes placed his art at the service of the fight against the discrimination suffered by the African American community. His poetry is thus inseparable from his commitment to civil rights and it remains a source of inspiration for all the advocates of fundamental freedoms around the world.

诗歌不是声音、词语和形象随意组合的游戏：它拥有创造与变革的力量。诗人、作家兼剧作家兰斯顿·休斯是二十世纪二十年代哈莱姆文艺复兴的代表。他用自己的诗歌艺术与非裔美国人群体所遭受的歧视作斗争。他的诗与他的民权行动密不可分，一直是世界各地的基本自由捍卫者取之不尽的灵感源泉。

Poetry is also this unique art that makes us aware of extraordinary human diversity: the diversity of languages and cultures. It is a meeting place between the individual and the world. It is an introduction to difference, dialogue and peace. It is testimony to the universality of the human condition beyond the innumerable means used to describe it.

诗歌这一独特的艺术还能让人们感受到人类社会异常丰富的多样性：语言和文化的多样性。个人与世界在诗歌中相遇。诗歌引导我们尊重差异、开启对话、维护和平。它超越无数种表现方式，见证着人类的共性。

Each year since 1999, UNESCO has celebrated World Poetry Day on 21 March. It is an occasion to celebrate the wealth of the world's cultural and linguistic heritage. It is also an occasion to draw attention to traditional forms of poetry that are in danger of disappearing, as is the case for many lesser-used and minority languages. To maintain living traditions, UNESCO has included a number of poetic forms in the intangible heritage of humanity: for example, the poetic art of Ca trù singing from Viet Nam, Al'azi from the United Arab Emirates, Baul songs from Bangladesh and the oral heritage of Gelede shared by the Yoruba-Nago community living in Togo, Benin and Nigeria.

自1999年以来，教科文组织每年3月21日庆祝世界诗歌日。这是庆祝全球丰富的文化和语言遗产的契机，也是促使人们关注濒临消失的传统诗歌形式，以及那些同样受到威胁的罕见语言和少数族群语言的契机。为使这些鲜活的传统继续得到传承，教科文组织将许多诗歌形式列入了人类非物质文化遗产，如越南的歌筹诗歌艺术、阿拉伯联合酋长国的阿拉兹颂歌、孟加拉的游吟歌师歌曲以及散居在多哥、贝宁和尼日利亚的约鲁巴·纳戈族共有的热莱德口头遗产。

Poetry is not limited to the artistic aspect: it is also a tool for formal and informal education. In this sense, the arts and cultural practices provide effective support for lifelong learning. This is why UNESCO encourages and supports artistic education since it strengthens intellectual, emotional and psychological development, shaping generations that are more well-rounded and capable of reinventing the world.

诗歌不仅是一种艺术，也是正规和非正规教育的一种手段。从这个意义上说，艺术与文化实践是对终身学习的有力支持。因此教科文组织鼓励和支持艺术教育，因为它能够促进智力、情感和心理成长，培养更加全面发展、有能力改造世界的新一代。

This day is also the occasion to pay tribute to all the people who bring this prominent art to life: the poets of course, but also the translators, publishers and the organizers of poetry readings and poetry festivals. UNESCO encourages all Member States to support in their actions all those who work every day so that poetry may continue to enrich our lives.

世界诗歌日还让我们有机会向为诗歌艺术做出贡献的人们致敬，其中当然有诗人，但也包括译者、编辑和诗歌节与见面会的组织者。教科文组织呼吁全体会员国支持他们的行动，正是他们每天的努力使诗歌继续丰富我们的生活。

Finally, since poetry is an act of creating and sharing, UNESCO invites everyone, on this World Day, to create, invent, share, and be open to other languages and other ways of naming the world, to rejoice in all that is different in our diversity. Since to cultivate art and cultivate the mind is also to cultivate peace.

最后，诗歌既是创作，也是分享，值此世界诗歌日，教科文组织邀请每一个人创造、分享、向其他语言和其他描述世界的形式敞开双臂，充分感受我们多样性中的独特性。滋养艺术与心灵，也是在建设和平。