Dear Yi Sha,

The Poetry International Foundation in Rotterdam would very much like to invite you to participate in the 38th Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The festival will take place from Saturday June 16 until Friday June 22, 2007.

Since you have not read at the Poetry International festival before, we would like to give you some general information.

From modest beginnings 37 years ago, the Poetry International Festival has grown into what it is today, a major gathering of poets from every corner of the globe. It is the only annual festival dedicated to international poetry in the Netherlands, and the largest one in Europe. Since 1970, Rotterdam has hosted over 1800 poets, and thousands of people have had the opportunity to see and hear them read. In June each year, some thirty poets travel to Rotterdam to participate in the weeklong programme. The presence of international poetry publishers, critics, representatives of international poetry platforms and magazines, and poetry translators, makes the festival an important meeting place.

Besides many other programmes, the Poetry International Festival 2007 will have a special focus on the relationship between poetry, melancholy and madness and during the week a variety of poetry readings, lectures, interviews and other activities related to the theme will take place.

The 38th Poetry International Festival will especially introduce poets from the Caucasian countries Georgia, Armenia and Azerbayan; poetry from this region has seldom been translated into Dutch.

The festival will open with a grand poety parade in which festival poets read a poem on their favourite words.

During the week there will be two translation workshops, dedicated to the work of two of the festival poets. Poets present at the festival are invited to take part in these workshops.

We hope this information has given you an impression of our plans. As you will understand, all these and many other ideas for the festival are still in development. We will be able to inform you about the definitive programme in more detail later.

Events take place both during the day and in the evenings in the Rotterdam City Theatre. Each day the festival attracts an audience of about 500 people. There is extensive press coverage of the entire week, and several literary magazines will publish translations of poems read at the festival.

The Poetry International Festival will commission professional Dutch and English translations of all poems that are read, making the events enjoyable for both a Dutch and a foreign audience. During your reading, Dutch and English translations will be projected simultaneously on a screen. The English as well as Dutch translations will be available in booklets.

De Arbeiderspers, a well-known Dutch publishing house, will publish the festival anthology Hotel Parnassus with Dutch translations of four poems of each participating poet. This anthology will be distributed widely in bookstores all over the Netherlands.

It would be a great honour and a pleasure to have you as our guest at the 38th Poetry International Festival in June 2007.

For your readings we can offer you a compensation of 750 euro, in addition to royalties of 69 euro for the publication of four of your poems in the festival anthology. Travelling expenses, hotel accommodation and meals during the week of the festival will all be paid for by the Poetry International Foundation.

If you accept our invitation, as we sincerely hope, could you please send us a selection of ten poems, covering a reading time of 15 to 20 minutes? We will need to receive your selection preferably before February 1 2007 in order to commission a quality translation, and to prepare our festival anthology.

Please visit www.poetry.nl for more information about the Poetry International Festival.

We are looking forward to hearing from you. In case you were wondering, we received your e-mail address from Simon Patton.


Yours sincerely,

also on behalf of Bas Kwakman, director, and Janita Monna, programming,

Jan-Willem Anker
programming

亲爱的伊沙，

位于鹿特丹的国际诗歌基金会非常荣幸的邀请您参加将在荷兰鹿特丹举行的第38届国际诗歌节。本届诗歌节将于07年6月16日周六开幕，持续到6月22日周五。

由于您未曾在国际诗歌节上诵读过作品，我们很荣幸给你做一些大致的介绍。

国际诗歌节于37年前首次举行，一路风雨，如今已成长为世界各地诗人们的主要集会。它是荷兰唯一的年度国际诗歌盛会，也是欧洲最大的盛会之一。自1970 年起，鹿特丹热情接待了1800名诗人，数以万计的人们有幸欣赏到诗人们诵读自己的作品。每年的六月份，约30名诗人不远万里来到鹿特丹参加为期一周的盛会。各国诗歌出版商，诗歌评论家，国际诗社，诗刊的代表，诗歌翻译家云集一堂，使此盛会成为一个重要的会晤场所。

除了许多其他项目外，2007 年国际诗歌节将特别关注透析诗歌，忧郁和疯狂间的关系，此外一周内还会有不同题材诗歌的诵读，讲座，采访和其他相关此主题的活动。

第38届诗歌节将特别介绍来自北欧白人（高加索人种）国家格鲁吉亚，亚美尼亚，阿塞拜疆地区的诗歌，因为此地区的诗歌鲜有被翻译为荷兰语。

此届诗歌节将由一个盛大的诗歌游行拉开帷幕，在此游行中，与会诗人将朗诵他们最喜欢的诗歌。

在这一周中，将有两个翻译工作组，致力于协助两位诗歌节诗人的工作。出席此次诗歌节的诗人也将受邀参与到这些工作组中。

我们希望这些信息能帮您大致了解我们的计划。如您所理解，所有这些以及其他理念仍在进一步完善中。节日活动的进一步改善，我们将另行告知。

盛会将在鹿特丹城市剧院昼夜持续举行。每天吸引观众达500人次。届时将由新闻媒介广泛报道，几家文学杂志也将刊登盛会上所诵读诗歌的译文。

国际诗歌节将请专业人士对所诵读诗歌的进行英语，荷兰语的翻译，使整个盛会对于荷兰及外国听众变得更加有趣。在您的诵读过程中，荷兰及英译文将同时出现在屏幕上，这些译文也将被印在宣传册上。

著名荷兰出版社De Arbeiderspers将出版诗歌节诗选《诗人酒店》，每位与会诗人将有四首诗歌的荷兰译文选入。此诗选将在荷兰各书店广泛发行。

如果您能来参加此次盛会将是我们莫大的荣幸。

对于您的诵读，我们将支付750 欧元的报偿，此外将为在诗选中刊登您四首诗歌付您69欧元的版税。一周内旅行，食宿的开销也将有各级诗歌基金会支付。

如果您如我们真诚期待的，接受此邀请，能否请您选出10首大约需要15-20分钟诵读的诗歌寄给我们？我们最好能在2007年2月1日前收到你的选送作品，以便能为诗歌节诗选做出高质量的译文。

.
更多关于国际诗歌节的信息，请登陆www.poetry.nl。

我们期盼您的回音。毋庸置疑我们的诚意，我们是从Simon Patton那里得到您的电邮地址的。.

您诚挚的朋友，

谨代表主任Bas Kwakman，策划Janita Monna，Jan-Willem Anker

（原文仅有英文，李臻中译）