(Central News Agency reporter Zhang Rongxiang, Tainan, 21st) Taiwanese poet Chen Yuhong won the 2022 “Swedish Cicada Award”. Anna Chen, representative of the Swedish Society, presented the award today at the National Taiwan Literature Museum and held a Taiwan Literature Translation Forum.
A press release issued by the National Taiwan Literature Museum stated that Anna Gustafsson Chen, a representative of the Swedish Society, arrived in Taiwan from Sweden. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic last year, her arrival in Taiwan to award the award was postponed to this year. Today, she presented the award to the National Taiwan Literature Museum. Chen Yuhong. The special exhibition “Flying Over the Literary Skyline – Taiwanese Literature in Sweden” will also be on display at the Taiwan Literature Base in Taipei until June 2, 2024.
Anna Chen said that Chen Yuhong’s poems are full of music and sensuality, integrating awe of nature and the joy of discovering new opportunities. They were recognized by the Cicada Award for their Martinson literary connotations; she looks forward to encountering Chen Yuhong’s works with more readers in the future, especially It’s in Sweden.
Chen Yuhong said that Martinson wrote the long poem “Aniara” in 1953. 70 years later, the problem of his fear still bothers him now. As a poet, when faced with what has happened, is happening, and will happen in the future, what he can do is still the same. “We have to feel and digest these things, and then write them down.”
The “Swedish Cicada Prize” commemorates the Swedish poet Harry who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1974. The award was founded by Harry Martinson (1904-1978) in 2004 to mark its centenary. Affected by the atomic bombings that claimed tens of millions of lives during World War II, Martinson used “cicada” as a metaphor and published a collection of poems “Cicada” (1953), showing his care for life and criticism of reality.
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The “Swedish Cicada Prize” is hailed as one of the most important poetry crowns in the contemporary world literary world. Martinson’s literary creation is deeply inspired by East Asian poetry. The purpose of the “Swedish Cicada Prize” is to recognize the creative achievements of outstanding East Asian poets. Chinese-speaking creators include Beidao, China, Xixi, Hong Kong and Taiwanese poet Yang Mu have both won awards.
The 71-year-old Chen Yuhong was born in Kaohsiung. He has lived in Canada for many years and now lives in Taipei. He graduated from the English Department of Wenzao Foreign Languages College. He is also a poet and translator. He is diligent in painting in his spare time and has written poetry collections “About Poetry” and ” In fact, “Sea”, “Suo Yin”, “Between”, “Shing Shen”, “Xia Guang and Others”, etc., this year served as the writer in residence in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (Editor: Huang Shiya) 1121121
