何与怀： 国际诗人笔会悉尼大会致辞（中英文）[转载]

By Ouyang Yu

 国际诗人笔会悉尼大会致辞

 

（2025年12月7日）

 

                                                                                                                何与怀（著）

 

各位尊敬的与会者，女士们先生们，下午好！

 

首先，我作为一个在悉尼安居三十年的澳洲公民，热烈欢迎从世界各地到来的在座各位。澳大利亚是一个美丽平和自由的国家。莎士比亚戏剧《理查二世》（Richard II）里有一句名句：“天堂之眼眷顾的所有地方，对于智者都是避风港和幸福地。”澳大利亚就是“天堂之眼眷顾的地方”，而我们都是“智者”。我也想到宋朝著名诗人苏轼的诗句：“此心安处是吾乡。”的确，哪里有自由，哪里就是安身立命的家乡。

 

第二点，我想简明介绍一下澳华文坛。

 

华人来澳已有两百年历史。早在1909年，竟然在报上破天荒出现了一部非常珍贵的华文长篇小说！这是黄树屏所著的《多妻毒》。此后过了半个多世纪，澳洲社会出现许多新的变化。1973年，澳大利亚联邦政府结束了不得人心的“白澳政策”，1977年又开始大量接收印支难民，澳华文学出现了印支难民创作的“难民文学”作品。接着，1989年天安门事件之后，四万中国留澳学生获得永居，从他们中间出现的文学创作活动，形成了“澳华留学生文学”的“黄金十年”。

 

当然，澳华留学生文学只不过是澳华文学中一个阶段的文学。在我看来，澳华文学是“一块不断崛起的新大陆”，在世界华文文学的版图上，澳华文学的崛起有目共睹，亦开始为国际华文文学研究者所重视。今天，澳华文学的成就不是上世纪九十年代所能够相比的。例如，当年澳华留学生中，后来成了著名诗人、小说家、学者、翻译家的欧阳昱博士的成可以讲一下。我为他写了一篇长达三万多字的评论，开篇第一句就是：“欧阳昱是一个神奇的存在。”他才华出众，特立独行，充满先锋探索意识。他驰骋澳洲英中双语文坛，三十多年间竟然难以置信地出版各种中英文著作译作多达一百五十种。我深信，在欧阳昱博士和澳华文坛众多作家诗人的努力下，澳华文学将会迎来的它的黄金时代。

 

最后，也就是第三点，我非常同意国际诗人笔会以“和平、自由、思想”为宗旨，热爱和平、追求自由、独立思想，应该成为每一位诗人都应奉行的准则。今天，我们处在一个动荡的时代，又处在一个希望的时代。我们作家诗人要作出心灵回应，以文学形式介入其中，体现一种良知、道义和责任。宋朝大诗人陆游有一句“工夫在诗外”的至理名言。诗人必须从身体力行的实践、从砥砺磨淬的历练、从格物致知的探索、从血肉交融的感应，获得创作“真”作品的诗外“真”功夫。我们要努力让自己的作品发出亮丽的美学光芒，流露丰富的生活智慧，包蕴深刻的历史洞见。我们要让自己的作品拥有灵魂，参与引领人类精神的崇高使命。

让我们共勉。谢谢。


Address to the Poets International Pen Club Sydney Conference (7 December 2025)

 

                                                    By He Yu Huai

 

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, good afternoon.

 

First, let me say what a pleasure it is to welcome all of you to Sydney. I have lived here for thirty years, and it truly warms my heart to see writers and poets travel from so many corners of the world to join us.

 

Shakespeare wrote in Richard II: “All places that the eye of Heaven visits / are to a wise man ports and happy havens.” Australia, a country of beauty, peace, and freedom, is surely one of those blessed places—and today, all of us gathered here are the “wise,” finding calm and joy in this land. Thus, I’m also reminded of a famous line by the Song Dynasty poet Su Shi: “Where the heart is at ease, there is my homeland.”

 

Secondly, I would like to offer a brief overview of Australian Chinese literature, or, to be exact, Sinophone literature in Australia.

 

Chinese people have been in Australia for 200 years. And more than a century ago—in 1909—a remarkable Chinese novel appeared in an Australian newspaper: The Poison of Polygamy by Wong Shee Ping. It was groundbreaking, and its rediscovery has drawn the attention of scholars worldwide.

 

Since then, Australian society has changed dramatically. The end of the White Australia Policy in 1973, and the arrival of large numbers of Indochinese refugees from 1977, led to the rise of “refugee literature” in Chinese.

 

Then came 1989. After the “Tiananmen Incident”, about 40,000 Chinese students in Australia received permanent residency. From this group emerged an energetic wave of new writing—the “golden decade” of Chinese student literature in Australia.

 

But of course, student literature is only one chapter. I see Australian Chinese literature as “a new continent in constant ascent.” Its rise within the global landscape of Chinese-language literature is unmistakable, and increasingly recognized by international scholars.

 

Today, indeed, the achievements in this field far surpass those of the 1990s. Take Dr Ouyang Yu, for example—a former student who became a renowned poet, novelist, scholar, and translator, and is the 2025 Prize winner. I once wrote a long essay about him, and my opening line was: “Ouyang Yu is a miraculous existence.” Brilliant, unconventional, endlessly curious, he has written and translated around 150 books in both English and Chinese. With writers and poets like him—and the many talented authors here with us today—I truly believe Australian Chinese literature is moving into its own golden age.

 

Finally, let me speak to the values of this conference: peace, freedom, and thought. These are not just words on a banner—they should be the guiding principles of every poet.

 

We live in turbulent times. But they are also times filled with hope. As writers and poets, we must respond sincerely—with conscience, with a sense of justice, and with a feeling of responsibility toward the world around us.

 

Another Song Dynasty poet Lu You once said: “True craft lies outside the poem.” What he meant is that our poems draw power not only from technique but from the life we live—our experiences, our trials, our curiosity, our sensitivity to the human condition. Only through this can we create work that is true.

 

Let us strive to make our writing shine—with beauty, with wisdom, with insight. Let our words have soul. And let us dare to take part in the noble task of uplifting the human spirit.

 

Thank you, and let us encourage one another on this journey.

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