From Homer’s Oddysey to Cavafy’s Ithaca to poetry today

A European Union-Canada celebration of 2002 UNESCO World Poetry Day

            “Voices, Past and Present”, a European Union-Canada event in Ottawa on March 21, 2002 will celebrate World Poetry Day, designated by UNESCO in 1999. The event at the National Library of Canada involves readings – in twelve languages – of poems from Europe and Canada. Translations into either English or French will be projected on a large screen while the poems are being read in the original.

            Greece participates with readings of an excerpt from Homer’s Odyssey and of Cavafy’s poem on Ithaca. Educators, diplomats and writers are among the readers of poems in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, starting with Spain, the current European Union (EU) Presidency, and ending with the host country, Canada.

            The creative diversity of the event is reflected on the cover of program notes, where the word “poetry” appears in the twelve languages in which poems will be read.

            “Voices, Past and Present” is presented by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and the Diplomatic Missions of the EU Presidency, the EU Member-States, and the European Commission, in collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, the National Library of Canada, and the Ottawa International Writers festival. Griffin Poetry prize finalist will be announced at the event.