Poetry has a thousand faces and always springs from the depths of the culture of peoples. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has long supported the work of poets, publishers and teachers worldwide. This year, once again, on the occasion of World Poetry Day, UNESCO
wishes to highlight the artistic importance and the power of poetry in encouraging people to read and in creating one of humanity’s most authentic and dynamic art forms.

诗歌的形式千姿百态，诗歌的内容无时无刻不激扬着各民族文化最深远的心声。联合国教科文组织长期以来一直致力于支持世界各地诗人、学者和出版家的工作。今年，值此“世界诗歌日”，教科文组织依然愿意重申诗歌艺术的价值和力量，鼓励人们去阅读、去创造诗歌，它是人类最发自内心、最具活力的一种艺术形式。

Poets convey a timeless message. They are often key witness to history’s great political and social changes. Their writings inspire us to build lasting peace in our minds, to rethink relations between man and nature and to establish humanism founded on the uniqueness and diversity of peoples. This is a difficult task, requiring the participation of all, whether in schools, libraries or cultural institutions. To quote the poet Tagore, the 150th anniversary of whose birth will be celebrated this year, “I have spent my days in stringing and unstringing my instrument”.

诗人们的创作传递着永不消逝的讯息，见证着历史长河中政治的动荡和社会的变迁。他们的诗篇召唤着我们在世人的心中树立起持久和平的信念，激励着我们去重新构想人与自然的关系，去建立一种以各民族特性及文化多样性为灵感源泉的人本主义理念。这是一项艰难的事业，不论是在学校、图书馆还是文化机构，这项事业都需要所有人的参与和支持。我们今年庆祝了他诞辰150周年的大诗人泰戈尔说的好：“我日复一日调拨着我的琴弦”。

It is important to understand the strong ties between poetry and all of the arts and techniques on which people draw to make sense of the world. Mallarmé used to say that poetry was the “expression, in human language restored to its essential rhythm, of the mysterious meaning of the aspects of existence”. Poetry is not
merely a means of communicating or transmitting information, for, as poets work constantly on the language, poetry also enlivens human discourse and always reveals the original brilliance of culture. UNESCO therefore sees the defence of freedom of expression and information, on one hand, and the promotion of poetry,
on the other, as two indissociable components of its mandate for peace. As poetry reaches deeply into the innermost efforts of men and women to create and reflect, it has the capacity to sustain dialogue amid the diversity of human expression.

此外，认识到诗歌与人类用来认识世界的所有其他艺术和技术之间具有深刻的关联，这一点也至关重要。法国诗人马拉美说过，诗歌是“人类语言本真节奏之复归，是存在情态神秘意蕴之表达”。诗歌并不仅仅在于交流并传递信息。通过对语言的千锤百炼，诗歌倾心于人类言语之承传，始终如一地展现本真原生的文化光彩。正是出于这个原因，教科文组织才一方面主张捍卫表达自由和信息自由，另一方面弘扬诗歌创作，并且将这两方面工作视为不可分割整体，同属于本组织为和平服务之使命。也正是因为诗歌深入到人类创造和思考的核心所在，不同文化表达形式之间的对话才成为可能。

UNESCO undertakes to ensure, under its various programmes, that poetry is more widely published, translated and disseminated. In the same way as Jason entrusted Orpheus with the task of surmounting obstacles that could not be overcome through physical strength or warfare, so too shall we need poetry for a long time in order to build peace in the minds of men and women.

教科文组织的诸多计划活动都致力于更多地出版、翻译、发行诗歌作品。在希腊神话中，伊阿宋曾嘱托奥尔菲斯用诗歌来应对体力和武器所不能克服之障碍，我们也一样，我们也将长期并永远地需要诗歌，用诗歌“在人之思想中建立和平之屏障”。