Cultural exchange: Poet Tran Dang Khoa speaks at a meeting with overseas Vietnamese in Paris. — Photo www.vietnamplus.vn

HA NOI (VNS)— Vietnamese poets Tran Dang Khoa and Nguyen Bao Chan are joining the 12th Val-de Marne International Poetry Festival in France, at the invitation of Francis Combes, the festival director.

With the theme Poetry in Human's Hearts, the festival has drawn 27 famous poets from Viet Nam, South Africa, Haiti, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Scotland to exchange and enjoy poems both in their mother tongues and French, accompanied by music.

Representing Viet Nam, Khoa made a speech at the festival, thanking his French colleagues, including poet and journalist Madeleine Riffaud and director Gerand Guilaume, for having translated and introduced his poetic works, especially those depicting his little hometown, to international readers.

In 1968, Riffaud helped publish Khoa's poems in the l'Humanite newspaper. Then, on New Year's eve of 1969, the documentary Le petit mode de Khoa (The Small World Of Khoa), with script and commentary written by Guilaume, was screened on French and European television.

Last February, Khoa's 37-poem collection, illustrated by French artist Dominique de Miscault, was displayed at the French Cultural Centre L'Espace in Ha Noi.

At the festival, Khoa also introduced a stream of Vietnamese literature and poetry which expressed patriotism and opposed war and foreign invaders.

Director Combes said he had an affiliation with Viet Nam and its poetry, and had met Vietnamese poets such as Nguyen Dinh Thi, Xuan Dieu and Huy Can. He also presented his own poems written about late President Ho Chi Minh.

The two Vietnamese poets were invited to attend the festival to celebrate 40 years since the re-establishment of relations between Viet Nam and France. — VNS