Struga, 25 August 2022 (MIA) — Saying he was overflowing with joy at the age of 90, this year’s winner of the Struga Poetry Evening’s Golden Wreath, Japanese poet Shuntarō Tanikawa, thanked festival organizers for the award via an audio address. Tanikawa said he was honored to receive the prize that had previously been awarded to many brilliant poets from all parts of the world. Pointing out that “poetry still exists even amid this vague and uncertain epoch, just as it has existed since ancient times,” he also said that “poetry arises from the whirlwind of ambiguity.” Speaking at the press conference ahead of the SPE’s official opening ceremony on Thursday evening, the laureate’s son, Japanese composer and pianist Kensaku Tanikawa, said he would share with his father recordings and photos of the festival. He also said his father still wrote poetry at the request of publishers and was often interviewed by the media. “He wishes he were here, but of course he is very happy and honored to receive this award, especially since it was previously given to his best friend and prominent Japanese poet Makoto Ōoka in 1996,” Tanikawa said. The 2020 Golden Wreath winner, Israeli poet Amir Or, who also attended the press conference, said the Struga Poetry Evenings put North Macedonia on the cultural map of Europe and the world. SPE director Todorche Tasevski said the 2020 and the 2021 were hybrid festivals because of “the extraordinary circumstances” due to the pandemic. “This year,” he said, “the 2020 laureate and the son of the 2022 laureate have the opportunity to attend in person. I hope that these challenging years of global turbulence are behind us and that we will be able to continue holding the SPE festival as usual,” Tasevski said. mr/