MESSAGE BY VASCO GRAÇA MOURA - THE "GOLDEN WREATH" WINNER AT THE SPE - 2004

I feel deeply honoured by the attribution of the Golden Wreath of the Struga festival and I would like to address the Organizing Board of the festival and the Macedonian public by saying that this award strengthens the links between two geographically distant cultures of one same Europe, but in fact it does not "inaugurate" them: our national poem published as early as 1572, The Lusiads, by Luís de Camões, ends with an allusion to Alexander of Macedonia, whom it mentions several times, and it also contains a specific geographic reference to Macedonia.

Poetry being a very important dimension of European civilization and an essential exercise of creative freedom for approximating individual human beings and countries, not only do I feel deeply honoured by this glorious distinction, but I also think that the inclusion of a representative of the Portuguese language and literature in the long list of the nominees for the Golden Wreath does contribute to a clearer and stronger image of the multiplicity of identities which form Europe.

This image at the present stage should be more and more effective, as it will be impossible to build Europe without taking it into consideration. In this respect, I would say that this poetic "joint-venture" of Macedonia and Portugal could be a good symbol, putting together both the cradle of our civilization and the avantgarde which took it abroad to the other parts of the world in the XVth and XVIth centuries, now that we all feel that any consistent idea of political union of a democratic Europe must be founded upon its cultural dimension.

Vasco Graça Moura
20. 02. 2004
Lisboa