国际笔会又称为世界作家协会,即国际诗人、剧作家、散文家、文学编辑和小说家的协会。将诗人(Poet)、散文家(Essayist)和小说家(Novelist)的三个英语单词的第一个字母组合起来,恰巧是一个PEN(笔)字。汉语译成“笔会”是沿用下来的,其实并不准确,往往引起误解。如译成“世界作家协会”更为贴切。 1881年,美国著名诗人惠特曼在给朋友的一封信中提出了建立诗人国际的美好理想。他说:“我最向往的梦境是将诗和诗人结为一个国际,令其威力胜于一切条约、外交,使世间所有的国家由此亲密无间。”整整四十年以后,即1921年,惠特曼的 The International PEN is also known as the World Writers Association, an association of international poets, playwrights, essayists, literary editors and novelists. It happens to be a PEN word combining the first letters of the three English words of a Poet, Essayist, and Novelist. Chinese is translated into “PEN” is used down, in fact, not accurate, often causing misunderstanding. Such as translated into “World Writers Association” more appropriate. In 1881, in a letter to a friend, Whitman, the famous American poet, put forward the beautiful ideal of establishing a poetic world. He said: “My most desired dream is to make the poem and poet an international power, making it more powerful than all the treaties and diplomacy, so that all the world’s nations will be intimate with each other.” Forty years later, in 1921, Whitman’s