For another year, the IBBY organization celebrates International Children's Book Day, which, as we have mentioned many times, has been celebrated on April 2, the birthday of the writer Hans Christian Andersen, since 1967. This year, the honor goes to the country of the Netherlands, and here is its message for 2025.
The Language of Pictures
Can you draw pictures
for the words,
for the things I say?
Then draw
part of the picture,
cold,
wind,
a lump in your throat
or tough luck,
draw a cough,
a sigh,
the scent of fresh bread,
time,
a moment,
the beginning or the end
of a plan,
draw the place wherever,
the place where never,
the place where soon
something is going to happen,
draw the pain of a push,
the taste of the sea.
There is so much
that I want to see,
like love,
one day,
and maybe for me.
Make pictures
for my poem,
and please feel free:
these words
belong to you
even though they came from me.
Text: Rian Visser
Illustration: Janneke Ipenburg
Translation: Laura Watkinson
Source: IBBY
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