[At Friendly Lounge on 2/11/17, Vietnamese “Jack” in his James Dean jacket. In the background is Johnny AC, an air conditioner repairman.] Note: The editor of the California based Việt Báo is the poet Trần Dạ Từ. He and his wife, Nhã Ca, were key literary figures in South Vietnam. Each Tet for four years, Trần Dạ Từ asked me to contribute a Vietnamese language article, so I wrote the below in 2014. The translation is as close, line by line, as I can make it. Bits of it may be a translation of a translation, since I’d converted English dialogues, thoughts or writing into Vietnamese, so now must trick them back into English. In tone and focus, my Viet writing can’t be all that different from my American grunting and jiving, but a linguistic switch always reveals some new aspects, if not an entirely alien character! How many have received such a shock at seeing or hearing, for the first time, their foreign spouse being his or her native self?
"...in moments like this, when I’m blathering, entertaining and cracking bad jokes in my mother tongue, I can pretend I haven’t been uprooted by history, like too many on this earth, including those who have never left Vietnam. Having lost nearly everything, we must shake or laugh it off, because that’s all there is, all there is."
That's a comment from the heart if ever there was one. It resonates with me in ways that I'd rather keep battened down - and pretend to believe that even though the tides of history shape our lives, we're all masters of our own destiny's minutiae.
Nietzsche angrily asked the reader:"How much truth can you stand?You have been thoroughly moralized,and,in view of honesty,completely wrecked and ruined for all eternity,how could you,with your slimy morals,bear any truth about man?"
If around,he`d be a paid subscriber here.You would have to buy a bigger couch!
Hi everyone,
Here's the Vietnamese version, exactly as it was published at VietBao in 2014:
http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2024/03/phan-di-cu.html
In it, I confuse Kennewick with Pasco, but those Washington State cities merge right into each other.
Linh
"...in moments like this, when I’m blathering, entertaining and cracking bad jokes in my mother tongue, I can pretend I haven’t been uprooted by history, like too many on this earth, including those who have never left Vietnam. Having lost nearly everything, we must shake or laugh it off, because that’s all there is, all there is."
That's a comment from the heart if ever there was one. It resonates with me in ways that I'd rather keep battened down - and pretend to believe that even though the tides of history shape our lives, we're all masters of our own destiny's minutiae.
You sound good, Linh. Glad to see you writing this way. Please write on!
Only four comments?This cant stand.
Nietzsche angrily asked the reader:"How much truth can you stand?You have been thoroughly moralized,and,in view of honesty,completely wrecked and ruined for all eternity,how could you,with your slimy morals,bear any truth about man?"
If around,he`d be a paid subscriber here.You would have to buy a bigger couch!