Vietnam

Ah, Vietnam. Let’s think about Vietnam, as 2 September is the National Day of the Vietnamese people—on 2 September 1945 they gained independence from Japan… obviously due to Japanese occupation of the country during World War I, with the Japenese War in the Pacific. They invaded Vietnam in 1941, so their stay was comparatively shortlived. There were a few other independences to be won in the history of the country. After all, it was under Chinese control for a thousand years before it became a nation-state in the 10th century. There was also the period of French colonialism—I’m still surprised when I hear “Indochina,” but then I’m young, and grew up hearing about Vietnam. And we all know about the blundering of the Vietnam War. Historically the country has also had quite a few names—but Việt Nam has been used for centuries.

If you visit Hanoi you can visit the body of Ho Chi Minh. Along the way, you can drink excellent coffee, eat amazing food, wander around the Old Hanoi for days and ride on the back of motorbikes (without a helmet). I was there a few years ago (I think, now, that every member of my family has been to Hanoi) and I loved riding around on motorbikes in the morning, and then wandering around in the afternoon monsoonal rain. I think it was the film Vertical Ray of the Sun that ensured my love of the monsoon.

When I was in Central America recently I met an amazing fellow who had worked as a gamekeeper in South Africa for years and years—he was about to move to Vietnam to help set up marine national parks. The country has a very high level of biodiversity—recently it was reported that a certain giant soft-shell turtle that everyone thought was extinct was found in northern Vietnam. It’s a beautiful country.

On the downside, there are concerns about freedom—in particular, Vietnam does badly in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index. All media in the country has to be sponsored by a Communist Party organization and registered with the government—still, some manage to have less government control than others.

Today’s poem from Vietnam is by Nguyễn Duy and comes from Language for a New Century.


The Father

In this place there are so many
who spent half their life in Viet Bac, the other half among the Truong Son
mountains,
men and women who once ate roots, bamboo shoots for meals
and now make do with taro leaves and wild tendrils.

Their great hopes have turned their skulls white,
their native villages so far away now, like distant seasons.
A lifetime working in sun and rain,
a lifetime walking, and they’ve yet to reach home.

All along the far horizon, families drift off the sleep.
A father old as a thousand hills, a mother old as a hundred rivers.
When the winds come, they’ll have to arc and circles, climb over
the great bends and twists of the forests to get to this place.

— Nguyễn Duy
translated from Vietnamese by Nguyễn Bá Chung and Kevin Bowen
from Language for a New Century