A poetry collection featuring famous Austrian authors has been made available to the Vietnamese public. The launch kicked off a series of activities in Vietnam to mark the upcoming 40^th anniversary of Vietnam – Austria diplomatic ties next year. Through the translation of Quang Chien, Vietnamese readers will know about not only the Austrian modern poetry, but for first time poems on the War in Vietnam via the experience of an Austrian poet.

Translator Quang Chien Photo: evan.vnexpress.net

A poem featuring trees written by poet, writer Erich Fried is one of poetic works in the collection Tu Que Huong Mozart or From Mozart's Homeland. It was 45 years since the work was born, Vietnamese readers have first known about the anti-war poetic verses through the translation by Quang Chien. Erich Fried also has some other famous poems about the War in Vietnam including Mothers in Vietnam telling stories of 19 children killed by US pilots in the northern Hai Phong city and the massacre in My Lai. Apart from works by Erich Fired, the collection also features poems by Nikolaus Lenau, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ingeborg Bachmann, Fanz Kiessling, and Christian Ide Hintze. Translator Chien said Erich Fried deserves the title ‘A poet throws himself for VN’: “While Vietnamese people were fighting the enemy, there was a poet in a very far country who had released a collection of poems about Vietnam entitled ‘And Vietnam and’. The collection created a great echo in the former German Democratic Republic at that time and stirred protest against the indiscriminate destruction of modern warfare”.

Eleven other outstanding poets have also been introduced in this collection with each them representing each development period of the Austrian literature. Thus translator Quang Chien has taken more than a year to collect and translate these poets’ works. Poet, songwriter Nguyen Trong Tao says in order to translate a poem, a translator himself must be a poet and above all, have the same feeling with the author of the poem. According to poet Tao, translator Chien is such a good example. He is one of the first Vietnamese to have been sent to study in the former German Democratic Republic and involved in translation activities for 40 years. Poet, songwriter Nguyen Trong Tao said: “Poem translation perhaps is the most difficult in literature translation. Translation of a poem means the translation of the sentiment, thoughts, the poem’s rhythms and its structure. A qualified translator is the person who helps readers understand how the poet felt when he wrote a poetic work or in other words, readers can nearly access the origin. Translator Quang Chien introduced to Vietnamese readers this collection to express his heart to poetry, the Austrian poetry and even the Austrian culture”.

The collection of From Mozart's Homeland is hoped to take Vnese readers to many other Austrian cultural works in the future. Like in the preface, Austrian Ambassador to Vietnam, Doctor Georg Heindl wrote translation of literature is the most wonderful way to let the two peoples to better understand each other.

Thuy Hang