Văn Hóa category – Page 27 sur 30

Được tuyển dụng cho đến năm 1986 trong công việc vẽ tranh minh họa cho sách giáo khoa tại văn phòng ở Hànội, Nguyễn Huy Thiệp, lợi dụng chính sách mới rộng rãi được gọi là « Đỗi Mới » trong Đại hội thứ 6 của đảng cộng sản Việt Nam mà ông xuất bản tháng giêng năm 1987, tuyển tập đầu tiên của ông có mang tên là “Những cơn gió Hứa Tát” được đăng trên tạp chí uy tín của Hội Nhà văn toàn quốc “Văn nghệ”.

Ông không quá mất nhiều thời gian để được sự thành công. Nhưng phải nói ông được như vậy đấy là nhờ tuyển tập “Tướng về hưu” ra mắt vào tháng 6 năm 1987. Điều này không chỉ gây ra một cơn chấn động trong dư luận của ngừơi Viêt mà còn xem đây là niềm hy vọng được nhìn thấy theo gương ông một thế hệ nhà văn trẻ mới không khoan nhượng, có tính độc lập và phê phán như Phạm Thị Hoài, Bảo Ninh vân vân mà cho đến nay dường như không có tồn tại trong văn học Việt Nam.

Tướng về hưu

Trái tim hổ

Sự báo thù của soái

Ma quỉ sống giữa chúng ta

Chuyện tình kể trong đêm mưa.

Vàng và lửa

Chú Hoạt tôi

Tuổi hai mươi yêu dấu vân vân…

Nhờ các truyện ngắn, Nguyễn Huy Thiệp đã trở thành nhân vật hàng đầu của văn học Việt Nam. Các độc giả của ông, luôn cả những người ở hải ngoại, nhận thấy ở nơi ông không chỉ tài năng của một nhà văn mà còn có sự liều lĩnh dám phá bỏ những điều cấm kỵ và những điều chưa nói được duy trì cho đến bây giờ bởi phong tục và một hệ thống không còn được trọng dụng. Ông hiện được xem là nhà văn vĩ đại nhất của Việt Nam. Với lối viết giản dị, ông dễ dàng làm người đọc nhạy cảm vì ông biết cách sử dụng những ẩn dụ và ám chỉ bằng ngôn ngữ thô thiển của mình để mô tả thực tế ngày nay ở Việt Nam và để nói lên những tha hóa hiện đang hình thành cơ cấu xã hội của đất nước.

Bằng cách lựa chọn những tình huống và các anh hùng tiêu biểu trong truyện ngắn và truyện cổ tích của mình, ông làm chúng ta kinh hãi khám phá ra tất cả những mâu thuẫn của xã hội Việt Nam, tất cả những sự thật không thể chịu đựng nổi, sự hoại tử của cái ác, sự suy sụp của các giá trị đạo đức của một xã hội. Ông ta dám vạch trần sự thất bại của một hệ thống giữa quần chúng, dày vò thân xác xã hội với khiếu hài hước tối tâm và tính hiện thực lạnh lùng của mình. Ông cố gắng cho chúng ta thấy tất cả các khía cạnh của xã hội thông qua những bài viết ngắn gọn và giản dị với tài năng của một người kể chuyện và của một nhà văn, hoàn toàn đoạn tuyệt với nhóm nhà văn có thiện cảm với chế độ.

Nếu ông có thể viết truyện ngắn một cách dễ dàng đáng kinh ngạc, thì điều này phần lớn là nhờ lúc thời thiếu niên, ông sống ở môi trường nông thôn với mẹ và nhờ được sự đào tạo thành nhà sử học mà ông theo học ở Đại học Sư phạm Hà Nội từ năm 1970. Tác phẩm của nhà sử học Trung Quốc Tư Mã Thiên có ảnh hưởng rất lớn đến các bộ sưu tập của ông, đặc biệt là lối viết của ông. Ông từng nói với tờ báo Pháp Libération vào năm 1990: Tôi không tin bạn có thể viết khi bạn đã mất gốc. Ông thích ở lại Việt Nam hơn để có thể viết những tuyển tập của mình, ghi lại sự quan sát của một hệ thống và bày tỏ sự tức giận cũng như nỗi lưu vong ở nội tâm của một người bị đè bẹp bởi nhiều năm bùn lầy, chiến tranh và thiếu thốn. Dù chưa bao giờ tham gia chính trị nhưng ông luôn bị chính quyền Việt Nam nghi ngờ vì quyền tự do ngôn luận của ông khiến bộ máy nhà nước phải lo sợ và ông là hiện thân biểu tượng tâm trạng của cả một dân tộc tìm kiếm một kho tàng đã bị mất và bị đánh cắp.

Tất cả những người đứng ra bảo vệ ông, đặc biệt là giám đốc tạp chí « Văn Nghệ », đều bị sa thải. Còn có cả chiến dịch bôi nhọ ông không ngần ngại trên báo chí chính thống. Ông bị chỉ trích vì ông xuất bản tác phẩm có ba tập mang tính cách lịch sử làm tổn thương vị anh hùng dân tộc Quang Trung qua truyện “Nhân phẩm”. Bất chấp sự kiểm duyệt và lời đe dọa, những tờ báo dũng cảm vẫn tiếp tục xuất bản các tuyển tập của ông cho đến ngày nay, một số trong đó đã xuất hiện bằng tiếng Pháp bởi nhà xuất bản « Aube » ở Pháp.

Những anh hùng trong bộ sưu tập của ông là những người bệnh tâm thần về mặt tình dục, đạo đức và xã hội. Họ là những người bình thường mà những thay đổi thất thường của cuộc sống và hệ thống dẫn đến sự trụy lạc, sỉ nhục, lạm dụng, điên rồ và trục lợi. Trong truyện ngắn “Không Có Vua”, ông già Kiên thích lén lút ngắm nhìn những phụ nữ trẻ khỏa thân, đặc biệt là con dâu Sinh vì ông phải nuôi 5 đứa con nên không có khả năng tái hôn. Ông nói với con trai mình là Đoài khi người này công khai chỉ trích ông. Thật bàng hoàng khi chứng kiến cụ Panh 80 tuổi chết vì đau tim trong truyện ngắn « Vùng đất bị lãng quên » khi cố chặt cây để thực hiện thử thách và có thể cưới được bé gái 14 tuổi người mà ông đã gặp trong thời gian ở Yên Châu. Trong truyện “Tướng về hưu”, người hùng của ông, tướng Thuận không biết kiềm chế khi dám nói trước mặt cấp trên về ba hoạt động hình thành mô hình kinh tế thiết yếu trong hệ thống hiện nay: làm vườn, nuôi cá và vật nuôi trong nhà. Ông ta chuộc lỗi mà ông ta không thể tự bảo vệ mình. Ông ta thích một cái chết vinh quang hơn một cuộc sống ô nhục. Ông được chôn cất với đầy đủ nghi lễ trọng thể trong quân đội. Đây là một người đàn ông tuyệt vời. Ông đã hy sinh vì đất nước trong một lần làm nhiệm vụ, điều mà tướng Chương đã kể lại cho con trai ông. Còn được thấy lợi nhuận và hệ thống bè phái đang phát triển ở mọi tầng lớp và mọi cấp độ ở trong xã hội. Mỗi nước đều có một phong tục riêng, đó là điều ông Thuyết nói với những người thợ xẻ trong truyện ngắn “Những người thợ xẻ”. Tương tự như vậy, con dâu của tướng Thuận, lợi dụng chức danh bác sĩ, chịu trách nhiệm phá và nạo thai, thu hồi lại những bào thai bị bỏ rơi mà mỗi tối cô ta mang về nhà trong bình thermo để nấu lại và cho lợn và chó chăn cừu ăn, hiện nay là nguồn tài chính đáng kể của một gia đình Việt Nam.

Nguyễn Huy Thiệp tiếp tục viết những tuyển tập ngắn của mình với tư cách giận dữ. Tựa như người dân Việt, ông cố gắng tìm ra một giải pháp cho nhu cầu hằng ngày của mình và nhất là mang lại một ý nghĩa cho sự tồn tại của mình cũng như nhân vật tên Quý trong “Thương nhớ đồng quê”: Là một người trí thức thì phải có khả năng mang lại một ý nghĩa cho cuộc sống mà ta đựơc có. Mặc dù có một gia tài quá cay đắng, ông vẫn hài lòng khi ông có được ít nhất niềm an ủi qua các truyện ngắn và cổ tích cùa ông.

Version française

Cantonné jusqu’en 1986 dans le travail de dessin des illustrations pour manuels scolaires dans un bureau des Editions de l’Education à Hanoï, Nguyễn Huy Thiệp, profitant de la nouvelle politique d’ouverture connue sous le nom » Ðỗi Mới « ( Renouveau ) lors du 6ème congrès du parti communiste vietnamien, publia en Janvier 1987 son premier recueil intitulé « Les vents de Hứa Tát » paru dans le journal prestigieux de l’Association des écrivains nationaux « Littérature et Art ».

Son succès ne tarda pas. Mais il le dut surtout à son recueil intitulé « La retraite du général » quand celui-ci parut en Juin 1987. Cela provoqua non seulement un séisme dans l’opinion publique vietnamienne mais aussi un espoir de voir drainer dans son sillage une nouvelle génération de jeunes écrivains ( Phạm Thị Hoài, Bảo Ninh etc.) sans compromission et ayant un esprit d’indépendance et de critique qui semble être quasi inexistant jusqu’alors dans la littérature vietnamienne.

Un général à la retraite
Le cœur du tigre
La vengeance du loup
Les démons vivent parmi nous.
Conte d’amour. Un soir de pluie
L’or et le feu
Mon oncle Hoat
A nos vingt ans etc.

Grâce à ses recueils de nouvelles, Nguyễn Huy Thiệp devint du jour au lendemain la figure de proue de la littérature vietnamienne. Ses lecteurs y compris ceux de la diaspora retrouvèrent en lui non seulement le talent d’un écrivain mais aussi l’audace de briser le tabou et le non-dit entretenus jusqu’alors par les coutumes et par un système tombé en désuétude. On le considère actuellement comme le plus grand écrivain vietnamien. Avec son style très sobre, il arrive à sensibiliser facilement le lecteur car il sait se servir des métaphores et des allusions avec son langage cru pour décrire la réalité d’aujourd’hui du Vietnam et celle de toutes les aliénations formant actuellement le tissu social du pays.

En sélectionnant des situations et des héros types dans ses nouvelles et ses contes, il nous fait découvrir avec effroi toutes les contradictions de la société vietnamienne, toutes les vérités insupportables, le gangrène du Mal, l’effondrement des valeurs morales d’une société. Il ose déballer sur la place publique la débâcle d’un système, fouailler la chair sociale avec son humour noir et son réalisme glacial. Il arrive à nous montrer toutes les facettes de la société à travers ses textes brefs et dépouillés avec le talent d’un conteur et celui d’un écrivain en rupture totale avec la génération des écrivains compromis avec le régime. S’il arrive à écrire ses nouvelles avec une facilité étonnante, cela est dû en grande partie à sa jeunesse qu’il a vécue dans le milieu rural avec sa mère et à sa formation d’historien qu’il a suivie à Hanoï dans l’université de Pédagogie à partir de 1970. L’œuvre de l’historien chinois Si Ma Qian (Tư Mã Thiên) a influé énormément sur ses recueils, en particulier sur son style. Il a déclaré un jour en 1990 au journal français Libération: Je ne crois pas qu’on puisse écrire quand on est déraciné. Il a préféré rester au Viêt-Nam dans le but de pouvoir écrire ses recueils, de relever le constat d’un système et d’exprimer la colère et l’exil intérieur d’un être broyé par des années de boue, de guerre et de privations. Bien qu’il ne fasse jamais de politique, il est toujours suspect aux yeux des autorités vietnamiennes car sa parole libre fait trembler les appareils de l’état et il incarne l’expression symbolique de l’état d’âme de tout un peuple à la quête d’un trésor perdu et volé.

Tous ceux qui ont pris sa défense en particulier le directeur de la revue Văn Nghệ ont été limogés. On n’a pas hésité à lancer dans le passé une campagne de dénigrement dans la presse officielle. On lui reprocha la publication de la trilogie à argument historique qui portait atteinte au héros national Quang Trung à travers l’œuvre « Dignité ». Malgré la censure, les menaces et les intimidations, les journaux courageux continuent à publier aujourd’hui ses recueils dont certains sont déjà parus en français aux éditions de l’Aube.

Les héros de ses recueils sont des êtres aliénés sexuellement, moralement et socialement. Ce sont des gens ordinaires que les aléas de la vie et le système précipitent dans la perversion, l’humiliation, l’abus, la folie et le profit. Dans « Il n’y a pas de roi », le vieux Kiên préfère reluquer en douce sur les jeunes femmes à poil, en particulier sa bru Sinh car à cause de ses 5 enfants qu’il est obligé de nourrir et d’élever, il n’a pas le moyen de se remarier, ce qu’il dit à son fils Ðoai lorsque ce dernier l’a critiqué ouvertement. C’est choquant de voir mourir d’une crise cardiaque dans « La terre oubliée » un homme âgé de 80 ans, Panh qui a tenté d’abattre un arbre pour relever le défi et pour pouvoir épouser une jeune fille de 14 ans qu’il a connue lors de son passage à Yên Châu. Dans » Un général à la retraite », son héros, le général retraité Thuận ne sait pas retenir sa parole en osant parler devant son supérieur des trois activités formant le modèle économique indispensable dans le système actuel: le jardinage, l’élevage des poissons et des animaux domestiques. Il expie une faute dont il n’a pas su se préserver. Il préfère une mort honorable à la vie ignominieuse. On l’a enterré avec tous les honneurs militaires. C’est un grand homme. Il est mort pour la patrie au cours d’une mission, ce que le général Chương a dit à son fils. On voit se développer à toutes les couches de la société et à tous les niveaux le profit et le copinage. A chaque pays, ses coutumes, ce qu’a dit Mr Thuyết à ses employés scieurs dans la nouvelle « les scieurs de long ». De même, la bru du général Thuận, profitant de son rôle médecin, chargé des avortements et des curetages, récupère les fœtus abandonnés qu’elle ramène à la maison tous les soirs dans une bouteille Thermos pour les faire cuire et pour nourrir les cochons et les chiens bergers constituant actuellement une ressource financière non négligeable pour une famille vietnamienne.

Nguyễn Huy Thiệp continue à croquer rageusement le Viêtnam avec ses recueils et ses contes. Comme les gens du Vietnam, il essaie de trouver une solution à ses besoins quotidiens et de donner surtout un sens, une signification à son existence comme son héros Mr Quý dans « Nostalgie de la Campagne (Thương Nhớ Ðồng Quê) »: Être intellectuel c’est être capable de donner un sens à la vie qu’on mène. Malgré un héritage amer, il se contente d’avoir néanmoins sa consolation à travers ses récits et ses contes.

Literature (Văn chương)

j050807 Littérature, Văn Hóa décembre 8, 2016mars 10, 2025culture, littérature

French version

Vietnam possesses an important literature, ancient as well as modern. Because of Chinese influence, the ancient literature was written in Chinese characters. It was only in about 13th century that the « nôm » began to replace the Chinese characters. Although the « nom » remains the expression of the common Vietnamese, it supposes the mastering of classical Chinese penmanship and the Vietnamese pronunciation of Chinese characters.

The Vietnamese literature tried to develop and freed itself from the Chinese model since 15th century, not only in style but also in theme. Nguyễn Trãi is one of the poets the most known by Vietnamese people. We owe him a collection of 254 poems in national language ( Quốc Âm Thi Tập ), whose translation into French language under the direction of P. Schneider is found in the Edition of CNRS, 1978, Paris. Nguyễn Trãi famous was his Bình Ngô Ðại Cáo ( Great Proclamation of The Pacification of The Ngô ). It is one of the most beautiful monuments of the Vietnamese literature.

But the most famous poems remain Chinh phu ngâm of poetess Ðoàn Thị Ðiểm and Kim Vân Kiều of Nguyễn Du ( 1756-1820 ). The latter composed during his retirement a novel composed of 3254 verses which symbolises for the majority of Vietnamese the heart and soul of the nation .

Everyone of Vietnamese knows it or many parts of it by heart. It is important to note that this masterpiece of the Vietnamese literature is also one of the masterpieces of world literature.

It is a poignant love story adapted from a Chinese novel, depicting an abundance of thoughts on the meaning of life, war, love and above all the purity of the soul inaccessible to bodily taints. The three key characters in this novel are Kim, Vân and Kiều. Separated from Kim by cruel circumstances and after so many years of suffering and humiliation, Kiều was rescued from suicide by fishermen who fished her from the river where she had wanted to drown herself. Following is an excerpt of this novel that describes the reunion of Kim and Kieu at the temple where she had spent her peaceful days.

In the joy of their reunion, they are moved by thought of their love of days before,
From the time their youth blossomed, tender like a lotus, delicious like a peach,
Fifteen years have gone by and now the dream has come true.

The detachment from the Chinese models has been accelerated by the development of the « quốc ngữ » ( Vietnamese writing in Roman alphabet ) favored by the colonization. In 1932, motivated by Nguyễn Tường Tam also known as Nhat Linh, writing club Tự Lực Văn Ðoàn was founded. This movement endeavored itself to the creation of a national literature starting from traditional bases and the most acceptable foreign influences. It relied on a review called Ngày Nay whose editors team was made of known writers such as Khái Hưng, Thạch Lam, Thế Lữ etc..

The Vietnamese literature written in French began with Phạm Quỳnh through articles of reflection on Vietnamese culture and the difficulty of dialogue between eastern and western cultures. Phạm Duy Khiêm published legends and an autobiographic novel. Phạm Văn Ky elicited in a profound manner the dialogue of the East and the West in his romanesque works ( Blood Brothers, 1947; Those Who Will Reign, 1954 etc.). While historical evolution and mostly the war seemed to drain that literature, the arrival in France of several refugees has revived a literature of witnessing ( Kim Lefèvre ) and also one in search of identity.

Independent literary group (Tự Lực văn đoàn)
Hồ Xuân Hương poetess
Nguyễn Huy Thiệp

Independent Literary group (Tự lực văn đoàn)

j050807 Anglais, Littérature, Traditions, Văn Hóa décembre 7, 2016septembre 24, 2022

French version

Hoàng Đạo
Thế Lữ
Thạch Lam
Xuân Diệu
Tú Mỡ
Trần Tiêu etc…

Titles of best-known novels

Hồn Bướm Mơ Tiên (1933)
Nữa Chừng Xuân (1934)
Ðoạn Tuyệt (1935)
Trống Mái (1936)
Lạnh Lùng (1937)
Tiêu Sơn Tráng sĩ (1937)
Thoát Ly (1938)
Tắt đèn (1939)
Bướm Trắng (1941)

Articles founded on the Net

Anh phải sống (1937)

Tiểu sữ Tự Lực Văn Đoàn 1930-1945

It is regrettable not to see appearing Nhất Linh et Khá’i Hưng’s names in today’s school curriculum or in anthologies published recently in foreign languages in Vietnam. However, they are the two best Vietnamese novelists at the dawn of 20th century.

People continue to look for and tear off rare issues published in South Vietnam before 1975. In spite of their selected topics generally relating to love, sentimental twists, dramas of the middle-class etc… at colonial time, they however continue to gain unanimous admiration of Vietnamese youth today, in particular of young Vietnamese living abroad because their writings are carrying not only a more or less occidentalized culture but also a purely Vietnamese romanticism. They succeeded in bringing to their works an innovative style, in using a simple vocabulary free of Sino-Vietnamese words perceived by Vietnamese young people as erudite words, and in approaching topics capable of adhering the youth: love-sacrifice, impossible love, vagueness in the soul etc…with a Cornelian glance as well as with Alfred de Musset’s romantic manner.

« Hồn Bướm Mơ Tiên » (or Heart of a Butterfly in a Dream of Immortality), » Nữa Chừng Xuân » ( or Mid-Spring ), « Ðoạn Tuyệt » ( or Rupture ,), « Anh Phải Sống » ( or You Must Live ) etc… continue to be the best-sellers preferred by Vietnamese youth today. It is not surprising to find that the topic of sacrifice approached about fifty years ago by Khai Hung in his works, is taken again recently by a young talented novelist Nguyễn Huy Thiệp in his novel « Chảy đi sông ơi » ( or Run! Run! Oh River ) in spite of a completely different political context.

In their writings, one finds not only modern use of clauses, adverbs, tense forms that were until then absent in Vietnamese prose, but also the use of personal pronouns. The « I, me » make their way in, with words like « anh », « em », « mình », « cậu » that had not been used before in a sentence. It is noticed in the construction of their sentences a great economy of means, an unprecedented clarity, and a great effectiveness.

Coming from urban environment, influenced by the French culture since their younger age, they are unsurprisingly found inspired in their works by the models of Musset, Lamartine, Daudet, etc…when it is known that these French writers’ works formed part of the teaching curriculum at French lycee Albert Sarraut ( Hà-Nội ) where Khai Hung took his classes at colonial time. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1927 and taught at Thăng Long high school when Nhất Linh returned to Vietnam in 1930 after four years of scientific studies from France

His encounter with Khái Hưng at Thăng Long high school has overnight made them a famous and inseparable couple. They founded together the writing club Tự Lực Vân Ðoàn ( or Self-Sufficient Literary Group ) in 1933. Khái Hưng, who was nine years older than Nhất Linh, was however regarded as the « second » of this couple and was given the pseudonym of » Nhị Linh » because Nhất Linh had already been author of two novels in 1926 and 1927. They acquired the merit of having brought clarity, concision, modernity to the Vietnamese literature and especially of knowing how to give to this modernity the soul of Vietnamese romanticism.

Contrary to other novelists of their time ( Vũ Trọng Phụng, Ngô Tất Tố for example), they did not have a critical view on social inequalities, virtues, and rural customs. They did not know how to help in fighting and denouncing these inequalities. But on the other hand, they tried to depict the most disfranchised social layer with much fineness and accuracy without having to defend it with horn and fanfare.

Is it why they are reproached of lacking combativeness and realism, tepidity in their manner of depicting the reality of urban society, and being influenced by western culture? It is certain that the episode of Musset’s Tales could be used as model by Khái Hưng because the heroine in the novel Anh Phải Sống, the young wife of the Vietnamese mason Thuc, let herself drowned in the flood like Madame des Arcis in the tales « Pierre et Camille » of Alfred de Musset in 1844. But Khái Hưng knew how to give his heroine the nobility and grandeur in the Vietnamese tradition.

Neither could be doubful their patriotism, their political involvement in Vietnamese nationalist movements. Because of their nationalist political orientation and especially their simple idealism, both have perished respectively like their heroines in Khái Hưng’s Anh Phải Sống ( You Must Live ) and in Nhất Linh »s « A Silhouette in the Fog ». Khái Hưng has deceased in 1947 under mysterious conditions near the Cửa Gà dock, in the district of Xuân Trường ( Hà Nam Ðịnh provine ) while Nhất Linh, disappointed for being misunderstood, took his life with poison on July 7, 1963 in Saigon.

Both of them tried to live their lives the way their heroines did with an exemplary stoicism. The literary heritage they left to the Vietnamese people is priceless. In a word, they are not only the pioneers of modern literature of Vietnam but also the most romantic novelists that Vietnam has ever known.

Groupe littéraire indépendant (Tự lực văn đoàn)

j050807 Français, Langue, Littérature, Văn Hóa décembre 7, 2016septembre 24, 2022

English version

Hoàng Đạo
Thế Lữ
Thạch Lam
Xuân Diệu
Tú Mỡ
Trần Tiêu etc…

Titres des romans connus

Articles trouvés sur le Net
Anh phải sống (1937)

Tiểu sữ Tự Lực Văn Đoàn 1930-1945

Il est regrettable de ne pas voir figurer les noms de Nhất Linh et Khái Hưng dans les programmes d’enseignement d’aujourd’hui ou dans les anthologies publiées récemment en langues étrangères au Vietnam. Pourtant, ce sont les deux meilleurs romanciers vietnamiens à l’aube du XXème siècle.

On continue à chercher et à s’arracher les rares rééditions parues au Sud-Vietnam d’avant 1975. Malgré leurs thèmes choisis portant d’une manière générale sur l’amour, sur les contorsions sentimentales, sur les drames de la bourgeoisie latifundiaire etc.. à l’époque coloniale, ils continuent à bénéficier pourtant de l’admiration unanime de la jeunesse vietnamienne d’aujourd’hui, en particulier de celle des jeunes Vietnamiens vivant à l’étranger car leurs écrits sont porteurs non seulement d’une culture plus ou moins occidentalisée mais aussi d’un romantisme purement vietnamien. Ils ont réussi à apporter à leurs œuvres un style novateur, à utiliser un vocabulaire simple débarrassé de tous les mots sino-vietnamiens perçus par les jeunes vietnamiens comme des mots savants, à aborder des thèmes susceptibles d’avoir l’adhésion de la jeunesse: l’amour-sacrifice, l’amour impossible, le vague à l’âme etc.. avec un regard à la fois cornélien et romantique à la manière d’Alfred Musset.

« Hồn Bướm Mơ Tiên« (ou Âme de papillon dans un rêve d’immortalité », « Nữa Chừng Xuân » (ou A mi-printemps) » « Ðoạn Tuyệt ( ou La Rupture ) », « Anh phải sống ( ou Tu Dois Vivre ) » etc … continuent à être les best-sellers préférés par la jeunesse vietnamienne d’aujourd’hui. Il n’est pas étonnant de trouver que le thème du sacrifice abordé, il y a eu une cinquantaine d’années, par Khái Hưng dans son oeuvre, est repris récemment par le jeune romancier talentueux « Nguyễn Huy Thiệp » dans son roman Chảy đi sông ơi (ou Coule, coule ô fleuve) malgré un contexte politique tout à fait différent.

On trouve non seulement dans leurs écrits la modernité au niveau d’emploi des propositions, d’adverbes, d’indicateurs de temps qui étaient absents jusqu’alors dans la prose vietnamienne mais aussi au niveau d’emploi des pronoms personnels. Le « moi » fait son entrée ainsi que les mots « anh », « em », « mình », »cậu » qui, auparavant n’étaient pas employés dans la phrase. On note aussi dans la construction de leurs phrases une grande économie des moyens, une clarté inouïe et une grande efficacité.

Issus du milieu urbain, imprégnés dès leur plus jeune âge de la culture française, il n’est pas étonnant de trouver qu’ils s’inspirent dans leurs oeuvres des modèles de Musset, Lamartine, Daudet etc.. lorsqu’on sait que les œuvres de ces écrivains français firent partie du programme d’études au lycée français Albert Sarraut ( Hà-Nội ) où Khái Hưng fit ses études à l’époque coloniale. Il fut reçu bachelier en 1927 et enseigna au collège Thăng Long tandis que Nhất Linh rentra au Vietnam en 1930 après avoir suivi ses quatre années d’études scientifiques en France.

Sa rencontre avec Khái Hưng au collège Thăng Long fit d’eux du jour au lendemain un couple littéraire célèbre et inséparable. Ils fondèrent ensemble le club Tự Lực Văn Ðoàn (ou Groupe Littéraire indépendant) en 1933. Khái-Hưng, plus âgé que Nhất-Linh de neuf ans, se considérait pourtant comme le « second » de ce couple et se donnait comme pseudonyme « Nhị Linh » car Nhất-Linh était déjà l’auteur de deux romans en 1926 et 1927. Ils ont eu le mérite d’apporter à la littérature vietnamienne la clarté, la concision, la modernité et de savoir donner surtout à cette dernière l’âme du romantisme vietnamien.

Contrairement à d’autres romanciers de leur époque (Vũ Trọng Phụng, Ngô Tất Tố par exemple), ils n’avaient pas un regard aussi aigu sur les inégalités sociales, sur les mœurs et les coutumes rurales. Ils n’avaient pas su s’en servir pour combattre et dénoncer ces inégalités. Par contre, ils tentaient de dépeindre avec beaucoup de finesse et de justesse la couche sociale la plus déshéritée sans être obligés de la défendre à cor et à cri.

Est -ce pour cela qu’on leur reproche le manque de combativité et de réalisme, la tiédeur dans leur manière de dépeindre les réalités de la société urbaine et l’imprégnation d’une culture à l’occidentale. Il est certain que l’épisode des Contes de Musset a pu servir de modèle à Khái-Hưng car l’héroïne de la nouvelle « Anh Phải Sống« , la jeune femme du maçon vietnamien Thức, se laissa couler dans les flots comme Madame des Arcis des Contes « Pierre et Camille » d’Alfred de Musset en 1844. Mais Khái-Hưng a eu le mérite de savoir donner à sa héroïne la noblesse et la grandeur dans la tradition vietnamienne.

On ne peut pas remettre en doute non plus leur patriotisme, leur engagement politique auprès des mouvements nationalistes vietnamiens. A cause de leurs orientations politiques nationalistes et surtout à cause de leur simple idéalisme, tous les deux ont péri comme leurs héroïnes respectives dans « Tu dois Vivre » de Khái Hưng et dans » Une silhouette dans la brume » de Nhất Linh. Khái-Hưng est décédé en 1947 dans des conditions mystérieuses près du débarcadère Cửa Gà dans le district de Xuân Trường ( province Hà Nam Ðịnh) tandis que Nhất Linh, déçu d’être incompris, s’empoisonna le 7 Juillet 1963 à Saïgon.

Leur vie, tous les deux ont essayé de la mener comme leurs héroïnes avec un stoïcisme exemplaire. Leur héritage littéraire qu’ils ont laissé au peuple vietnamien est inestimable. En un mot, ce sont non seulement les pionniers de la littérature moderne du Vietnam mais aussi les romanciers les plus romantiques que le Vietnam ait connus.

Being young (Thiếu niên)

j050807 Anglais, Langue, Traditions, Văn Hóa décembre 6, 2016mars 27, 2025

French version

Vietnamese version

In spite of the war which devastated this country for so many years, the Vietnamese young people continue to crave for life. That amazes enormously those who do not know Vietnam. In this country, » Being Young » concerns always boldness because the living conditions are extremely hard and nature is also extremely rude and pitiless, in particular for those who live in the North and on the Central highlands. It is necessary to know how to resist bravely the forces of nature but it is also necessary to learn how to live with wild creatures, tricking them and fighting them.

One also starts to work very young in Vietnam. From their youth in rural areas, boys tend buffaloes, make them feed on small floodbanks while girls help in the household chores. Very young, from six or seven years old, they know how to cook rice, carry their little brothers, feed the pigs and ducks, carry drinking water to the familiar animals or taking part in family artisanal work. During the years when the war was at its height, young people were also assigned to dig trenches along the small floodbanks to throw themselves in when airplanes approached, live in undergrounds and tunnels to escape the bombings. Girls have twice as much work as boys. It was they who were the first being proposed and sold like slaves or concubines for a few kilos of rice when one could not manage any more to feed a family of several children in the years 30’s and 40’s. Ngô Tất Tố, in his novel » When The Lamp Dies Out « , appeared in 1930, reminds us this reality. To pay a corrupt official, a country-woman had to sell her daughter for one piastre.

Nowadays, even this practice is prohibited, one nevertheless notes a great number of young female prostitutes on the streets of big cities. There, in spite of free education, many of young people must work on little jobs such as selling cigarettes or newspapers, collecting plastic bags etc… , to provide for the subsistence of their families. The living conditions are also distressing. Many young people coming from families afflicted by poverty and war continue to always crawl in tangles of badly erected huts that are dark and terribly dirty. There would be 67000 slums in Saigon at the end of 1994. It is the number maintained by the authorities and published by the press. One still finds the scenes described by novelist Khái Hưng in his work entitled » The Gutters » ( Ðầu Ðường Xó Chợ ) with pavements and drains encumbered permanently with vegetable peelings, sheets of banana tree leaves and scraps of rags in the poor districts of the big cities.
Facing the indifference of society, novelist Duyen Anh did not hesitate to denounce the indigence of these young people in his novels, among which the most known remains the best-seller « The Hill of The Phantoms ». Inspired by this novel, movie maker Rachid Bouchareb recalled the history of the « Amerasians » who pay the price of the madness of the adults and the war in his film » Dust of Life » in 1994.

In spite of the deficiencies of life, one likes to be young in this country because, if there are no mountains of toys and gifts which submerge our children in the west as Christmas approaches, there are on the other hand popular games, unforgettable memories of childhood. In the countryside, one could go fishing in rice fields and placing hoop nets in the streams to catch shrimps and small fish. One could hunt butterflies and dragonflies with traps made with the stems of bamboo. One could climb trees to seek bird’s nests. Hunting the crickets remained the preferred game of the majority of Vietnamese young people.

She did not hesistate to point out her Indochinese childhood in her novel « The places » : My brother and I did not spend whole days in the trees but in the woods and on the rivers, on what is called the racs ( rạch ), these small streams that go down towards the sea. We never put on our shoes, we lived half naked, we bathed in the river.

In this country where the war devastated so much and where thirteen million tons of bombs and sixty million liters of defoliants were poured, being young in the years 60-75 was already a favor of destiny. The young people of Vietnam today no longer know the fear and the hatred of their elders but they continue to have an uncertain future. In spite of that, in their look, there is always a gleam of intense life, a glimmer of hope. It is what is often called » the magic of Vietnamese childhood and youth « .

It is necessary to be young in this country to have such an attachment, an impression always poignant.

Nguyễn Trãi (Version anglaise)

j050807 Histoire, Lịch sử, Văn Hóa, Vietnam décembre 2, 2016mars 25, 2025Nguyễn Trãi, Vietnam

French version

Vietnamese version

I would like to give to this great Vietnamese politician a great homage by slightly modifying the two verses he composed in his poem « Improvisation » translated into French by Nguyễn Khắc Viện in Anthology of the Vietnamese Literature:

A thousand Autumns have passed, water keeps its face
A thousand generations have watched the moon similar to itself;

by my two following verses:

A thousand Autumns have passed, Vietnam keeps its independence
A thousand generations have venerated Nguyễn Trãi similar to himself.

One can sum up the life of this great politician by means of verse 3248 of the Vietnamese literature great classical of Nguyễn Du in 18th century:

Chữ Tài liền với chữ Tai một vần
The word Tài (Talent) rhymes perfectly with the word Tai ( Misfortune ).

to evoke not only his incredible talent but also his tragic end regretted by so many Vietnamese generations. Facing the brutal force that represented emperor Chenzu of the Ming ( Minh Thánh Tổ ) under the command of Tchang Fou ( Trương Phụ ) during his invasion of Đại Việt ( ancient name of Vietnam) in the ninth month of the year Binh Tuất (1406), Nguyễn Trãi knew how to give what Lao Tseu had said in the Book of Life and Virtue:

Nothing is more supple and soft in the world than water
However to attack what is hard and strong
Nothing surpass it and nobody can match it.
That the weak surpasses the strong
That the supple surpasses the hard
Everyone knows.
But nobody put this knowledge into practice

a tremendous conceptualization and elaborated an ingenious strategy allowing the Vietnamese, weak in number to come out victorious during that confrontation and regain their national independence after 10 years of struggle. With the landowner Lê Lợi, known later as Lê Thái Tổ and 16 comrades-in-arms tied by a pledge at Lung Nhai (1406 ), and 2000 peasants at mount Lam Sơn in the mountainous region West of Thanh Hoá, Nguyễn Trãi arrived at turning the insurrection into a war of liberation and converting a band of ill-armed peasants into a people’s army of 200,000 men strong a few years later.

The strategy known as « guerilla » was shown very effective because Nguyen Trai was successful in putting into practice the doctrine advocated by the Chinese Clausewitz, Sun Zi (Tôn Tữ) in the Spring and Autumn ( Xuân Thu ) era, based on the following variables: Virtue, Time, Land , Leadership, and Discipline in the conduct of the war. Nguyễn Trãi had an opportunity to say he preferred winning the heart of the people to citadels . When there is harmony between the leaders and the people, the latter will accept to fight until their last breath. The cause will be heard and won because Heaven takes side with the people, which Confucius had the opportunity to recall in his Canonical Books:

Thiên căng vụ dân, dân chi sở dục, thiên tất tòng chí
Trời thương dân, dân muốn điều gì Trời cũng theo
Heaven loves people so much it grants what people ask for.

One can say that with Nguyễn Trai, the humanist inclination of Confucian doctrine has taken its full development. To make sure of the support and adhesion of the people in his war for independence, he did not hesitate to take advantage of his people’s superstition and credulity. He asked his close relations to climb up trees and use toothpicks and honey to carve the following sentence on the leaves.

Lê Lợi vì dân, Nguyễn Trãi vì thân
Lê Lợi for the people, Nguyễn Trãi for Lê Lợi

This attracted ants to eat the honey leaving the message marked on the leaves which were blown off by the wind into streams and other bodies of water. When people picked up the leaves as such, they believed that the message came from the will of Heaven and massively joined he war of liberation.

Humanist by conviction, he always thought not only of the sufferings of his people but also that of his enemies. He had the opportunity to emphasize in his letter to Chinese General Wang Toung ( Vương Thông ) that the duty of a commander is to dare make a decision, undo hatred, save human lives and cover the world with good deeds in order to bequeath a great name to posterity ( Quân Trung Từ Mệnh Tập ). He let defeated Chinese generals Wang Toung ( Vương Thông ), Mã Anh, Fang Chen ( Phương Chính ) go back to their country with 13000 captured soldiers, 500 junks and thousands of horses. Concerned about peace and the happiness of his people, in his masterpiece « Proclamation of the Ngô Pacification » ( Bình Ngô Ðại Cáo ) that he wrote after winning the war and driving the Chinese army out of Vietnam, he recalled that it was the time to act with wisdom for the safety of the people.

To make China not to feel humiliated by the bitter defeat and to restore above all a long lasting peace and happiness for his people, he proposed China a vassal pact with a tribute of two real-sized statues in fine metal every three years ( Ðại thần kim nhân ) in compensation for the two Chinese generals Liou Cheng ( Liễu Thăng ) and Leang Minh ( Lương Minh ) who died in combat.

In the first years of the struggle, Nguyễn Trãi knew biting and bleeding defeats many times (the death of Lê Lai, Ðinh Lễ etc… ), which forced him to take refuge at Chi Linh three times with Lê Lợi and his partisans. Despite of that, he never felt discouraged because he knew that the people fully supported him. He often compare the people with the ocean. Nguyễn Trãi had the opportunity to tell his close relations:

Dân như nước có thể chở mà có thể lật thuyền.
The people is like water which can move and sink the ship.

The remark made by his father Nguyễn Phi Khanh, captured and brought to China with other educated Vietnamese including Nguyễn An, the future builder of the forbidden Citadel in Peking, during their separation moment at the Sino-Vietnamese border, continued to be vivid in his mind and made him ever more determined in his unwavering conviction for the his just cause:

Hữu qui phục Quốc thù, khóc hà vi dã
Hãy trở về mà trả thù cho nước, khóc lóc làm gì
You’d better go back and avenge the country, it doesn’t help crying.

He spent whole nights in search of a strategy permitting to counter the Chinese army at the zenith of its force and terror. Being updated on the dissensions within the ranks of its adversaries, the difficulty that emperor Xuanzong of the Ming was having at the northern border with the Hungs after the disappearance of Chengzu in 1424 and the damages that the Chinese army suffered during the last military engagements in spite of their territorial success, Nguyễn Trãi did not hesitate to propose a truce to general Ma Ki. The truce was voluntarily accepted by both sides because each side thought they could take advantage of this respite either to consolidate their army in waiting for reinforcements from Kouang Si and Yunnan and a larger scale military engagement ( for the Ming ), or to rebuild an army already suffering important losses of lives and to change the strategy in the struggle for liberation ( for the Viet ).

Taking advantage of the unfamiliarity of the terrain by the Chinese reinforcing army coming from China, he was fast in his maneuvering putting into work the » the full and the void » doctrine advocated by Sun Zi who had said in his work « The Art of War »:

The arm must be similar to water
Since water avoids heights and falls into hollows,
The army avoids the full and attacks the void.

which permitted him to decapitate Liou Cheng and his army in the « void » of Chi Lăng defined by Sun Zi, in the mountainous and quagmire narrow pass near Lang Son. He did not give any respite to Liou Cheng’s successor, Leang Minh to regroup the remainder of his Chinese army by setting a trap around the city of Cần Trạm. Then he took advantage of the success to rout the reinforcing army of the Chinese general ( Mộc Thanh ), which force the latter to drive off and go back alone to Yunnan ( Vân Nam )

Fearing to lose the bulk of his troops in a confrontation and worrying about saving the blood of his people, he chose to implement the policy of isolating big cities such as Nghệ An, Tây Ðô, Đồng Quan ( ancient name of the capital Hànội ) by investing all forts and small cities surrounding them, by incessantly harassing the supply troops and by neutralizing all reinforcing Chinese troops. In order to prevent the eventual return of the invaders and to disorganize their administrative structure, he placed in the liberated cities a new administration led by young and educated recruits. He did not stop sending emissaries to Chinese or Vietnamese governors of these towns to convince them to surrender under penalty of being brought to justice and sentenced to death in case of resistance. This turned out to be fruitful and rewarding because it compelled generalissimo Wang Toung and his lieutenants to surrender unconditionally as he was aware that it was impossible to hang on to Ðồng Quang any longer without reinforcement and supply. It was not only a war of liberation but also a war of nerves that Nguyen Trai has successfully conducted against the Ming.

Independence regained, he was appointed Minister of the Interior and member of the Secret Council. Known for his righteousness, he was fast to become the privileged target of the courtesans of king Lê Thái Tổ who began to take offense at his prestige. Feeling the risk of having the same fate reserved for his comrade in arms Trần Nguyên Hản and imitating the Chinese senior advisor Zhang Liang ( Trương Lương or Trương Tử Phòng ) of Han Emperor Liu Bang ( Lưu Bang or Hán Cao Tổ ), he requested king Lê Lợi to allow him to retire to mount Côn Sơn, a place he had spent his whole youth with his grand father Trần Nguyên Ðán, a former great minister regent of the Tran king, Trần Phế Ðế and the great grand son of general Trần Quang Khải, one of the Vietnamese heroes in the struggle against the Mongols of Kubilai Khan.

It was here that he wrote a series of composed writings that recalled not only his profound attachment to nature which he made a confidant of, but also his ardent desire to give up honors and glory and to regain serenity. It was also through his poems that one finds in him a profound humanism, an extraordinary simplicity, an exemplary wisdom and an inclination to retreat and solitude. There, he has insisted that a man’s life lasted only one hundred years at the most. Sooner or later one will return to sand and dust. What counts in a man is his dignity and honor such as a blue blanket ( symbol of dignity ) that had been defended energetically by the learned Chinese Vương Hiền Chi of the Tsin dynasty during the intrusion of a burglar to his home, in his poem » Improvisation on a Summer day » ( Hạ Nhật Mạn Thành ) or his freedom such as that of the two Chinese hermits Sào Phú and Hua Dzo of the Antiquity in his poem » The Côn Sơn Song » ( Côn Sơn Ca ).

In spite of his early retirement, he was accused of killing the king a few years later and was tortured in 1442 with all his family members because of the death of he young king Lê Thái Tông, in love with his young concubine Nguyễn Thị Lộ and accompanied by her to the lichee garden. One knows everything except the human heart that stays unfathomable, that was what he said in his poem « Improvisation » ( Mạn Thuật ) but that was what happened to him in spite of his foresight. His memory was restored only a few dozen years later by the great king Lê Thánh Tôn. One can keep in this scholar not only the love he always carried for his people and his country but also the respect he always knew how to keep toward his adversaries and nature. To this talented learned Vietnamese, his memory should be honored by quoting the phrase that Yveline Féray wrote in the foreword of her novel « Ten thousand Springs« :

The tragedy of Nguyễn Trãi is that of a so great man living in a too little society

The challenge (Thách Thức)

j050807 Histoire, Littérature, Traditions, Văn Hóa novembre 28, 2016avril 22, 2025littérature, traditions, Vietnam

The challenge

French version
Vietnamese version

This word is not unfamiliar to the Vietnamese. On the contrary, it is synonymous to perseverance, resistance, ingenuity and confrontation for these frail people whose feet have been burried in the rice fields’ mud since the dawn of time. They never stop at taking up, from generation to generation, the challenge incessantly imposed by the excesses of a harsh and inhospitable nature and by the Midle Empire, their big brother and hereditary enemy at the border. The Vietnamese dedicated to the latter a surprising admiration but at the same time pledged an implacable resistance in the goal of keeping their national independence and cultural traits. China has many times tried to assimilate Vietnam during its millennial domination but it succeeded in blurring the particularities without making them disappear completely. It was quick to be aware of that, because on any favorable occasion, the Vietnamese displayed their resistance and difference. They even tried to confront the Chinese in the field of literature. That has been reported in a great number of accounts that keep on to be plentiful up until now in the history of Vietnamese literature.

According to what was said, after having succeeded in putting down the revolt of the two sisters Trưng Trắc Trưng Nhị and pacifying Giao Chỉ ( ancient country of the Viet ), Chinese General Ma Viện( MaYuan ) of the Han dynasty erected in 43 at the Sino-Vietnamese border a pillar several meters high bearing the following notice:

Ðồng trụ triệt, Giao Chỉ diệt
Ðồng trụ ngã, Giao Chỉ bị diệt.

Vietnam would disappear forever with the fall of this pillar.

To avoid the pillar’s fall, the Vietnamese tried to strengthen it by throwing, as they walked by, a piece of soil around that huge column, and thus progressively helped in building a mound making the mythical pillar disappear.

To be ironic about the Vietnamese’s fear and worry of losing their country, the Ming emperor did not hesitate to use unfriendly terms to arrogantly tell the Vietnamese envoy Giang Văn Minh ( 1582-1639 ) during a reception:

Ðồng trụ chí kim đài dĩ lục

This Bronze pillar is now buried in green moss

to remind Giang Văn Minh of the putting down of the Trung sisters’ revolt and the pacifiaction of his country by the Chinese. Remaining unruffled, Giang Văn Minh responded with a surprising insight and an energetic and courageous determination:

Ðằng giang tự cổ huyết do hồng
That Ðằng river was then blended with red blood.

This was not the first time such a litterary competition took place. Under the reign of king Lê Ðại Hành ( The Great Expediter ), monk Lạc Thuận had an opportunity to catch the admiration of Chinese ambassador Li Jiao ( Lý Giác ) whom he helped cross the river by posing as a boatman.

He was quick to complete the four-versed poem started first by Li Jiao who saw two wild geese playing on the water wave crests:

Ngỗng ngỗng hai con ngỗng
Ngữa mặt nhìn trời xanh
Goose, goose, the two geese
Looking up the blue sky they tease

by the following two verses:

Nước biếc phô lông trắng
Chèo hồng sóng xanh khua

Bluish green water contrasts white feather
Showing pink feet splitting blue waves over.

It is shown not only the rapidity of monk Lac Thuan’s improvisation but also his ingenuity of placing in parallel the ideas and the words to be used in this four-versed poem.
But obviously credits on the confrontation finally go to to the learned Mạc Ðỉnh Chi because he knew how to show during his stay in China his capability of resistance and his talent of knowing how to cleverly answer all questions s and avoid all traps. He was sent to China (1314) by king Trần Anh Tôn after the latter had defeated the army of Kubilai Khan’s Mongols with general Trần Hưng Ðạo. Because of an unexpected delay, he could not show up on time at the gate of the fort at the Sino-Vietnamese border. The mandarin in charge of the supervision of the fort agreed to open the gate if f only Mạc Ðỉinh Chi could appropriately parallel the mandarin’s sentence containing 4 words « quan ».

Quá quan trì, quan quan bế,
nguyện quá khách quá quan
Qua cữa quan chậm, cữa quan đóng,
mời khách qua đường qua cữa quan.

Late at passing the gate, the mandarin gate is closed,
Passing pedestrian please pass the gate.

Unruffled at this litterary challenge, he replied to the mandarin with a surprising ease by the following sentences:

Xuất đối dị, đối đối nan, thỉnh tiên sinh tiên đối.
Ra câu đối dễ, đối câu đối khó
xin tiên sinh đối trước

Easy to pose the sentence, difficult to parallel it.
Parallel sentence poser please pose first.

It is noted that in this reply, there are not only the word « đối » that is repeated 4 times in parallel with the word « quan », but also the virtuosity of respecting the rhymes and the rules in composing parallel sentences by Mạc Ðỉnh Chi in his verses while making it known to the mandarin the situation he was tangled up with. This enormously pleased the Chinese mandarin who was quick to to open the fort gate and greet him with great pomp. This incident was reported to the Peking court and was fast to bring desire to the best Chinese learned mandarins to measure up with him in literary field.

One day, he was riding his mule in the capital city of Peking. The mule did not go fast enough, which annoyed a Chinese mandarin who followed him on his way. Irritated by the disturbing slowliness, the mandarin turn to him saying with an arrogant and contemptuous tone:

Xúc ngã ky mã, đông di chi nhân dã, Tây di chi nhân dã?
Chạm ngựa ta đi là người rợ phương Ðông hay là người rợ phương Tây?

Slowing my horse is the barbarian from the East or from the West?

That mandarin took what he had learned in the book Mencius ( Mạnh Tử )(1) to refer to the barbarians, those who do not possess the same culture of the Midle Empire by using the words « đông di ». Surprised by the hurting remark while he knew that China was at that time governed by by the nomad tribes, the Mongols, Mạc Ðĩnh Chi replied with his black humor:

Át dư thừa lư, Nam Phương chi cường dư, Bắc phương chi cường dư
Ngăn lừa ta cưởi, hỏi người phương Nam mạnh hay người phương Bắc mạnh?

Impeding my mule is the strong people from the North or from the South?

Mạc Ðỉnh Chi also took what he had learned from the book Trung Dung (2) to remind the mandarin that he was not sure that the people from the North were stronger than those from the South. The mandarin turned pale of shame and was so vexed by the spirited and spontaneous reply that he was forced to drive off. Another time, in a discussion with Mạc Ðỉnh Chi and wanting to know his character, the Yuan emperor read him the following phrase:

Nhật hỏa, vân yên, bạch đáng thiêu tàn ngọc thỏ
Mặt trời là lửa, mây là khói, ban ngày đốt cháy vần trăng

Daytime, the sun being fire, the clouds being smoke burn up the moon.

The emperor wanted to show his power by comparing himself with the sun and in making it known to Mạc Ðỉnh Chi that Vietnam is comparable to the moon would soon be wiped out and dominated. Unruffled, Mac Ðỉnh Chi replied in firm and courageous terms:

Nguyệt cung, kim đạn, hoàng hôn xa lạc kim ô
Trăng là cung, sao là đạn, chiều tối bắn rơi mặt trời.

Nightime, the moon being crossbow, the stars being projectiles shoot down the sun.

Thus the Yuan emperor Kubilai Khan ( Nguyên Thê’ Tổ ) had to recognize his talent and granted him the title » ( Lưỡng Quốc Trạng Nguyên » ( Doctor of both countries ) for China as well as for Vietnam. this rendered some Chinese mandarins jealous. One of them tried to humiliate him one day by treating him as a bird because of the tone of the monosyllabic language; the Vietnamese give the impression of chirping when they speak:

Quích tập chi đầu đàm Lỗ luận: tri tri vi tri chi, bất tri vi bất tri, thị tri
Chim đậu cành đọc sách Lỗ luận: biết thì báo là biết, chẳng biết thì báo chảng biết, ấy là biết đó.

Birds gather on the branch to study the book Dialogs: What we know we say we know, what we don’t we say we don’t, we know it though.

It was a way to recommend Mac Ðĩnh Chi to show more humility and to behave like a man of Confucian quality ( junzi ). Mac Ðĩnh Chi replied in treating him like a frog because the Chinese have the habit of clicking the tongue when drinking and speaking loudly:

Oa minh trì thượng đọc Châu Thư: lạc dữ đọc lạc nhạc, lạc dữ chúng lạc nhạc, thục lạc.
Châu chuộc trên ao đọc sách Châu Thu: cùng ít người vui nhạc, cùng nhiều người vui nhạc, đằng nào vui hơn.

Frogs assemble in the pond to learn the work Chou Ching : they enjoy blaring alone, they enjoy blaring together, they’re blaring anyhow.
It’s a way to recommend the Chinese mandarin to have a keen mind in order to be able to have the right behavior and a more fair judgment.

In spite of the literary confrontation, Mac Ðĩnh Chi was very much appreciated in China. He was assigned by the Yuan emperor to write the funeral oration in honor of the passing away of a Mongolian princess. Due to the respect that the Chinese traditionally maintained toward talented Vietnamese people, especially the scholars having unprecedented erudition and keen minds, the learned Nguyễn Trãi was saved in extremis by the great steward Houang Fou ( Hoàng Phúc ). He was seen by Chinese generalissimo Tchang Fou ( Trương Phụ ) as a captive to be eliminated, a dangerous and harmful to the Chinese politics of expansion in Vietnam. He was retained by Tchang Fou during his stay at Ðồng Quang ( ancien name of Capital Hà-Nội before he could join the cotton clothed hero Lê Lợi later at Lam Sơn. Without the magnanimous and protective gesture of the eunuch Hoang Fou, Lê Lợi would not have been able to defeat the Ming because it was Nguyễn Trãi, the godsent adviser and eminent strategist that Lê Lợi relied upon to run the guerilla during his ten years struggle against the Chinese.

This literary confrontation began to blurr progressively with the arrival of the French in Vietnam and stopped definitively when emperor Khải Ðịnh decided to put an end to the Vietnamese system of mandarinal contest up until then copied from the Chinese one and based essentially on the Four Classics (3) and the Five Cannons (4) of the wise Confucius (Tứ Thư Ngũ Kinh).

The last mandarinal contest was organized at Huế in 1918. Another system of recruitment in the French way was proposed at the colonial l period. From then on, Vietnam has no longer the opportunity to measure up literarily with China and to show her its difference, its intellectual resistance and its cultural traits.

(1) : Jou philosophy of first plan of 4th century B.C.
(2) : The Middle-Of-The-Road, one of the basic works of Chinese education.
(3) : The Great Studies, ( Ðại Ho.c ), Middle-Of-The-Road ( Trung Dung ), Dialogs ( Luận Ngữ ) and Mencius’s Book ( ( Sách Mạnh Tử ).
(4):The Book of Odes ( Kinh Thi ), The Historic Documents( Kinh Thư ), The Book of Mutations ( Kinh Dịch ) The Rites( Kinh Lễ ), Springs and Autumn ( Kinh Xuân Thu ).

Le défi (Thách Thức)

j050807 Culture, Littérature, Văn Hóa novembre 28, 2016avril 22, 2025culture, littérature, Vietnam

English version

Version vietnamienne

Le défi

Ce mot n’est pas étranger aux Vietnamiens. Par contre, il est synonyme de la persévérance, de la résistance, de l’ingéniosité et de la confrontation pour ces gens frêles, les pieds enfouis dans la boue des rizières depuis la nuit des temps. Ceux-ci ne cessaient pas de relever, de génération en génération, le défi imposé incessamment par les intempéries d’une nature ingrate et inhospitalière et par l’Empire du Milieu, leur grand frère limitrophe et leur ennemi héréditaire. Les Vietnamiens vouaient à ce dernier une admiration étonnante en même temps une résistance implacable dans le but de garder leur indépendance nationale et leurs spécificités culturelles. La Chine tenta de siniser à maintes reprises le Viêt-Nam durant sa domination millénaire mais elle réussit à estomper les particularités sans les faire disparaître complètement. Elle ne tarda pas à s’en apercevoir car à chaque occasion favorable, les Vietnamiens affichaient leur résistance et leur différence. Ils cherchaient à affronter même les Chinois dans le domaine littéraire. Cela a été rapporté par un grand nombre de récits continuant à abonder encore jusqu’à nos jours dans l’histoire littéraire vietnamienne.

Selon l’on-dit, après avoir réussi à mater la révolte des deux sœurs Trưng Trắc Trưng Nhị et de pacifier le Giao Chỉ (l’ancien pays des Viets), le général chinois Mã Viện (Ma Yuan) de la dynastie des Han édifia en 43 à la frontière sino – vietnamienne un pilier haut de plusieurs mètres et portant l’écriteau suivant:

Ðồng trụ triệt, Giao Chỉ diệt
Ðồng trụ ngã, Giao Chỉ bị diệt.

Le Vietnam disparaîtrait pour toujours avec la chute de ce pilier.

Pour éviter sa chute, chaque Vietnamien tenta de le consolider en jetant, à chaque passage, un morceau de terre autour de cette colonne colossale, ce qui permit d’édifier progressivement un monticule faisant disparaître ainsi ce pilier mythique.

Pour ironiser sur la peur et l’angoisse des Vietnamiens de perdre leur patrie, l’empereur des Ming n’hésita pas à s’adresser arrogamment au délégué vietnamien Giang Văn Minh (1582-1639) lors d’une réception, avec des termes inamicaux:

Ðồng trụ chí kim đài dĩ lục
Le pilier en bronze continue à être envahi par la mousse verte.

pour rappeler à Giang Văn Minh l’écrasement de la révolte dirigée par les sœurs Trưng Trấc et Trưng Nhị et la pacification de son pays par les Chinois. Imperturbable, Giang Văn Minh lui répondit avec une perspicacité étonnante et une détermination énergique et courageuse :

Ðằng giang tự cổ huyết do hồng
Le fleuve Bạch Ðằng continue à être teinté avec du sang rouge.

pour rappeler à l’empereur des Ming les victoires éclatantes et décisives des Vietnamiens contre les Chinois sur le fleuve Bạch Ðằng.

Ce n’est pas la première fois que cette compétition littéraire avait lieu. A l’époque du règne du roi Lê Ðại Hành ( Le Grand Expéditeur ), le bonze Lạc Thuận eut l’occasion de frapper d’admiration l’ambassadeur chinois Li Jiao ( Lý Giác ) à qui il avait fait passer le fleuve en se déguisant en sampanier. Il n’hésita pas à achever le quatrain entamé d’abord par Li Jiao qui se mit à chanter en voyant les deux oies sauvages jouer sur la crête des vagues:

Ngỗng ngỗng hai con ngỗng
Ngữa mặt nhìn trời xanh

Des oies sauvages, voyez ces deux oies sauvages
Elles dressent la tête et se tournent vers l’horizon

par ses deux vers suivants:

Nước biếc phô lông trắng
Chèo hồng sóng xanh khua

Leurs plumes blanches s’étalent sur les eaux glauques
Leurs pattes roses, telles des rames, fendent les flots bleus.

On constate non seulement la rapidité et l’improvisation du moine Lạc Thuận mais aussi son ingéniosité de mettre en parallèle les idées et les termes à employer dans ce quatrain.

defi

Mais le mérite de la confrontation revient évidemment au lettré Mạc Ðỉnh Chi car ce dernier sut montrer durant son séjour en Chine sa capacité de résistance mais aussi son talent de savoir répliquer savamment à toutes les questions et éviter toutes les embûches. Il fut envoyé en Chine (1314 ) par le roi Trần Anh Tôn après que ce dernier avait défait l’armée des Mongols de Kubilai Khan avec le général Trần Hưng Ðạo. À cause d’un retard inopiné, il ne put pas se présenter à l’heure convenue devant le portail du fort à la frontière sino-vietnamienne. Le mandarin chargé de la surveillance de ce fort accepta d’ouvrir ce portail à condition qu’il réussît de répondre d’une manière appropriée à la question que ce mandarin voulait lui poser et dans laquelle il y avait 4 mots « quan »

Quá quan trì, quan quan bế,
nguyện quá khách quá quan

Qua cữa quan chậm, cữa quan đóng,
mời khách qua đường qua cữa quan

Vous êtes en retard, la porte réservée étant fermée.
Je vous demande de bien vouloir vous présenter devant cette porte.

Imperturbable devant ce défi littéraire, il répondit au mandarin avec une facilité étonnante par la phrase suivante:

Xuất đối dị, đối đối nan, thỉnh tiên sinh tiên đối.
Ra câu đối dễ, đối câu đối khó
xin tiên sinh đối trước

C’est très facile pour vous de poser une question, la réponse n’étant pas évidente.
Je vous demande de bien vouloir poser la question.

On constate que dans cette réplique, il y a non seulement le mot « đối » qui se répète en quatre fois et qui est disposé de la même manière que le mot « quan » mais aussi la virtuosité de savoir respecter les rimes et les règles prosodiques par Mạc Ðỉnh Chi dans son vers tout en faisant connaître au mandarin la situation où il était empêtré avec sa suite. Cela contenta énormément le mandarin chinois. Celui-ci n’hésita pas à ouvrir le portail du fort et à le recevoir en grande pompe. Cet incident fut rapporté à la cour de Pékin et ne tarda pas à porter envie aux meilleurs mandarins lettrés chinois de se mesurer avec lui dans le domaine littéraire.

Un beau jour, dans la capitale de Pékin, il était en train de faire une promenade avec son mulet. Comme ce dernier ne trottinait pas assez vite, cela énerva un mandarin chinois qui le suivait de près sur son chemin. Irrité par cette lenteur gênante, le mandarin se tourna vers lui en lui adressant avec un ton arrogant et méprisant:

Xúc ngã ky mã, đông di chi nhân dã, Tây di chi nhân dã?
Chạm ngựa ta đi là người rợ phương Ðông hay là người rợ phương Tây?
En gênant le passage de mon cheval, est -il un barbare venant de l’Est ou de l’Ouest?

Ce mandarin s’inspira de ce qu’il avait appris dans le livre de Mencius (Mạnh Tử )(1) pour désigner les Barbares, ceux ne possédant pas la même culture que l’empire du Milieu par l’emploi des deux mots « Ðông di ». Surpris par ce propos blessant lorsqu’il savait que la Chine fut gouvernée à cette époque par les tribus nomades, les Mongols, Mạc Ðỉnh Chi lui répliqua avec son humour noir:

Át dư thừa lư, Nam Phương chi cường dư, Bắc phương chi cường dư
Ngăn lừa ta cưởi, hỏi người phương Nam mạnh hay người phương Bắc mạnh?

En empêchant la marche normale de mon mulet, est-il fort, l’homme du Nord ou celui du Sud?

L’empereur des Yuan n’hésita pas à vanter sa puissance en le comparant au soleil et en faisant savoir à Mạc Ðỉnh Chi que le Viêt-Nam, comparable à la lune, serait anéanti et dominé bientôt. Imperturbable, Mạc Ðỉnh Chi lui répondit d’une manière ferme et courageuse:

Nguyệt cung, kim đạn, hoàng hôn xa lạc kim
Trăng là cung, sao là đạn, chiều tối bắn rơi mặt trời.

Etant prise pour l’arbalète, la lune avec les étoiles comme des projectiles, détruit facilement dans la nuitée le soleil.

L’empereur des Yuan Kubilai Khan ( Nguyên Thê’ Tổ ) dut reconnaître son talent et lui accorda ainsi le titre » Premier docteur » ( Lưỡng Quốc Trạng Nguyên ) aussi bien en Chine qu’au Viêt-Nam, ce qui rendit jaloux quelques mandarins chinois. L’un d’eux tenta de l’humilier un beau matin en le traitant comme un oiseau car à cause de la tonalité monosyllabique de la langue, les Vietnamiens donnent l’impression de gazouiller toujours lorsqu’ils parlent:

L’oiseau s’agrippant sur une branche lit ce qui a été écrit dans le livre Les Entretiens : Si nous savons quelque chose, nous disons que nous la savons. Dans le cas contraire, nous disons que nous ne la savons pas. C’est ainsi que nous disons que nous savons quelque chose.

C’est une façon de recommander Mạc Ðỉnh Chi de se montrer plus humble et de se comporter comme un homme de qualité confucéenne ( junzi ). Mạc Ðỉnh Chi lui répliqua en le traitant comme une grenouille car les Chinois ont l’habitude de clapper à cause de leur manière de boire ou de parler bruyamment:

Oa minh trì thượng đọc Châu Thư: lạc dữ đọc lạc nhạc, lạc dữ chúng lạc nhạc, thục lạc.
Châu chuộc trên ao đọc sách Châu Thu: cùng ít người vui nhạc, cùng nhiều người vui nhạc, đằng nào vui hơn.

La grenouille barbotant dans la mare lit ce qui a été écrit dans le livre Livre des Documents Historiques (Chou Ching): certains jouent seuls de la trompette, d’autres jouent ensemble de la trompette. Lesquels paraissent en jouer mieux.

C’est une façon de dire au mandarin chinois d’avoir un esprit sain pour pouvoir avoir un comportement juste et un discernement équitable.

Malgré la confrontation littéraire, Mạc Ðỉnh Chi fut très apprécié en Chine. Il fut chargé même par l’empereur des Yuan de composer une oraison funèbre en l’honneur de la disparition d’une princesse mongole. Grâce au respect que les Chinois savaient entretenir traditionnellement à l’égard des gens de talent vietnamiens, en particulier des lettrés ayant une érudition inouïe et une vivacité d’esprit, le lettré Nguyễn Trãi fut sauvé in extremis par le grand intendant Houang Fou (Hoàng Phúc). Il était aux yeux du généralissime chinois Tchang Fou (Trương Phụ ) un homme captif à abattre, un personnage dangereux et nuisible à la politique d’expansion de la Chine au Viêtnam . Il fut retenu par Tchang Fou durant son séjour à Ðồng Quang ((ancien nom donné à la capitale Hanoï ) avant de pouvoir rejoindre plus tard le héros à habit de cotonnade Lê Lợi à Lam Sơn. Sans ce geste magnanime et protecteur de l’eunuque Houang Fou, Lê Lợi n’aurait pas pu déboulonner les Ming car c’était Nguyễn Trãi, le conseiller providentiel et le stratège éminent sur lequel Lê Lợi s’appuya pour mener le guérilla durant ses dix années de lutte contre les Chinois.

Cette confrontation littéraire commença à s’estomper progressivement avec l’arrivée des Français au Vietnam et cessa définitivement lorsque l’empereur Khải Ðịnh avait décidé de mettre fin au système de concours mandarinal vietnamien calqué jusqu’alors sur celui des Chinois et basé essentiellement sur les Quatre Livres Classiques (3) et les Cinq Livres Canoniques (4) du sage Confucius.(Tứ Thư Ngũ Kinh). intro1

On nota le dernier concours mandarinal organisé à Huế en 1918. Un autre système de recrutement à la française fut proposé à l’époque coloniale. Dès lors, le Vietnam n’avait plus l’occasion de se mesurer littérairement avec la Chine et de lui montrer sa différence, sa résistance intellectuelle et ses spécificités culturelles.

(1) : Philosophe Jou de premier plan du IV è siècle avant J.C.
(2) : Le Juste Milieu , l’un des ouvrages de base de l’enseignement chinois.
(3) : La Grande Étude, ( Ðại Học), le Juste Milieu ( Trung Dung ), Les Entretiens ( Luận Ngữ ) et le livre de Mencius ( Sách Mạnh Tử).
(4): Le Livre des Odes ( Kinh Thi ), Les Documents Historiques( Kinh Thu ), Le Livre des Mutations ( Kinh Dịch ) Les Rites ( Kinh Lễ ) , Printemps et Automne ).( Kinh Xuân Thu ).

Vietnamese woodcuts (Tranh dân gian)

j050807 Art, Culture, Traditions, Văn Hóa novembre 27, 2016mars 25, 2025culture, traditions, Vietnam

French version

Without the curiosity and open-mindedness of this young French military man, the Vietnamese popular woodcut would probably have been in oblivion and disappeared forever with the ups and downs of the war. The Vietnamese woodcut has its origin dated back to 15th century, at a time when scholar Lương Như Hộc introduced its fabrication technique on his way back from an official mission to China.

Henri Oger was one of the rare Frenchmen who, at the beginning of the century, was able to discover a millennium of wealth in traditions and customs throughout the Vietnamese society which was then closed to strangers, poor and backward. He took the initiative of creating an encyclopedia consisted of 10 volumes describing all aspects of the Vietnamese society in the old days: craftsman’s works, festivals, farming techniques, ancestral customs etc.. by requesting about 30 wood carvers to engrave designs on wood and then, because of weather conditions, imprint the engraving on the spot using the Vietnamese traditional methods. It should be acknowledged that the love of Vietnam and its people has allowed Henri Oger to overcome at that time all hardship in fund raising and in the realization of this huge work ( more than 4000 designs in all ).

He did not get any help from the French government at all. He only got subscriptions from some two dozen persons, in the amount of 200 piasters.

Henri Oger

In spite of that, Henri Oger has succeeded in leaving to the Vietnamese people a priceless treasure. His work was unknown to the French and Vietnamese public for decades. Only in 1978 did an exhibition entitled « Peasant Painters of Vietnam » take place at the Cultural Center of Bourges. Three of his works are presently kept at the National Library of Hanoï and Saïgon City but only in the latter we find his 10 volumes in their entirety.

Bibliography:

Introduction générale à l’étude de la technique du peuple annamite. 2 volumes. Editions: Geuthner-Jouve, Paris.

Hồ Xuân Hương poetess

j050807 Anglais, Langue, Littérature, Văn Hóa novembre 26, 2016août 28, 2020

French version

Speaking of Hồ Xuân Hương creates in everyone of us not only an ardent admiration but also food for thought back to the time when Confucianism kept on draining all the vital outbursts of a closed society and literature, the source of social prestige remained in having the exclusive right to sit in the triennal examinations for the recruitment of mandarins. Before occupying a good place in the official history of Vietnamese literature published in 1980 by the Institute of Literature of Vietnam, Hồ Xuân Hương was in the past a source of inexhaustible controversy between those who saw in her a wonderful woman who dared without shame to tackle the rights to her sex and carnal love in the time of feudal darkness, and those who found that her poetry, putting too much accent on the glorification of sexual instinct, was a disappointment for the Vietnamese literature and an attack and an stain to the model Vietnamese woman.

It should be admitted that Hồ Xuân Hương is a woman ahead of her time, a woman who knows how to use her intelligence to denounce hypocrisy and absurdity at a time when society was ruled by unchanging Confucian ethics, a woman who dares revolt against prohibitions and taboos for the liberalization of the woman, physical as well as moral. She loved to confront and beat Messieurs the learned men with their own weapons. She succeeded in evading formal censorship by an uncommon cleverness, proceeding with allusions and metaphores.

Thiếu nữ ngủ ngày

Mùa hè hây hẩy gió nồm đông
Thiếu nữ nằm chơi quá giấc nồng
Lược trúc lỏng cài trên mái tóc
Yếm đào trễ xuống dưới nương long
Ðôi gò Bông đảo sương còn ngậm
Môt lạch đào nguyên suối chưa thông
Quân tử dùng dằng đi chẳng dứt
Ði thì cũng dở ở không xong.

Day Sleeping Girl

Summer breeze is sporadically blowing,
Lying down the young girl slides into sleeping.
Her bamboo comb loosely attached to her hair,
Her pink bra below her waist dropped down fair.
On these two Elysian mounds, the nectar is still remaining,
In that one Fairy rivulet, the current seems to stop flowing.
At such a view, the gentleman hesitated,
Odd to leave, yet inconvenient if he stayed

Hang Cắc Cớ

Trời đất sinh ra đá một chòm
Nứt ra đôi mảnh hỏm hòm hom
Kẽ hầm rêu mốc trơ toen hoẻn
Luồng gió thông reo vỗ phập phồng
Giọt nước hữu tình rơi lõm bõm
Con đường vô ngạn tối om om
Khen ai đẽo đá tài xuyên tạc
Khéo hớ hênh ra lắm kè dòm

Cắc Cớ grotto

Yin and Yang created this chunk of rock;
A deep and dark crack split it into two blocks.
Moss covered openings expose themselves with impudence
Wind enhanced firs produce sound of rhythmic cadence.
Drops of romantic water fall with splash
Roads to nowhere lead in dark labyrinth.
Praise to the scuptor inventing this distortion
Indecent exposure invites lots of observation

Extracted from the book entitled « Egrets on the river » de Mr Lê Thành Khôi.

The Fan

Are you seventeen or eighteen?(1)
Let me cherish you by all means.
Thin or thick you display a triangle, and
Large or small I hold you with one hand.
The more it is hot the fresher you will submit,
Not enough love at night, daytime will make it.
Your cheeks are rose pink and give you grace,
Lords and kings love you because of your face.

(1): Seventeen or nineteen branches of the fan could be understood as seventeen or eighteen

Vịnh cái quạt

Mười bảy hay là mười tám đây
họ ta yêu dâ’u chẩng rời tay
Mỏng dày chừng ấy, chành ba góc
Rộng hẹp dường nào, cắm một cây.
Càng nóng bao nhiêu thời càng mát
Yêu đêm không phỉ lại yêu ngày
Hồng hồng má phấn duyên vì cậy
Chúa dấu vua yêu một cái nầy.

The Great poetess of Vietnam

To talk about things the most crude in society, about erotism in particular, she resorted to harmless description of the landscape and familiar objects. The Jack-Fruit, The Floating Cake, The Fan, The Grotto of Cắc Cớ, Weaving at Midnight, The Day Sleeping Girl are the titles the best known and witness her talent and knack of knowing how to create the rhythms comparable to those in popular songs ( ca dao ) and use a surprisingly simple vocabulary in her poetry. A manuscript in « nom » from the Library of Sciences recorded in 1912 counted only 23 poems but it is noted that the number of poems attributed to Hồ Xuân Hương has grown with the time. Therefore even its existence was put to doubt in the past. Hô` Xuân Huong could have been original of Quynh Doi village, Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province. Her father Hô` Phi Điền is issue of the Hồ family of scholars (Hô` Phi). According to the French researcher Maurice Durand, she was not very attractive physiaclly based on the two verses from Hồ Xuân Hương’s Jack-Fruit:

Thân em như quả mít trên cây,
Da nó sù sì, múi nó dày

My body is like the jack-fruit on the tree,
Its skin is rough, its clove is thick.

This deduction seemed less convincing by the fact that even she was not beautiful, she must have been charming because she was married twice then widowed and having many flirts such as Chiêu Hô` (Phạm Đình Hô`). Because of her biting and licentious verve, some people see in her a sex maniac, a genie of lust; that is the case of Nguyễn Văn Hạnh and the French researcher Maurice Durand in « Works of Vietnamese poetess Hồ Xuân Hương », Ecole francaise d’Extreme Orient, Adrien Maisonneuve, Paris 1968. On the other hand, other people do not hesitate to defend her with fanfare, finding her not only a feminist of the first hour but also a woman having the gut to live and defy a society of mummies and ghosts. It is the case of writer Nguyễn Đức Bình in the monthly review Văn Nghệ. ( Arts and Literature ) No. 62.

Dệt cửi

Thắp ngọn đèn lên thấy trắng phau
Con cò mấp máy suốt đêm thâu
Hai chân đạp xuô’ng năng năng nhắc
Mô.t suốt đâm ngang thích thiích nhau
Rộng hẹp nhỏ to vừa vặn cả
Ngắn dài khuôn khổ cũng như nhau
Cô nào muốn tốt ngâm cho kỹ
Chờ đến ba thu mới dãi màu

Nightime Weaving

Light turned on, it is found such a white,
The stalk moves slightly and repeatedly all night.
Pushing with the feet, but lightly release,
Shuttle passing through brings joy and ease.
Large or narrow, small or big they all fit,
Long and short, size and form so be it.
To make it best, girl needs to soak it with care .
The cloth color won’t fade before three whole years.

If Hồ Xuân Hương is a rose with thorns, a lonely and almost unique voice in the Vietnamese literature, she has nonetheless the courage and the audacity to throw a stone and spread the trouble in a stagnant and rotting pond that became the Vietnamese society at the end of 18th century. Contrary to other great scholars preferring looking for solitude to devote themselves to contemplation of nature and meditation in drunkenness, Hồ Xuân Hương preferred to combat it alone at her time using her verve, her poems to experiment the wrath of a woman revolting and thundering against injustice of the Vietnamese society. She deserves the homage that American writer Henri Miller rendered two centuries later to a female writer of 20th century in his forewords for » Fear of flying » by Erica Jong, Robert Laffont, 1976:

She writes like a man. However it is a woman with 100% woman. On many points, she is more direct and more frank than many male authors.