An interview with Nguyen Thai Linh, translator of "Travels with Herodotus" into Vietnamese

Author: Maciej Lewandowski source: http://www.lekturyreportera.pl date: 2009-01-30 ——————————————————————–

The interview originally appeared on Lektury reportera

Author: Maciej Lewandowski

The first book by Ryszard Kapuściński, “Travels with Herodotus”, has recently appeared in Vietnam. Here is an interview with the author of the Vietnamese translation, a lawyer living in Warsaw — Nguyen Thai Linh.

What interested you most in Kapuściński’s books?

In fact everything interested me: the subject matter, the craft, the way Kapuściński describes the world, his curiosity about it, his reflections. Kapuściński sees things others do not see. But what moved me most was Kapuściński’s personality itself, his optimism, his openness and compassion towards people utterly unlike himself, his faith in the human being and in humanity, his humane way of looking at the world. In The Shadow of the Sun, for instance, Kapuściński described how he and a colleague fought an Egyptian cobra. When their lives were hanging by a thread they managed to kill it — and instead of satisfaction and joy he felt emptiness and sadness that the cobra’s heart had stopped beating. That passage moved me greatly.

Why did you choose to translate Travels with Herodotus in particular?

Travels with Herodotus is a literary autobiography in which Kapuściński sums up his life as a reporter. I think this book is the best one to start with, and that it will encourage Vietnamese readers to discover his other works.

What is the hardest thing about translating literature from an entirely different cultural sphere? What has to be done for a book written by a Pole to be understood — and not only at the level of language — by your compatriots?

Contrary to appearances, the difficulty in translating Kapuściński does not lie in cultural difference. First, we live in an age of globalisation and of an information revolution. Second, Kapuściński’s writing is not hard to understand. The problem is that, because the events are real, the text has to be translated very precisely while at the same time preserving the author’s style. The hardest thing for me, though, is Chinese names, because they are entirely different in Polish and in Vietnamese, and not everything can be found in a dictionary or on the internet. For example, the place called Wajaopao in Polish is Ngoa Dieu Bao in Vietnamese. I asked a Vietnamese friend who had studied Chinese philology in Warsaw and she was unable to help me either. In the end I had to describe the context in which the word had been used, with the help of a specialist in Chinese history.

Which Kapuściński book will you translate and publish in Vietnam next?

At the moment I am translating The Shadow of the Sun in my free time.

Do you think that now — after the publication of the first Kapuściński book in Vietnam — he has become a known and valued writer there?

Travels with Herodotus came out in Vietnam only a month ago. In my view it is too early to judge. The book was very well received; I have met with nothing but positive assessments. A great many people were immediately taken with Kapuściński. I think these are good signs, and that we can hope Kapuściński — alongside his great compatriots such as Fryderyk Chopin, Adam Mickiewicz, Henryk Sienkiewicz and Wisława Szymborska — will have a permanent place in the hearts of Vietnamese readers.

Are other Polish reporters and journalists known to your compatriots?

Readers in Vietnam have only now come to know Kapuściński. I hope that in time other Polish reporters and journalists will be known there.

Which other Polish authors do you value most? Whose work do you intend to translate in the future?

I like poetry and I love Wisława Szymborska’s poems. For the time being, though, I do not intend to translate anyone apart from Kapuściński. Since I do not translate professionally and do it only in my free time — with great passion, of course — I think “working” with Kapuściński will keep me busy for many years.

As one can read in the Polish press, the printed press in Vietnam is not very popular, because of excessive interference by the state authorities. Vietnamese readers mostly read journalism on the internet. Do you think the internet is a good medium for conveying news, a good vehicle for the news media?

Yes, I think the internet is a good medium for conveying news and a good vehicle for the news media, and in certain environments — as in Vietnam — the best one. There are always dangers if a person cannot find his way through that jungle of information. Besides, people feel manipulated by the internet just as they do by the printed press. That is why we need writers like Kapuściński, that is, witnesses to history.

Do you think the kind of writing Kapuściński practised is suited to publication on the internet?

Why not? I read the first passages of Travels with Herodotus on the internet.

Which Vietnamese authors — reporters, journalists — would you recommend to Polish readers?

Literary non-fiction is a new thing in Vietnam, indeed an unknown one. I hope that as Kapuściński becomes better known, the first Vietnamese authors to take up the genre will appear.