Let feelings guide you: prize-winning poet (Việt Nam News) - Lê Hương
Let
feelings guide you: prize-winning poet
Journalist Lê Hương
Lê Hương chats with celebrated poet Mai Văn Phấn, who has
won four international prizes this year.
You recently won poetry awards at annual festivals in
Macedonia and Russia. Could you tell us more about the events and what led you
to these honours?
The
organising boards of the Aco Karamanov in North Macedonia and the Literature
Awards in Russia invited me to submit works to the events.
The
“Aco Karamanov Poetry Meetings” takes the name of Macedonian poet and partisan
Aco Karamanov (1927-1944), who is considered one the founders of Macedonian
contemporary literature. He was also a great patriot, fighting against German
facism in the Second World War. Every year his hometown of Radovis holds a
poetry festival in his honour.
The
first event was organised in 1967. In more recent years, the event has been
co-organised by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia, the
municipality of Radovis, and the Aco Karamano-Radovis Cultural Centre.
Each
year, the festival chooses a distinguished writer to publish a book. Last year,
Spanish poet Justo Jorge Padron gained the honour. This year, the organisers
invited 30 poets from all over the world to submit their works. Raed Anis
Al-Yishi from Saudi Arabia and I won this year. Raed Anis Al-Yishi’s book is
titled Buffled Gunpowder and mine is titled New Year Bath.
The
Golden Pen Russian National Literature Award was established in 2004 by
communications expert Alexander Nikolaevich Bukharov and philosopher and writer
Svetlana Vasilievna Savitskaya under the care of the Russian Writers
Association and sponsored by some social organisations. The award is for
Russian and international writers, who have had their works translated into
Russian.
This
year, the board received works in various genres including poetry, prose, drama
and music between January 1 and September 15.
The
jury gathered prestigious writers, culturists and artists including Lev
Anninsky, Mikhail Nozhkin, Rimma Kazakova, Evgenia Evtushenko and Mikhail
Zadornov, who chose 1,000 works from 72 nations as nominees for gold and silver
prizes and certificates.
I won
the Russian Silver Pen Award 2020 with my epic Thời Tái Chế (Era of Junk).
Translator Anna Popova, who translated this work into Russian, received a prize
from the World Writers Union.
This year you have won four international prizes.
How did you do it?
The other two prizes were The Literary Award
from the Association of Literary Translators of Montenegro, and First Prize
at The International Creative Meeting and Festival “Together in the XXI
Century” in Bulgaria. I submitted my works online to the events.
What did the juries say about your works?
The jury at the Aco Karamanov Poetry Meetings
said: “Mai Văn Phấn nurtures a specific lyrical expression that is deeply
rooted in the Vietnamese spiritual tradition. His poetic expression is in
perfect harmony with the identification with nature and his unobtrusive silent
song that overwhelms us with contemplative philosophical discourse and
surprises with its simplicity that suddenly becomes a lavish reflection of
reality as in the verse.”
In Russia, Galina Umyvakina, chairperson of the
Writers Association in Voronezh, noted: “Mai Văn Phấn is an understanding
poet, who accept current life as an incarnation of time.
"Throughout his epic, there are two main flows
of ideas in unity: firstly, bleeding, crippled unconsciousness, and martyrdom;
and secondly, survival, remembrance of kinship, fraternal spiritual and
spiritual 'donation'.
"Blood is not just a symbol of the tragic
ordeals of the ethnicity. This is a multi-valued image that has grown from the
centuries-old outlook of the Eastern philosophical and cultural world."
This year has been difficult in many fields
across the society like economics, tourism, services and import-export. Is
this true for literature?
I think literary activities do not follow the
course of economics, politics and society in general. In some specific
situations, literature can be considered as valuable as “men in war” and “women
in peace” as mentioned in Vietnamese sayings.
Distinguished works are always made by the talent
and fate of each writer. History has witnessed great works born from upheaval.
Please tell use about your recent work and
what you plan to share with the world.
I’m still working diligently in silence. Composing
poetry and writing critiques are my passions. I also spend
time exchanging with foreign translators who have translated my
poems into other languages. My poems have been translated into 33 languages. I
have 23 books of poetry in some countries. My latest ones were just published
in India and South Korea.
My book titled And Flew Away Heart,
translated by Indian poet Neetta Porwal from English to Hindi,
gathers 405 short poems and was published by Notion Press Publishers
in October.
Era of Junk translated
by Prof Ahn Kyong-hwan from Vietnamese into Korean was released by Dohun
Publishers in August.
What is your advice for young people who like
poetry and want to start composing?
If you've just discovered poetry, please
listen to your heart and let your feelings lead you. You should reach your own
poetic world; i.e. the door of that world should really open to you,
allure, hypnotise you.
When you define what creation is, you should equip
yourself general literary knowledge and poetry trends in Việt Nam and
throughout the history of the world. You should enrich your
life experience and nurture your feelings.
You should define where you and Vietnamese
literature are, what needs to be done and how you should do it. Then you
can become a real author and take your career further. VNS
Source: Việt Nam News