[Yale-readings] Poet Nguyen Chi Thien - April 26

[Nancy Kuhl]

>Masters Tea,  Berkeley College
>4:00 P.M., Tuesday, April 26*
>Co-sponsored by the Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies
>
>
>
>Nguyen Chi Thien
>
>
>
>Poet / Author, much of whose poetry was written during his imprisonment by 
>the Communist regime in Vietnam.  Nguyen Chi Thien has since immigrated to 
>the U.S., where he now resides.
>See ( http://www.yale.edu/seas/NCTh.htm)
>
>The presentation will feature Readings of selected poems by the author 
>(selections in original Vietnamese and English translation tba)  and 
>introductory remarks by James C. Scott, Executive Editor, Yale SEAS 
>Publications
>
>Hoa Dia-Nguc/Flowers from Hell is a bilingual edition of Nguen Chi Thien's 
>poems selected and translated by Huynh Sanh Thong and published by the 
>Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies in 1984.  These vivid poems were 
>written during the author’s twenty-seven years of imprisonment in the 
>“re-education camps” of Vietnam from 1961 to1991. The poet won the 1985 
>Poetry International Prize on the basis of this book.
>
>”
.these poems by Nugyen Chi Thien
represent a remarkable legacy.  We see 
>no reason to apologize for the strident anti-communist tone of this 
>poetry, which was, after all, nurtured in Vietnamese prisons for twenty years.
>
.what is most memorable about these poems is not the target of their cold 
>rage
.what is memorable in these poems is the quality of the anger, the 
>apocalyptic vision, the survival of dreams, hope, and love, the minute 
>observation of prison life, and above all, the survival of poetry in 
>Nguyen Chi Thien.
>
.He tells us that he is ‘lost and lonely, bobbing up and down. / Smashed 
>boat, snapped paddle – stranded in the wreck,’ but adds ‘I still dream it, 
>keep dreaming it, my dream.’  He counts his ribs, but still trades corn 
>and cassava for tea, for ‘poetry thrives on tea at night.’  For this man 
>poetry was no luxury – it was the staff of life.”
>(From “Welcome to the Lac-Viet” by James C. Scott, Chair and Executive 
>Editor, 1984)
>
>*Berkeley College Masters House
>125 High Street
>
>See http://www.yale.edu/seas/30Anniv.htm for a full summary of activities 
>being held in and around Yale in recognition of the 30th Anniversary of 
>the Fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975

The Yale-Readings Listserv is sponsored by the Yale Collection of American 
Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To post 
announcements about poetry and fiction readings, send the full text of the 
announcement, including contact information, to 
<http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/yale-readings>nancy.kuhl at 
yale.edu. Messages sent directly to the Yale-Readings list may not be posted.  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/yale-readings/attachments/20050425/762df32f/attachment.html