Nhuan Le

Dragon & Fairy in Poetry Nhuan Le

This is a new accomplishment by Thanh-Thanh: One hundred and two English poems and verse translations of pieces by seventy authors living in America, Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, and Vietnam. The author and translator has continued his task already carried out through his former books ("Poems by Selected Vietnamese" and "Vietnamese Choice Poems") with unfailing enthusiasm and increasing ability. Since life is a series of happiness and anguish, people experience their felicity and sadness in different circumstances, under different forms, and with different ways. But Humans cannot enjoy joy in isolation nor bear suffering in loneliness. So, it is desirable to share their thoughts and feelings with others around them. In the context of multi-racial relations, such sharing needs to be expressed through languages of foreign countries, in which English is the most universal. These poems represent the modest hope to play a part in promoting communication and understanding between nations. Thanh-Thanh thus responded to such aspirations of the original poems' authors.