Writer Tran Kim Thanh: 'I live peacefully with life'

At the age of over 80, besides taking care of his family and beloved wife, writer Tran Kim Thanh still writes, translates, and writes research articles about drama every day...

The 100-year-old house left by the ancestors of writer Tran Kim Thanh is neat, clean and full of memories of the old years. Perhaps the "family tradition" has influenced the writer's personality, whether when he was a civil servant, or now at the age of 86, he is always serious, meticulous, and careful with everything in life. Especially with literature, words, he appreciates and cherishes them even more.

What is special about the multi-talented and multi-skilled Tran Kim Thanh is that at that age, besides taking care of his family and his beloved wife, he still writes, translates, and writes research articles on drama every day... He believes that in the life of a writer, stories of memories always exist in daily life, so from those stories, today's writings are still fresh, as if the writer is living his youth once again.

Writer Tran Kim Thanh and his wife. Photo: Tran Hoang Thien Kim.

I asked writer Tran Kim Thanh, if he could choose which field he would belong to, be an agricultural worker, a screenwriter, a translator or a writer as his “main profession”? Writer Tran Kim Thanh smiled gently: “Maybe I am a combination of all of those things. A little bit of each field, literature, drama, scientific research… so that the final result is to have a work born and left for the world!”

The fate with literature came to writer Tran Kim Thanh as a gift from heaven and earth. He graduated from the University of General Biology, course 3 (1957-1961), then he worked in the Secretariat of the Science Council of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Writer Tran Kim Thanh recalls: “I am also a person who is diligent in learning and studying. At that time, when I graduated from university, I presented to 4 teachers, including a Soviet expert, about “the development of the human embryo”. After the presentation, the experts applauded, did not comment further and gave me a good graduation certificate. After graduating, I immediately received an assignment to the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture, in which there was the Agricultural Newspaper with Mr. Bui Huy Dap in charge of content.

“I am not an engineer but only a scientific expert, but I was a secretary to Mr. Bui Huy Dap. In meetings, I worked directly with leading scientists in the agricultural sector. Gradually, I gained a lot of practical experience in farming and met many leading professors in the Vietnamese agricultural sector at that time, such as Mr. Luong Dinh Cua, Trinh Van Thinh, Chu Van Bien, Duong Hong Hien, Tran Van Ha... They were intellectuals of the country at that time, and also great personalities, so I learned a lot from them about how to live and work so that I could have stepping stones for myself later on.”

At the age of over 80, writer Tran Kim Thanh still writes, translates and writes research articles on drama every day... Photo: Tran Hoang Thien Kim.

The fate with literature probably originated from the fact that writer Tran Kim Thanh was appointed as secretary of the meetings of the Ministry's Scientific Council, which included leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture, to decide on important matters of the agricultural sector at that time. The stories of farmers gradually became ingrained in the writer's memory when he was a secretary taking minutes of the meetings, leading him to write short stories that were published in newspapers and then published in books. In those years, it was very difficult to publish a book. Writer Tran Kim Thanh told me the story of his good fortune to meet poet Quang Dung at the Literature Publishing House - the editor of the book " Happiness " (180 pages. Printed in 1962) - as the title of the book suggests, the true happiness of writer Tran Kim Thanh.

He said: “Back then, I was invited by poet Quang Dung to eat pho on the first afternoon that Quang Dung read the manuscript of the book. Also accompanying that day was poet Anh Tho, the head of the Literature and Poetry Department of the Publishing House. I was so happy and nervous that I just sat there watching the two idols all day long, to the point that I poured a whole box of pepper into the bowl without realizing it. Perhaps now I would have asked for another bowl, but that day I still tried to finish that bowl of spicy pho and remembered it for life, and was happy!”

The stories in the book " Happiness ", according to writer Tran Kim Thanh, when rereading them now, he finds them very naive, innocent but also natural like life in the old days. In that book, there is a short story " Sister Thao ", a story with the character Sister Thao who is good at raising pigs, a story he completely fictionalized, but when published through the reprint of Pho Thong Publishing House, it became a typical progressive character for many localities to learn from the example of Sister Thao. One province ( Yen Bai ) invited writer Tran Kim Thanh to talk about learning from the example of Sister Thao's good raising pigs. This was the turning point for writer Tran Kim Thanh to switch to the field of professional literature and cinema, satisfying his passion for writing.

Writer Tran Kim Thanh recalls: “At that time, a few months after “ Happiness ” was published, there was a praise article in Nhan Dan newspaper by writer Nguyen Dich Dung (signed as Trung Dung). At that time, Nhan Dan newspaper usually only published news about production and combat, but to have an entire article devoted to my book pages was such a blessing. At that meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture, I was solemnly introduced as a young example that “had appeared in Nhan Dan newspaper”. Then, Mr. Pham Tuan Khanh - Director of the Cinema Department at that time - also liked reading the book “Happiness”, and sent someone to ask me to come to Hanoi Film Studio (later changed to Vietnam Feature Film Studio), even though at that time I knew nothing about cinema. At that time, with all my passion for literature and art, I enthusiastically switched to working as a screenwriter at Vietnam Feature Film Studio, until I retired”.

Writer Tran Kim Thanh's legacy includes dozens of published books. Photo: Tran Hoang Thien Kim.

Up to now, the legacy of writer Tran Kim Thanh is dozens of published books, especially the memoir " Saigon 5-1975 " by writer and screenwriter Tran Kim Thanh, which has promptly provided information and documents about Saigon in the first months after liberation, selling out 5,000 copies in the first printing and has been reprinted for the 5th time with the assessment: " This is one of the documents that most accurately records the historical moment of late April and early May 1975 in Saigon" (Voice of Vietnam Radio, 2:30 p.m., April 26, 2008).

The cover of the book is a photo of writer and journalist Tran Kim Thanh during a meeting and conversation with the last President of the Saigon government on the morning of May 1, 1975 at the Independence Palace, which has been considered by public opinion to be one of the rare photos of the historic moment of April 30, 1975 in Ho Chi Minh City.

"On the Waves" a novel by writer Tran Kim Thanh was awarded the 1st Workers' Literature Award in 2010 and was selected to be published in the Anthology of 20th Century Vietnamese Literature. (Volume I, Volume XXVI. Literature Publishing House, 2006).

In nearly four decades working in the film industry, the writer has written more than 30 feature and documentary screenplays, which have been adapted into films by famous directors such as Pham Van Khoa, Pham Ky Nam, Hai Ninh, Tran Dac, Huy Thanh, and Le Dang Thuc.

Writer Tran Kim Thanh is very fond of the saying of art researcher Diedro: “An artist is someone who turns himself into an instrument of art.” In his life, he has devoted himself and lived his life to the things he pursues. He is a quiet, closed person, not much socializing, although he still regularly follows the literary situation of the country, attentively reads books and newspapers provided by the Writers' Association, not missing a single page, to know about the literary life and follow his literary friends of the past and present.

From left to right: Luu Xuan Thu, Tran Kim Thanh, Trong Bang, Thanh An. Photo: Tran Hoang Thien Kim ( retaken) .

At the age of 86, he still takes care of his beloved wife, who is two years older than him, every day, cleaning the house clean and tidy. Sometimes he takes her for a walk, visits the market, goes shopping, etc. One of his secrets to a healthy life is not drinking or smoking; exercising regularly; living a healthy, scientific life and working on the computer every day, translating, sending manuscripts and his articles to foreign newspapers as ordered. He believes that life is a choice of each person, he chooses a path less traveled and also quietly with literature, not noisy. He is afraid of crowded places, drinking tea and drinking because he regrets the time. He mainly works independently and his main assets are the works he has created during the years he lived and wrote.

Writer Tran Kim Thanh is happy to have filial daughters who love their parents. Among them, actress - Associate Professor, Dr. Yen Chi, the third daughter, has followed her father's footsteps to become a scientist with many contributions and successes in the field of cinema. For her, the joy is to continue the expectations of her loving father on the path of education, becoming an intellectual of the new era, along with the roles that she has dedicated to the Vietnamese screen.

Writer Tran Kim Thanh is planning to publish a book called “The Collection of His Life”. The book is about 1,000 printed pages, selected from what he has contributed to his entire life of literature and art. Along with the literary stories are the beautiful days living in a warm and memorable family home. He is not a sociable writer, but the literary legacy he left behind will surely be respected by future generations.

And what is truly precious is that he is the one who is keeping many valuable documents from his time as a secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, stories about the people he met and interacted with appear in his writings, typically the love story and life of scientist Luong Dinh Cua and his Japanese wife - Mrs. Nobuko Nakamura, which was put by writer Tran Kim Thanh into the script of the feature film " Legend of Love and Rice Seeds " which won the A prize in the creative campaign "Studying and following the moral example of Ho Chi Minh" phase 2 - 2010 organized by the Central Propaganda Department (now the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Department). Japanese cinema translated the entire script into Japanese to research and develop the film.

Source: https://nongnghiepmoitruong.vn/nha-van-tran-kim-thanh-toi-song-an-nhien-voi-cuoc-doi-d784415.html