“The Sorrow of War” and Bao Ninh's Heartfelt Voice

Recently, Bao Ninh shared about his writing life, and the portrait appeared with many new and different features than what people know about him.

The soldiers… are the great generation

In 1969, writer Bao Ninh joined the army at the age of 19. In 1975, when the country was no longer at war, he continued to work on policy, searching for and collecting martyrs' remains. This work helped him come into contact with many post-war human conditions and inspired him to write the work "The Sorrow of War".

Novel The Sorrow of War (Photo: Minh Khanh)

"The Sorrow of War" was also the work that helped him graduate from Nguyen Du Writing School. The original manuscript was lost so he had to rewrite it. The book was completed in 1987.

Bao Ninh said that the work "The Sorrow of War" does not have a specific structure. Literary works written in a linear sequence are familiar to readers and easy for them to accept. But for someone who has lived in the past as much as Bao Ninh himself, the thoughts are always messy.

In 1990, the Writers Association Publishing House published the work "The Sorrow of War". Contrary to long-standing rumors that the work was censored and some passages were cut, writer Bao Ninh affirmed that this did not happen.

Bao Ninh and translator Ha Manh Quan.

The work was printed verbatim as the manuscript he sent to the publisher. Bao Ninh also said that after re-reading it, there were some passages he felt dissatisfied with and thought he could have written better, not so clumsily.

Internationally, to date, the work has been translated into 20 languages ​​and published in 20 countries. The Guardian has called Bao Ninh "the most widely known modern Vietnamese writer abroad".

The work "The Sorrow of War" was printed at the beginning of the renovation period and the Writers Association Publishing House only changed the name to "The Fate of Love" to sell the book better because at that time books about war were not popular, not for political reasons.

When the work appeared in the literary world, some famous writers of the previous generation praised it. But later, when the movement to "attack" the book "The Sorrow of War" arose, many of them turned around and criticized Bao Ninh for... writing reactionary literature. In the Council of the Vietnam Writers Association that considered the award for the work "The Sorrow of War" in 1991, only two people did not later criticize him.

Writer Bao Ninh (Photo: Nguyen Dinh Toan)

Bao Ninh did not want to burden his family, so he decided to stop writing and go into business to make a living. After that, many other writers such as Chu Lai, Nguyen Kien, Le Luu... and many old comrades advised Bao Ninh to continue writing. His old comrades advised him to write not for fame, but to repay his generation.

For Bao Ninh, the soldiers of his time were a great generation because of what they experienced on the battlefield.

Writer Bao Ninh sadly commented: "After many years, memories of war in the mass media often have bright colors. But in fact, war was very fierce. The train carrying me when I joined the army had about 500 people, but after the war, only about 50 people remained and very few were intact and healthy."

Bao Ninh believes that Vietnamese people seem to be unfamiliar with expressing their pain. He has met many mothers whose children have sacrificed everything, but they still appear calm on the outside. They are used to hiding their emotions inside.

Bao Ninh said he hated reading positive works about war. Because, he believed that the writer's mission was to speak the people's hearts. "The Sorrow of War" is the expression of that heart.

“The Sorrow of War” with many translations in the world.

The sorrow of war is hard to heal

When asked if today's youth have the concept of "healing", did the work "The Sorrow of War" heal Bao Ninh from the wounds of war, he answered very quickly: "The sadness and obsessions of war will remain in my life forever and I can only hope that sadness will end in the next generation. However, for many other Vietnamese soldiers, the post-war period was a difficult period, so the memories or obsessions of war were submerged in the busyness of making a living".

He also acknowledged that at the present stage, when life has become better with the development of the economy and society, many of the writer's former comrades tend to recall and rewrite their wartime memories. They often write memoirs and give them to writer Bao Ninh to read and give comments.

He frankly expressed his feelings when the public received his work "The Sorrow of War" with both praise and criticism. Bao Ninh said that Vietnamese literary works after 1945 were "basically boring", so when there was a book written differently, the public paid attention.

Writer Bao Ninh

That shows that although literature had good works by Nguyen Dinh Thi, Nguyen Hong... in the first ten years. But after that, literature gradually faded and became rosy, so literature became monotonous and unimpressive.

The public felt bored and familiar so they realized that the book "The Sorrow of War" was a new style of writing and they liked it. As for the story of "being beaten", it was a story of the past and now he could calmly look back as an event in his writing life.

Up to now, apart from "The Sorrow of War" and some published short stories, writer Bao Ninh has not published any other novel. However, readers who love his literature know that Bao Ninh also has a novel manuscript called "The Way Home" that has not been published, and has only been partially introduced in the "Writing and Reading" winter issue of 2019.

Bao Ninh did not say when this work would be released. Perhaps for a writer, he always needs to keep some secrets for himself.

Emotional literature

Bao Ninh's real name is Hoang Au Phuong, born on October 18, 1952 in Dien Chau district, Nghe An province, from Bao Ninh commune, Quang Ninh district (now Dong Hoi city, Quang Binh province). He comes from an intellectual family, the son of Professor Hoang Tue (1922-1999), former Director of the Institute of Linguistics. He currently lives and works in Hanoi. The pen name Bao Ninh was taken from the name of his hometown Bao Ninh commune. Bao Ninh said that he was not good at literature in high school, never getting more than 3 points in literature (at that time, it was a 5-point scale).

When studying at Nguyen Du Writing School from 1984 to 1986, course 2, writer Bao Ninh also rarely focused on studying. The writer himself said that he did not receive formal, professional training, so his literature was mainly written based on emotions and thoughts, without organizing ideas or making detailed outlines.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/noi-buon-chien-tranh-va-tieng-long-cua-bao-ninh-192231129005948073.htm