Since the day Vietnam fell under the dictatorship of Communists, there were about two million Vietnamese who were forced to flee for their freedom to countries around the globe.

The exodus lasted for years and refugees finally settled down in these free countries, struggling to raise their families with nothing but hope. They hoped that their children would be able to get a good education so that they could compete with Americans in the work market.

Most Vietnamese parents tried their best to preserve Vietnamese culture for their children. They taught them to read, to write and to speak Vietnamese to one another. The Vietnamese community did a great job in organizing classes to teach Vietnamese to the children so they would not forget their native language. On the other hand, due to their demanding situations, sometimes both parents had to work. If the school systems were too far away, their wishes to have their children attend Vietnamese classes could not always be achieved.

For the children who were born in Vietnam who could speak Vietnamese before their parents emigrated, it was much easier to continue to speak their native language and English was their second language. But for the children who were born after they arrived in their new countries, it was more difficult if they lived in areas where there were no Vietnamese or very few people who could speak Vietnamese. Sooner or later, many of these children forgot their own language and only communicated to one another in English. The parents , of course, were not happy about this.

The future skillful young generations of Vietnamese abroad should have opportunities to develop their cultural spirit, the root deep down inside their souls and the love of their Motherland across the Pacific Ocean.

The most effective communication has always been the interaction with one another in a language that all parties could thoroughly comprehend.

Therefore, when authors wanted their readers to enjoy reading their masterpieces or when participating in any debate or expressing their opinions, they had to write or speak in appropriate languages. In other words, we had to communicate with the American in English in order for them to understand us.

Vietnamese poetry had always been a joyful and memorable way to express one's feelings. Good Vietnamese poems could make some one smile or wipe away their teardrops and the Vietnamese-American readers would remember those poems forever if they could appreciate them in English.

Inspired by the beauty of Vietnamese poems, the author was willing to try bringing that feeling into American verses so that he could make them available to his new young generation of Vietnam, who had enjoyed its many successes all over the world, especially in the United States of America. These young Vietnamese-Americans, who could either only speak fluent English or a little in Vietnamese, would be to appreciate these English poems that embraced the Vietnamese spirit.

The bilingual poems were designed to fulfill the need for conserving the spiritual patriotic characters inside the young Vietnamese-Americans. But these poems would not be translated words by word because there was no other language that could exactly express the feeling, the "inside meaning" of a Vietnamese verse that had been written from the author's heart and soul.

The author had been asked many times by his children and his relatives, who loved poems, the meaning of Vietnamese words that they did not understand. For example, the meaning of "bể dâu" in a stanza of the author's poem could not be translated into English as "the mulberry sea" or "the mulberry field" because it had a different meaning in Vietnamese. The English poems were different in their forms, rhymes, rules, syllabic groups, styles, iambic feet ...etc... from the Vietnamese poetry "lục bát" and "thất ngôn bát cú", or "Ðường luật"... The American poets had effectively used the power of English words in their poetry like the Vietnamese poets had done in theirs. By using the word "stone", it created an image of a round shape instead of "rock", that made readers think of a sharp unevenshape, the English poet had chosen the correct word to describe his feeling in that notable environment. That the English poems were consistent in their beauty and variety made us appreciate reading them.

Moreover, the feelings in the English poetry were the same as the feelings in the Oriental poetry or in the Vietnamese poems. It was not surprising that the author and his family enjoyed reading all of the poems because they were all profoundly moving.

The feelings of a Vietnamese poet that were carefully written and described in both English and Vietnamese poems, were also understood and appreciated by the future leaders of Vietnam, the skillful professional Vietnamese-American abroad.

This is my reachable dream of conserving the patriot spirit in our young future generations who are now living away from their homeland. With it is my hope that some day, these young Vietnamese-American people will respond to the inner voices of the "Spirit of the Motherland" and will follow their patriotic consciences and go back home, hand in hand to rebuild a free Vietnam that has been patiently awaiting for the return of her beloved children when the freedom resumed.

(Back to Homepage)