Nguyen Do (right) with his collaborator,
Paul Hoover (middle)
BY Helen Nguyen

What is your working process like when it comes to co-translating with your friend, Paul Hoover?

Paul Hoover and I have enjoyed working on translations very much. First, I translate the Vietnamese texts into whatever English I have. Then I give them to Paul. He puts my English into his tongue and heart, so the poem will be as alive and active as it has been in Vietnamese. And then he sends the texts back to me for approval.

Most of the time, I feel that Paul has created an excellent poetic landscape in terms of language, and I take off my hat to him. However, this process sometimes takes longer than we would expect, due to the many cultural differences between Vietnam and America.

Cultural differences such as?

The American culture surprises me very much. In at least three ways, in terms of its “philosophical opposition” to the Vietnamese culture.

A. Help versus no help:

One morning, while I was jogging near the room I shared in Sacramento, I saw a little boy aged around three years old who was running with his father. The boy fell very hard in front of me, and I stopped right away, extending my hands to help him. Suddenly, the father stepped forward, waving his hands and saying, “No thanks” to prevent me from helping. I was shocked by his response to my way of expressing sympathy. The boy was in tears and seemed to be hurt. Such a refusal would be considered inhuman in Vietnam. After living here for a longer time, I realize that the father’s gesture meant, “Let the kid stand up by himself.”

B. Crying versus laughing:

At President Ronald Reagan’s funeral, the audience laughed when his wife, children, and friends talked about him. In the Vietnamese (and Asian) cultures, laughing at a funeral is considered extremely impolite, even immoral. Many funerals hire the service of a professional crying team, and all relatives must be in tears when a visitor comes to pray for their loss. No one would consider smiling at a Vietnamese funeral.

C. Old versus young:

In Vietnam, when people meet for the first time, they immediately calculate the age of everyone present. If they are having a meal together — dinner, lunch, or even breakfast — the oldest one is given the honored place at the table, and the highest or best chair. He is also served first, with the best food, unless another younger person is a powerful man. Children must sit at a different table and eat more “ordinary” food.

Many such differences exist between two different cultures. One similarity that binds us is the blood beating in our hearts. That drumming is so sensitive. So the process of translation itself can actually be translated into this essential question: how can an interpreter from the other culture ever capture fully the meaning of this drumming in its home culture?

Do you feel as if you are now “in exile”?

If you had asked me nine years ago, I would have sadly nodded my head, “Yes.”

Now, I understand that I will always feel being “in exile” — wherever I live and whatever I’m doing, be it writing or reading a good poem, listening to great classical music such as Beethoven, Chopin, Stravinsky…