Vietnam’s and Japan’s Writers Associations recently released an anthology of 175 war poems composed by Vietnamese and Japanese poets.
The 632-page book, presented in Vietnamese, Japanese and English and titled “A Collection of Poems for Independence, Freedom and Requiem of Vietnam by 175 poets”, features 105 signature Vietnamese poems spanning from the 10th century to the present.
In the preface, Nguyen Thi Binh, Vietnam’s former president, wrote that the year she signed the 1973 Paris Convention was also when Vietnam and Japan formed the diplomatic relation. The anthology is also released to bring solace to those who perished in the war, commemorate the 40th anniversary of the relation and raise support for Agent Orange victims.
The book begins with “Nam quoc son ha” in the 10th or 11th century, considered the country’s first independence declaration, along with other historically monumental works, followed by poems by later poets, including President Ho Chi Minh.
The book also features 70 works by Japanese poets who extol Vietnam’s beauty and its people’s unyieldingness during and after the wars and ends with several Japanese translators and poetry critics’ reviews.
