Flowers from Hell/Hoa Dia-Nguc (Lac-Viet Series, No 1) (English and Vietnamese Edition) [Paperback]

Nguyen Chi Thien (Author), Huynh Sanh Thong (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Vietnamese

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Council on Southeast Asia Studies; 2nd edition (December 1, 1984)
• Language: English, Vietnamese
• ISBN-10: 0938692216
• ISBN-13: 978-0938692218
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,589,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flowers from Hell/Hoa Dia-Nguc by Nguyen Chi Thien, November 9, 2006

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Jean Libby "Allies for Freedom" (Palo Alto, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flowers from Hell/Hoa Dia-Nguc (Lac-Viet Series, No 1) (English and Vietnamese Edition) (Paperback)

In July 1979 the dissident Vietnamese poet Nguyen Chi Thien burst into the British Embassy in Hanoi with 400 poems that he had composed in his mind while imprisoned by Ho Chi Minh and the Communist regime of North Vietnam for most of the years between 1961 and 1977. They were composed in his mind because the political prisoners were not allowed paper or pen. While in the concentration camps with other writers this poet had influenced Vietnamese literature and protest poetry with his "sacred fire."

Meanwhile, back in the USA, the Vietnam War is over, and immigrants seeking asylum from the Communists are beginning to swell in numbers. Some few were here since the 1960s, remaining at universities while their homeland was blown apart armed by the superpowers (Russia & China, and America & western Europe). Huynh Sanh Thong, a professor at Yale University, was one of these scholars. He had translated the poems of Ho Chi Minh into English, but now (1982) was faced with a photocopy of the manuscript the young dissident had brought to the British Embassy pleading to send them to the free world. The poet, Nguyen Chi Thien, was arrested outside the gates and brought to the Hanoi Central Prion (Hanoi Hilton) and it was not known if he were alive or dead. In reality, he was in between that state, for he suffered 12 more years imprisonment, 8 of them in solitary confinement, in leg stocks, for his poetry.

James Scott, director of Yale University's Council on Southeast Asia Studies, published professor Thong's translations with the original Vietnamese verses as Vol. #1 in the Lac Viet Series (Lac Viet is the original name of Viet Nam)in 1984. The book revitalized Yale's Vietnamese Studies Program, in much confusion after the American involvement in the war and the liberal opposition to it. It was clear from this man's experience that oppression, political imprisonment, torture, starvation, was a way of life by the victorious (in 1975) Vietnamese Socialists. It had been so since the partition of Viet Nam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam in 1954.

When "Flowers From Hell/Hoa Dia Nguc" was published in 1984 it was not known if the poet was still alive. The collection won the International Poetry Award in 1985, so Yale issued a second printing, which is what is offered on Amazon.com . The cause of this (and other) political prisoner was taken up by humanitarian organizations and Amnesty International, and in 1991 he was finally released, nearly dead. In 1995 he was released to the custody of his brother (who was an officer of the South Vietnamese army, and a participant in Paris Peace Talks) in Virginia. He was the only citizen of North Vietnam to be immigrated to the USA under the Humanitarian Operation (H.O.) agreement between the U.S. and the Socialist government of Vietnam. Everyone else among the nearly 1 million immigrants was associated with the South Vietnamese government, army, or U.S. government agencies or American companies which had been operating in Saigon. One million, and Nguyen Chi Thien, the "prison poet".

Like all good poetry, it can be read on many levels. Some prefer the love poems, the desire for a faithful relationship that will be as steadfast as that of his mother, who sheds many tears silently into her worn silk dress for the son who has been "many times in prison." Others like the sardonic black humor of his political poems. The many immigrant Vietnamese to the USA have experienced the Communist prisons, too, after 1975. They relate to the specific articulation of the conditions of cold, hunger, and loss of dignity. Everyone is awed that literature can be created from oppression and degradation. That is what the poems of Nguyen Chi Thien are about.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful heart-felt poetry, by a imprisioned Thai prince., July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Flowers from Hell/Hoa Dia-Nguc (Lac-Viet Series, No 1) (English and Vietnamese Edition) (Paperback)

Indeed. Beautiful, compassionate and often into fantasy as, I suppose, a way to console his pain which may have worked within himself but failed to mask the strange mixture of pain, beauty and fantasy his words create. I seem to have misplaced my copy of, 'Flowers From Hell', however, I will give you an example:

"Mens hearts are complicated things: Unhappy, they should blame themselves, not life. Tu Thuc once strolled and lost his way: Leaving the world, he reached peach blossom springs." from 'Sundry Notes' by Nguyen Chi Thien The latter is at the beginning and the book just keeps you turning pages and getting better. To read it is to be illuminated.