Vietnamese literature goes to the world mainly through "underground channels
However, reality shows that the journey for Vietnamese literature to step out into international space is still full of obstacles.
Talking to Lao Dong reporters, writer Nguyen Binh Phuong frankly said that in the past time, he has not seen a strategy to promote books abroad that is clear and specific enough. Exchange activities and meetings with international writers organized annually are commendable efforts, but the results are not as expected.
He analyzed: "Looking back, I don't see a clear effect. Most of Vietnamese literary works going abroad follow the "small-scale" path, that is, from personal relationships, individual explorations, not promoted by an official organization.
Precisely because of going on a spontaneous path, the face of Vietnamese literature has not been fully and systematically reflected internationally. Foreign readers only know a few translated authors and most of these cases are not selected or introduced by a national representative organization.
Regarding the quality of translation, Mr. Phuong said that when there is no mechanism for selecting and controlling output, all translation and publishing activities depend greatly on the personal efforts of translators or foreign publishers.
When everything is spontaneous, output cannot be controlled, the selection of works does not reflect the true face of Vietnamese literature. Therefore, even though there are translated works, Vietnamese literature is still not truly present in the international arena," he said.
According to him, this shows that either the selected work does not reflect the true situation of Vietnamese literature, or the quality of the translation is not convincing enough for international readers to accept.
Need national-level strategy
From the above situation, writer Nguyen Binh Phuong believes that the bottleneck does not lie on the creator's side: "In a meeting with writers and artists with senior leaders last year, I stated very clearly. Writers when writing with support are good, not having it is okay, because they write according to personal urges and missions. But when the work is completed and of good quality, it is no longer the private property of the author, but becomes the property of the community. Once it is the property of the community, the spread to the world must be the responsibility of the community, specifically the publishing industry and the State.
According to him, writers do not have enough strength to spend money to translate their works themselves, nor do they have the conditions and time to promote themselves.
They are only capable of writing. Therefore, I proposed that there should be a Literary Translation Institute to select works, select quality translators and bring Vietnamese culture to the world in a methodical way" - he emphasized.
Mr. Phuong said that many countries have built translation institutions as part of a cultural strategy and soft power. If Vietnam continues to let this activity be spontaneous, it will be difficult to create a national literary face on the international stage.
Regarding the role of the National Book Award, the writer said that this could be an important reference channel, creating a guarantee to introduce works abroad.
The award may be a basis for us to rely on when introducing works. But more importantly, it is still necessary to build a systematic translation - promotion ecosystem with a clear strategy. If there is no institution capable of standing up as the focal point, all efforts will still only stop at the individual level" - he said.
However, writer Nguyen Binh Phuong also expressed his respect for translators and independent organizations who are striving to bring Vietnamese literature abroad with their resources.
He emphasized: "Writers and literature lovers need to be grateful to translators and small organizations that are trying to translate and introduce Vietnamese literature to the world.But if Vietnamese literature really wants to go far and deeply integrate, there must be a clear national strategy.
