Kieu Bich Hau: “Poetry can be the golden bridge for us to connect people, save our souls…”

Επιμέλεια συνέντευξης: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού

Her biography: KIEU BICH HAU
Member of Vietnam Writers’ Association
Born in Hung Yen Province, Vietnam
Executive Expert of External Affairs Office of Vietnam Writer’s Association (From 2019 until now)
Editor of NEUMA magazine of Romania
Editor of Humanity magazine of Russia
Ambassador of Ukiyoto Publisher of Canada to Vietnam. Manager of Communication & Brand of SaVipharm. Founder and Head of Hanoi Female Translators.

7 Awards in Literature: Literary Award for the Youth in 1992 by Tien Phong Newspaper and Nguyen Du College for creative writing.
Second Award in The short story contest organized by Literature Newspaper in 2007.
Award in the short story contest organized by Military Arts & Literature Magazine in 2009.
Award for the best short story by the Naval Command in 2015
Award for excellent short story by Military Arts & Literature Magazine in 2015.
The ART Danubius Prize in 2022 for her nurturing and deepening Vietnamese-Hungarian literary and cultural relations.
The International Poetry Festival – Europa in Versi Special Award in 2023 for her dissemination of Vietnamese poetry and prose on an international level.
Published 22 books of prose, poetry, essay in Vietnam, Italy, Canada.
Her poems and short stories have been translated into many foreign languages: English, Italian, Korean, Russian, Marathi, Hindi, Romanian, Hungarian, Spanish, Portuguese, Nepali, Uzbek, French, German, Turkish…

Dear Honorable Poet, please share your thoughts about the pandemic and the future of literature after the pandemic. Pandemic is the huge disaster, but at the same time is a challenge for human being to change and create new way of living for a better life. We lost many people in the pandemic. That is a terrible pain! From that bad experience, we learn how to be profoundly grateful to what we have in our life: the earth, the nature, people around and what to do in order to contribute to the world, to nurture the universe, to develop human being…
Literature will develop to be a powerful creative green industry. Writers will cooperate not only with artists but also with entrepreneurs. Literature come to every aspect of life, bring about the deeper and more attractive appearance and content for living things. For example, when a designer wants to make a new collection of costumes, he (she) can discuss the theme with a writer and they together create a story for the collection. The name of the collection is the title of the story which is written by the writer. By this way, the new collection of costumes will become more impressive, luxury, and attract more clients.

The Good and the Bad. Who is winning in nowadays? The Good in this world for me is the Peace, Education and Health care for all, Jobs for everyone, Mutual understanding between people, Deep connecting and cooperation in all fields to develop personal ability and communal power, Sustainable production and environment care…
The Bad is the greedy willing, the fighting for positions, money, power, fame,… human rights violation.
The winners are the losers, we need to keep the balance in the challenged world. Only love, compassion, and deep connection by literature can make all of us being winners.

Tell us where inspiration is coming from for you? Inspiration comes to me from my soulmate who lives far away from me, but we talk nearly every day about poetry, life, conflicts, challenges, possibilities,… Inspiration also comes from my travels, meetings with great people, great minds, from my job as a journalist, a writer and translator. It comes from the bad and good things in life, from my silent journey into myself to discover the greater me…

Are the people read books or no? Less people who read really traditional printing books than people who watch films, videos on their devices such as smart phone, ipad, laptop. Many people seem to depend on their devices, so that publishers and authors nowadays follow the new trend of publishing online with multi-versions book to approach those readers conveniently.

How many books have you written? And where can we find your books? I have written 22 books of prose, poetry and essay. You can find my books on Amazon, Tiki platforms,… bookshops in Vietnam, Italy, Canada, India, and the audio version on Youtube.

Do you believe that our life, our destiny is written or we can change it? I do not know if my life is written, (or not) by any mysterious force. Even so, I think I can change it by direct my way, by being the driver of my life car. How to change it? Just listen to the authentic voice in my heart, listen carefully the song of my soul. Sometimes, in the pain or grief of loss, I can see myself the clearest and find the right path for me to go. Whenever you are not satisfied with what the life brings to you, you can get stronger power to change it by your own way, to re-write your fate.

Religion is the cause of many wars – a lot of people they say that. What do you think? I believe in the religion of love, compassion and union. In that religion you will see the other one in yourself. You will love the others as loving yourself, you are ready to give anyone, anytime, any situations, without any conditions. Religion is good in its nature. But it turns to be bad when someone uses religion for his own gain.

Money brings happiness? Yes and No. The right money comes from your good effort of working for sake of good living can bring you happiness. But the bad money comes from evil motivation and action will never fulfill you with joy and peace.

The book. E book or Hardcover book. What will be the future? We can have paperback, hard cover book, e-book also. In the future, e-book will be more popular. We can develop the e-book which include some parts of audio, film, animation, whatever we think out, we can make it real with e-book.

What do you think about the year of technology? Are we lost ourselves inside the mobile phone, the computers… The year of technology transforms our life, society. We can use technology in every aspect of our life, making it easier and more convenient, faster, more fruitful. But we also spend more time on our devices. If we depend on the devices and forget totally the real life, it will be a big problem and we lose the balance.

Environmental issues. Is the progress the technology and the humans are responsible for all this disaster? Why? Of course we are responsible for all the disasters happened in the world. We need to stop the over explore the nature source and over production, wastes,… which cause pollutions, the heat and melting ice,… We need more efforts to find the better solutions to save the world and our life. We need love, union, mutual understanding. Poetry can be the golden bridge for us to connect people, save our souls. Poetry leads us to the Land of Love and Light.

A wish for 2023. All wars and conflicts in the world will stop. Each one will be able to grow one young tree. Love will be paid by love…

My poem:

Purification by Kieu Bich Hau

Grows from the mud of samsara
The lotus blooms into endless love verses
Each petal contains a verse
continues to open
open
open more…

When all other people read those verses
The happiness will be released
The light will shine over
The love grows inside all hearts
from a golden seed,
Leave the emptiness in me
A purification
Just being here right now