A VOV correspondent in Paris interviewed Garcias about his work.
VOV: What made you decide to translate the book?
Garcias: I started learning Vietnamese when I retired 12 years ago. Previously, I had come to Vietnam twice and I love the language very much. Knowing this, a friend of mine, who is a music composer from Hanoi, presented the book to me when it first came out in 2005 and told me that it would be very interesting if I could translate it into French.
On returning to France, I spent time reading the book and began translating it two years ago. I did it three times until the publisher Philipe Picquier agreed to put it into print.
VOV: It’s not easy to translate a book from Vietnamese into French. Could you tell us about the process?
Garcias: I have actually studied and taught Chinese for 35 years and I started to learn Vietnamese when I retired. A good command of Chinese helped me study Vietnamese more quickly. I also studied Vietnamese in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. In addition, I have acquired good translation skills as I translated many books from English and Arabic.
In ‘Dang Thuy Tram’s diary’, some of the text, the dialectical sentence structures and vocabulary were difficult to understand but I finally managed to figure them out after reading them over and over.
VOV: You have brought the spirit of the diary alive to French readers. What do you think about the diary’s author?
Garcias: I think doctor Tram had many good virtues such as courage, eagerness to learn and a love for humanity, which we westerners admire very much.
I believe there remain many mysterious things about the life of the unfortunate woman which we have not yet discovered. In general, she was a highly admirable girl. That’s why I have spent my whole retirement translating the book. She deserves it!
VOV: After this diary, do you plan to translate any other Vietnamese books?
Garcias: I’m planning to translate a book introduced to me by my friend in Hanoi. The book is about the childhood of a boy in the Mekong Delta. I have got halfway through it. If things go to plan, the book will be available to French readers next year.
Van Anh
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