A diary written by Dang Thuy Tram during the Vietnam War was published in France on August 20. Jean Claude Garcia says the diary has inspired him to translate it into French.

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