Table Of ContentOTHER MOONS
OTHER MOONS
Vietnamese Short Stories
of the American War
and Its Aftermath
Translated and edited by
Quan Manh Ha and Joseph Babcock
Foreword by Bao Ninh
Columbia University Press / New York
Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation
for assistance given by the Pushkin Fund in the publication
of this book.
Columbia University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Ha, Quan Manh, translator. | Babcock, Joseph, 1985- translator. |
Bảo Ninh, writer of foreword.
Title: Other moons : Vietnamese short stories of the American War
and its aftermath / translated and edited by Quan Manh Ha and
Joseph Babcock.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2020]
Identifiers: LCCN 2019055643 (print) | LCCN 2019055644 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231196086 (cloth) | ISBN 9780231196093 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780231551632 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Vietnam War, 1961-1 975—V ietnam—F iction. | Vietnam
War, 1961- 1975— Influence— Fiction. | Short stories, Vietnamese—
Translations into English. | LCGFT: Short stories.
Classification: LCC PL4378.82.E5 O84 2020 (print) | LCC PL4378.82.E5
(ebook) | DDC 895.9/223340803581—d c23
LC record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019055643
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019055644
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-f ree paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover image: © Tran Tuan Viet / Gettyimages
Cover design: Lisa Hamm
CONTENTS
Foreword: Writing About War Is Writing About Peace
/ Bao Ninh vii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: A Note on the Selection and Translation of Stories /
Quan Manh Ha and Joseph Babcock xvii
1. UNSUNG HERO / Nguyen Van Tho 1
2. WHITE CLOUDS FLYING / Bao Ninh 17
3. LOUSE CRAB SEASON / Mai Tien Nghi 21
4. BIRDS IN FORMATION / Nguyen Ngoc Tu 35
5. A CRESCENT MOON IN THE WOODS / Nguyen Minh Chau 45
6. MS. THOAI / Hanh Le 63
7. THE CORPORAL / Nguyen Trong Luan 77
8. RED APPLES / Vuong Tam 83
vi(cid:11)CONTENTS
9. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE VILLAGE
/ Ta Duy Anh 91
10. BROTHER, WHEN WILL YOU COME HOME?
/ Truong Van Ngoc 111
11. WAR / Thai Ba Tan 121
12. THE CHAU RIVER PIER / Suong Nguyet Minh 129
13. STORMS / Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong 149
14. THEY BECAME MEN / Pham Ngoc Tien 159
15. AN AMERICAN SERVICE HAMLET / Nguyen Thi Thu Tran 175
16. LOVE AND WAR / Nguyen Ngoc Thuan 191
17. THE PERSON COMING FROM THE WOODS
/ Nguyen Thi Am 197
18. OUT OF THE LAUGHING WOODS / Vo Thi Hao 205
19. THE SORROW WASN’T ONLY OURS / Luong Liem 219
20. A MORAL MURDERER / Lai Van Long 225
Permissions and Acknowledgments 241
FOREWORD
Writing About War Is Writing About Peace
BAO NINH
S
ince 1995, when the United States normalized diplomatic
relations with Vietnam, Americans have been visiting Hanoi,
and many of them are veterans who fought in the American
War. A veteran myself, I am able to have open conservations with
them. I like the way American veterans talk about the war because
they are sincere and straightforward, always saying what they think.
Although individual Americans may perceive Vietnam and the
Vietnamese people differently, they are usually all surprised by the
fact that they encounter no hatred from their “former enemy” in
postwar Vietnam. Even two decades after the end of the war, it was
hardly a forgotten past in 1995, when Americans first started vis-
iting our country, because the remnants and catastrophic conse-
quences of the conflict were ubiquitous throughout Vietnam. So
why did most Vietnamese people treat American veterans as
friends rather than enemies? Australian and South Korean
veterans— U.S. allies during the war— whom I met were also aston-
ished by the Vietnamese people’s peaceful attitude, and they won-
dered how the Vietnamese could possibly change their attitude
toward their former enemy so quickly and easily; they found this
difficult to comprehend. But if one reads the history of Vietnam,
one will realize that this is by no means incomprehensible.
viii(cid:11)FOREWORD
From its birth over two thousand years ago up through the last
few decades of the twentieth century, Vietnam has continuously
fought against foreign invaders, all of whom were far more power-
ful than the Vietnamese, militarily. Therefore, whenever Vietnam
was invaded, the country had to bear great calamities: the land was
reduced to ashes; death was everywhere. After each war ended, in
order to survive, the Vietnamese not only had to work hard to
rebuild houses and villages but also had to try their best to free
themselves from the nightmares and catastrophic psychological
devastation caused by war.
That meant we had to learn to quickly “close down the past.” In
order to achieve this goal, we needed to reconcile with our former
enemies and hold no hatred toward them, because hatred is poi-
sonous. If we kept holding resentment in our hearts, we would be
killing ourselves, our fellow citizens, and, more broadly, our coun-
try. Resentment or hatred would make the country sink perma-
nently under the weight of the horrifying and tragic memories of
the war. Hatred would make us unable to live a normal life: we
would be devastated physically and psychologically, and we, as well
as our children, would never be able to live happily. This is a valu-
able lesson that the Vietnamese have learned throughout centuries.
Generations have been practicing this philosophy— a philosophy of
loving peace and harboring no xenophobia. These are defining char-
acteristics of the Vietnamese people.
Antixenophobia might seem to be paradoxical in the Vietnam-
ese people, but I think it is an admirable trait. The Vietnamese have
fought several wars, but they love peace and are essentially peace-
ful people. We are neither militant nor vainglorious about our vic-
tories. We are courageous in fighting against foreign invaders, but
we treat foreign people with respect. We are known for our nation-
alism, but we do not practice the narrow form of nationalism
prevalent elsewhere in Asia.
It is our love for peace and antixenophobia that make us more
open- minded and eager to learn new and useful things, especially
FOREWORD(cid:11)ix
from other cultures, even from our invaders. This is evidenced in
the relations between France and Vietnam from the nineteenth
through the first half of the twentieth century.
From 1858 to 1954, France invaded and colonized Indochina—
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. That was one hundred years of
hatred, violence, and exploitation. The Vietnamese rebelled against
the French colonizers, and in turn, the French suppressed the Viet-
namese revolutions violently and brutally. But during the nearly
century- long French occupation, Vietnamese society, which was
influenced by French culture, was able to free itself, relatively
speaking, from the feudalist system that had dominated Vietnam
for thousands of years. French Enlightenment thinkers such as Vol-
taire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Diderot had a great influence
on Vietnamese intellectuals, who eventually turned away from
Confucianism. The French Revolution of 1789 promoted freedom,
equality, and human rights, all of which were later introduced to
Vietnamese society and, as a result, weakened the domination of
Confucianism over Vietnamese culture.
The Vietnamese also adopted the Roman alphabet from Europe.
At the end of the nineteenth century, with no hesitation, we began
using the Roman alphabet rather than the logographic chu Nom sys-
tem composed of Chinese characters. Chu Nom had been used in
Vietnam for several years, but it was rather complicated and dif-
ficult to learn, write, and read. Therefore, for years the majority of
the Vietnamese population was illiterate. The Roman alphabet,
which the French colonizers used, was easy to learn, use, and print.
Getting rid of chu Nom and adopting the modified Roman alpha-
bet (chu Quoc Ngu) used in modern Vietnamese was considered a
great cultural and linguistic revolution.
And literature, in fact, was this revolution’s greatest beneficiary.
Young Vietnamese poets of the New Poetry period in the first half
of the twentieth century— who were, for the most part, educated
in French schools— used chu Quoc Ngu to write poetry and were no
longer bound by the Chinese language and the outdated chu Nom
x(cid:11)FOREWORD
system. Vietnamese novelists and poets of this period learned the
quintessence of French Romantic and realistic literatures, and
between 1930 and 1945 they produced several great literary works
and introduced Vietnamese literature to the Western world. I con-
sider this the golden period in Vietnamese literature, especially
prose fiction. Novels written in this period were influenced by
great French authors, and one can see the absence of the classical
Chinese prose movement in them. The language they use is more
familiar, the characters are easy to relate to, the plots are more
interesting, and humanism is promoted. Two prominent authors
from this period are Vu Trong Phung and Nam Cao, whose fiction
is as great as any world masterpiece, even today.
In the autumn of 1945, Vietnam gained its freedom from the
Japanese imperialists and the French colonizers. But soon after
that, Vietnam was at war again. There were three consecutive Hot
Wars in the second half of the twentieth century: the Vietnamese-
French War (1945– 1954), the American War (1960– 1975), and the
Sino- Vietnamese War (1979– 1990), also known as the Border War
with China. Then there was, of course, the Cold War— the global
ideological battle between communism (from the former Soviet
Union) and capitalism (from the United States).
When the country was at war, literature suffered the same fate.
Vietnamese authors, whether voluntarily or reluctantly, wrote to
serve the country’s revolution against foreign invaders. They were
considered “soldiers on a cultural battlefield” who used their pens
as weapons to destroy the enemy. Therefore, they had to put artis-
tic and literary values aside and quickly produce revolutionary
works that conveyed the spirit of fighting. These works are often
characterized by blood, fire, and hatred.
Vietnamese literature from the period 1945– 1990 was also influ-
enced by the dictates of “socialist realism.” Socialist realism, or
Stalinist and Maoist propaganda literature, dominated literary pro-
duction and artistic expression in communist countries, including
