US veteran and poet Bruce Weigl sees his return to Vietnam this time as a way of helping to relieve his bad memories of the war.
Talking about his visit to the central province of Quang Tri 42 years after leaving Vietnam in 1968, Weigl said the country’s revival, the unimaginable changes and images of crowded streets and peaceful fields on this visit have helped him to come to terms with his haunting memories of a war-torn land.
He also said that he would come to this land again, as if he was coming back to his home. He said he first returned to Vietnam in 1985 and since then had returned 12 times, but had never visited the Quang Tri battlefield as his Vietnam war memoirs were still torturing him.
According to Weigl, he had even been to Hue several times, only 30km from Quang Tri territory, but dared not continue to the places where he saw his friends dying 40 years ago, since these memories were still too raw. He said he was afraid of seeing the hills, the fields and the rivers in the former battlefield.
After the war, Weigl started searching documents in archives, to learn about the Vietnamese soldiers, and he discovered these so-called “foes” loved and wrote poetry. From 1979, Weigl began writing poetry as a way of redemption from his war obsessions and traumas.
From old notebooks of soldiers on the other side of the frontline, he and his friends selected and translated poems into English to help Americans see another side of the past war. Later, his own poetry would turn him into a big name in US literature.
Weigl used to be a professor in famous universities such as Arkansas , Old Dominion and Penn State , and now is an honorary professor in arts and human culture of the Lorain Country Community College in Ohio city.
He made many contributions to healing relations between Vietnam and the US after the war. As with many other soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war, he was affected by Agent Orange and now is suffering from cancer.
During his visit to Vietnam, Weigl will take part in a poetry night called ‘Returning to my Vietnamese home’ and on Dec. 16 launch his poetical memoir, “After the Rain Stopped Pounding”, which has been translated into Vietnamese by Nguyen Phan Que Mai and published by the Youth Publishing House./.
Talking about his visit to the central province of Quang Tri 42 years after leaving Vietnam in 1968, Weigl said the country’s revival, the unimaginable changes and images of crowded streets and peaceful fields on this visit have helped him to come to terms with his haunting memories of a war-torn land.
He also said that he would come to this land again, as if he was coming back to his home. He said he first returned to Vietnam in 1985 and since then had returned 12 times, but had never visited the Quang Tri battlefield as his Vietnam war memoirs were still torturing him.
According to Weigl, he had even been to Hue several times, only 30km from Quang Tri territory, but dared not continue to the places where he saw his friends dying 40 years ago, since these memories were still too raw. He said he was afraid of seeing the hills, the fields and the rivers in the former battlefield.
After the war, Weigl started searching documents in archives, to learn about the Vietnamese soldiers, and he discovered these so-called “foes” loved and wrote poetry. From 1979, Weigl began writing poetry as a way of redemption from his war obsessions and traumas.
From old notebooks of soldiers on the other side of the frontline, he and his friends selected and translated poems into English to help Americans see another side of the past war. Later, his own poetry would turn him into a big name in US literature.
Weigl used to be a professor in famous universities such as Arkansas , Old Dominion and Penn State , and now is an honorary professor in arts and human culture of the Lorain Country Community College in Ohio city.
He made many contributions to healing relations between Vietnam and the US after the war. As with many other soldiers fighting in the Vietnam war, he was affected by Agent Orange and now is suffering from cancer.
During his visit to Vietnam, Weigl will take part in a poetry night called ‘Returning to my Vietnamese home’ and on Dec. 16 launch his poetical memoir, “After the Rain Stopped Pounding”, which has been translated into Vietnamese by Nguyen Phan Que Mai and published by the Youth Publishing House./.
