Vietnamese Ambassador Truong Manh Son pays tribute to Dr. Ivo Vasiljev (Photo: VNA) Prague (VNA) – Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic are seeking ways topreserve the collection of books and documents about Vietnam left by late Czechlinguistic professor Ivo Vasilijev, an expert on Vietnamese studies and a goodfriend of Vietnam.
Dr.Ivo Vasiljev is known for his dedication to and love for Vietnam who left theVietnamese community in the Czech Republic a very meaningful heritage – the Czech-Vietnamesedictionary, co-authored with Vietnamese engineer Nguyen Quyet Tien to helpCzech-born Vietnamese learn their mother language.
Itis not only a dictionary but a bilingual encyclopedia providing knowledge onmany areas, ranging from society, culture, history to geography and biology.
Vasiljevdied in October 23, 2016 at the age of 81 when he just started to write thefifth out of six volumes of the dictionary.
InMay 2016, the encyclopedia won the second prize of the Dictionary of the Year awardby the Union of Interpreters and Translators of the Czech Republic despite onlythree volumes were released.
Vasiljevinterpreted for President Ho Chi Minh when a Czechoslovakian delegation visited Vietnamin 1966. He was the first Czech to translate NhatKy Trong Tu (Diary in Prison) into the Czech language and also researchedVietnamese ancient heritage and old scripts.
NguyenQuyet Tien, the co-author of the Czech-Vietnamese dictionary, told Vietnam NewsAgency that he is still determined to complete the six-volume encyclopedia ashis late fellow’s will.
HaManh Hung, a Vietnamese in Ceske Budejovice, has an idea to archive and usevaluable documents and thousands of books Vasiljev left to his society inCzech.
SharingHung’s view, President of the Vietnamese People Association in the CzechRepublic Hoang Dinh Thang said it is necessary to preserve the professor’sheritages and the association is discussing ways to protect these documents forVietnam’s next generations in the European country.-VNA
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