The Secret of Hoa Sen

Translated from the Vietnamese by Bruce Weigl and Nguyen Phan Que Mai

Nguyen Phan Que Mai is among the most exciting writers to emerge from post-war Vietnam. Bruce Weigl, driven by his personal experiences as a soldier during the war in Vietnam, has spent the past 20 years translating contemporary Vietnamese poetry. These penetrating poems, published in bilingual English and Vietnamese, build new bridges between two cultures bound together by war and destruction. The Secret of Hoa Sen, Que Mai's first full-length U.S. publication, shines with craft, art, and deeply felt humanity.

I cross the Lam River to return to my homeland

where my mother embraces my grandmother's tomb in the rain,

the soil of Nghe An so dry the rice plants cling to rocks.

My mother chews dry corn; hungry, she tries to forget.

"The Secret of Hoa Sen, translated by the author and Bruce Weigl, takes us along the streets of Vietnam where we meet women bearing 'stars in the shape of carrying poles' and women who are the collectors of garbage who 'mend their lives whole from debris.' Que Mai takes us deep into the earth with 'earthworms who know how to sing the eternal song of emerald grass.' She brings forth the music in each rice plant blossoming in the lullaby of her grandma who died during the Great Famine. Through the suffering of war and greed and the celebration of life, these poems originate in the depths of mud and rise, like the lotus flower whose petals magically take flight, bringing us its truth and freedom."

-Teresa Mei Chuc, author of Red Thread: Poems

"Que Mai, a translator, poet, and winner of the Poetry of the Year Award from the Hanoi Writers Association, collaborated with poet and translator Weigl for this collection focused on the lingering physical and psychological effects of the Vietnam War. These straightforward, personal poems lament and celebrate with the landscape—the smells, colors, and people of her country—that is their touchstone ... But Nguyen also sings for the alienated orphans of the Vietnam War; for garment workers in Bangladesh; for the victims of Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines; and for mothers across the globe in perilous circumstances ... Mai writes with a nostalgic yet detail-oriented eye." —Publishers Weekly

"Nguyen Phan Que Mais poetry collection is firmly rooted in the Vietnamese tradition, though her poems—or, rather, full-blown songs—also travel to Bhutan, Bangladesh, and other locales. The Secret of Hoa Sen is a collection about the earth-born: family, feeding, sustenance, and how these are intimately connected to the earth. This is what makes the poems stand out from the recent trend in writing about the urban familial settings, but this is not to say that the poems are limited to pastoral settings. Nguyens co-translator Bruce Weigl rightly describes the collection in the introduction as 'a global poetry, necessary for our troubled times.' ... Ms. Nguyens voice is simple, but full of compassion, and there is both the quality of the earth and the wind in her poetry, an embracing lushness." —Asymptote

"The author writes eloquently about family, femaleness and the sensual beauty of her country. When she writes of place, I feel that I am walking past the rice shoots in a long ago world." —Omaha World-Herald

"While there are dark, gritty elements at play, Que Mais work does not lose itself to despair. She crafts subtleties in sentiment without being overly sentimental." —Los Angeles Review of Books

BRUCE WEIGL: Bruce Weigls most recent poetry collection is The Abundance of Nothing, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for 2013. Weigl was born on January 27, 1949, in Lorain, Ohio. Weigls first full-length collection of poems, A Romance, was published in 1979. He is now the author of thirteen poetry collections, and the best-selling memoir The Circle of Hanh. Weigl is past President of the Associated Writing Programs, and has been Chairperson of the Judging panel in Poetry for the National Book Award. Weigl has received many literary awards, including the Poets Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Paterson Poetry Prize, Awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Yaddo Foundation, and two Pushcart Prizes. In 2006, he was the single recipient in poetry for the Lannan Literary Award for outstanding contributions to literature, and in 2011 he won the Robert Creeley Award. Having fought in the American War in Vietnam (Quang Tri, 1967-1968), Bruce Weigl has been working to promote mutual understanding and reconciliation between Vietnam and the US – via literature and cultural exchanges for over twenty years. He is the co-translator of four Vietnamese-English poetry collections and has received a Medal for Significant Contributions from the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations and the Vietnam Writers Association, who acknowledge his efforts and success in the promotion of Vietnamese literature to the world. Weigl is currently a professor of poetry at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio.