In these last 6 years, our country was similar to a ship standing out to sea, while inland there still is a small trench to shelter. “… Only people who had sheltered themselves under a trench could know how deep the ground was and only those who had gone to sea could know how immense the sea was. Let’s re-read an article published on the Dien Tin in 1945.
If the low-spirited “tone” had been laid bare in a time of economical crisis, then, when came the wartime period, this same tone still served the masses with their resentful psychology. Besides them, the magazines of Dang Ngoc Anh and Mai Van Ninh had published 3 issues in the consecutive years 1943-19. With regard to the Dan bao ( People’s newspaper) – Newsman Bui The My had published 3 consecutive Springtime issues: in 1940-1941-1942. Newsman Diep Van Ky understood his collaborator’s difficulty, so he gave him an “extra New Year’s gift” of 5 piastres. So when Tet was approaching, our poet didn’t have any cent left, and as he was a great “ drunkard”, he would be in trouble for lack of wine. After submitting his articles for the Tet issue, Tan Da was paid a whole month’s salary, but he quickly spent all that money. That was the Tet time of the year Giap Tuat ( 1934 – Year of the Dog) – Almost 70 years ago – At that time, poet Tan Da was writing for the Dong Phap Time ( French Indochina) owned by Diep Van Ky in Saigon. In this year Tet time, we have a chance to recall a “ fragment of life” of the aforesaid poet and newsman in those sacred days of our nation.
What is meant by “ existentialist”? – whether one understands that term rightly or wrongly – depends on one’s personal knowledge. Many foreign researchers on Vietnamese Studies provisionally believe that the appellation of “authentic existentialist” must be reserved for Tan Da – a poet and a newsman, fairly original in the history of contemporary Vietnamese Literature and Press.
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