Accused ‘poem thief’ Dao Kim Hoa defends herself to Writers Association

Vietnam Writer Association’s Chairman Huu Thinh has instructed the association’s inspection board to probe the circumstances of a plagiarism charge against translator Dao Kim Hoa.

The text of two poems by Lo Ngan Sun sent to the poem festival’s organizing board provided by Dao Kim Hoa.

On June 25, Hoa met with inspectors to explain the case that has roused a furor in literary circles since the story broke a few days earlier. Vietnam Literary Copyright Centre vice director Dinh Thi Lam Luyen also attended the meeting.

At the meeting, Hoa submitted a detailed report about her trip to Taiwan in 2001 to attend the Taipei International Poem Festival and also some related documents.

According to Hoa, at that time writer Xuan Tung (former assistant editor of the Foreign Literature Magazine) asked for permission for her to go to the festival as his translator. However, the organizing board only invited one person from Vietnam. Xuan Tung yielded his chance to Hoa because of health problems and language.

Hoa said that she was afraid that the organizing board would not accept her because she was unknown. With Tung’s encouragement, she sent her application to Taiwan.

She said that she wrote in the application that she has written poems, essays and articles, done cultural research of other nations, but that her major work was translation. She went to Taiwan in her own name, not in as a representative of the Vietnam Writers Association.

The festival included a poem performance where participants read their works. She said at that time she thought simply that she could perform verses of others, which she had translated into English. For that reason, she didn’t report to anyone when she sent four poems by Lo Ngan Sun and Huu Thinh by email to the festival’s coordinator, a person named Kaitlin.

Hoa stated that she clearly noted that she and Joseph Duemer had translated the four poems.

She also stated that when she read the poems, she said in English that she was the translator only.

According to Hoa, she doesn’t know Chinese so she didn’t pay attention to Chinese documents provided by the organizing board. She emphasized that she was not paid anything for reading the poems.

She said that the scandal is a catastrophic misunderstanding and she had no intention to assume the names of Huu Thinh and Lo Ngan Sun, who she loves and respect very much.

Hoa hopes the two poets will consider this and awaits their judgment.

She thanked writer Trang Ha for “helping Taipei readers understand the truth” and giving back the names for Huu Thinh and Lo Ngan Sun.

However, there are some points that need verification. For example, if Hoa sent the translated versions with the name of three people underneath (the names of the author and the two translators), why is there only her name under poems in the Taiwan poem book?

A key point is the copyright contract that poets had to sign with the organizing board of the Taipei poem festival 2001. Hoa said that she didn’t remember whether she signed it or not.

Realising that this case is complicated, and reaches to the prestige of the Vietnam Writers Association, the honour and fate of a person, the interest of two authors and the concern of readers, the Vietnam Writer Association’s inspection board decided to ask for all documents related to Dao Kim Hoa from the Taipei poem festival’s organizing board.

For resolution of this case, readers will have to wait for some time.

Viet Khoi