Royalties... unexpected!

In September 2001, journalist Nguyen Huu Phach visited me and wanted me to go with him to visit poet Trinh Duong because Mr. Trinh Duong was weak and wanted to hand over the royalties from the poetry collection published in Hai Duong newspaper to him.

I took Mr. Phach on a Cup 82 and roamed through the villages of Tu Liem district (Hanoi). After asking around, I finally found Mr. Trinh Duong's house.

He lay motionless on the bed, thin and small, with a blanket covering his stomach but still conscious. He spoke to Mr. Phach intermittently because he was tired and his Quang Nam accent was very difficult to understand.

He said he wanted to go home and wait to die, not die in the hospital. He mentioned that the poetry collections A Century of Vietnamese Poetry and 20th Century Poetry… had been handed over to someone else to compile, and reminded Mr. Nguyen Huu Phach to contact Hai Duong poetry to contribute…

Mr. Nguyen Huu Phach gave him an envelope of royalties for Mr. Trinh Duong's poetry collection published in Hai Duong newspaper... I heard them discussing many things with each other, perhaps knowing that Mr. Trinh Duong was sick and tired, his poetry collection was taken from the poetry collection introduced in Hai Duong newspaper...

Mr. Trinh Duong's hands trembled as he held the envelope on his stomach, his eyes filled with tears, and he muttered: Royalties... unexpected!

He turned to me, encouraged me to write poetry and asked me to read him a poem I wrote…

Reading the obituary in the Literature and Arts newspaper, I learned that Mr. Trinh Duong passed away on September 28, 2001, at the age of 85. He was a man who devoted his life to poetry. With a strong love for poetry, many young poets knew him and were helped by him.

The royalties at that time were only 30,000 - 50,000 VND per poem, but Hai Duong Newspaper's respect for its collaborators was already established from that time...

HA TRONG DAM