Barbara Beidler, "Afterthoughts - on ‘Napalm Drop on Jungle Villages Near Haiphong," was so irritating to the Pentagon that it took reprisals against the Sunday School magazine Venture which published it. [See World Outlook February 24, p.206.] In north Vietnam, the poem met with a. different response. The wellknown Vietnamese poet Huy: Can, who is. vice-president of the Committee for Child Welfare and vice-minister of Culture of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was so moved that he replied with a poem. The following is a free translation into English offered by the Vietnam News - Agency, published ; in Rangoon:
Truth Blazes Even in Little Children's Hearts
Dedicated to Barbara Beidler,
12-year-old American school girl.
‘Little Barbara,
Across the .Ocean, .
Your. skin.a different colour,
But you clearly hear,
The. screams, ;
Of children near Haiphong,,. .
Burnt. to death by U.S. bombs,
Scraps of their clothing flying in the sky.
You are just twelve years old,
But you speak up the conscience,
Of mankind shocked,
By ‘each rain of bombs.
America, America, ;
Do. you hear. the screams
Of thousands of children,
‘Charred by the golden fire?
Golden fire of napalin,.
Golden fire of. dollars,
“i. Like a putrefying. cancer,
That. burns. and eats away both flesh and blood,
like the pus of a gangrene,
That corrupts the bones and marrow,
‘Sticks’ to the body of America,
Creeping into her -blood and soul.
America, do you feel,
Your flesh and skin,
And your conscience burnt,
To death by American bombs?
little Barbara,
Your poem kindles a fire,
That scorches ghosts and devils,
They are confused, panic-stricken.
They ban your poen,:
But how can they ban,
The truth that blazes,
Even in little children's hearts!
February 18, 1967
Huy Can
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