HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese audiences now have the chance to read the masterpiece The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat by the acclaimed Polish writer and journalist Ryszard Kapuściński in Vietnamese.

Polish Ambassador to Việt Nam Barbara Szymanowska on Monday hosted an event to introduce the book, translated by Nguyễn Chí Thuật.

The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat, published in 1978, features accounts from those close to Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selasssie, as well as analysis of the fall of his regime in Ethiopia by Kapuściński, Poland’s leading foreign correspondent.

“I am very delighted that The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat is now available to Vietnamese audience. The author’s other books Travels with Herodotus and The Shadow of the Sun, translated by Thái Linh, have been present in Việt Nam. I warmly encourage you to read the works of Ryszard Kapuściński, from which one can take a trip around the world, a world that has undergone rapid change yet the values and phenomena are still the same. Though these books are set in the context in the remote countries in the past, the truth and message are still relevant today,” said Ambassador Szymanowska.

“He is a world renowned writer with the role of documentary founder. His accounts written in 1960s and 1970s are still compelling and relevant today. It has been 10 years since Kapuscinski passed away and 50 years since his greatest books like The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat and The Shadow of the Sun were published, yet these works are worth reading and a valuable reference for journalists in the art of storytelling,” said the Ambassador.

Translator Nguyễn Chí Thuật said, “Publishing the masterpiece The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat is truly an important event of Vietnamese literature.”

“Vietnamese audiences first learned about Ryszard Kapuscinski in the 1990s. I had the honour of playing a part in promoting the writer and his works in Việt Nam. After the meeting with him, I returned Việt Nam with a doctorate in Polish literature and a close relation with the author. I also set a clear target for myself: bring his work to Vietnamese audiences. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Kapuscinski,” he added.

Kapuscinski  (1932-2007) was a noted Polish poet, writer, journalist, photographer and traveller. He was considered king of documentary journalism. — VNS