NIETZSCHE, CAO BA QUAT, AND WISSAI WITH REGARD TO BRAGGADOCIOS

NIETZSCHE, CAO BA QUAT, AND WISSAI WITH REGARD TO BRAGGADOCIOS

Nobody like braggarts. That’s a truism. I know that. You know that. Everybody knows that. But most human do brag. They do so for various reasons: to impress others, to lie, to boost sagging self-confidence, and maybe to deal with loneliness and solitude. 

I have noticed that those who profess modesty are the ones that brag the most, though in a subdued and subtle manner. I detest hypocrites like them. I even know one such hypocrite up close and personal. He thinks I am too dumb not to know his nature. I am impulsive, emotional, loud, and immature, but I am not very stupid. I have empathy. I have imagination. I have sensitivity. I understand how people think. I can get into the mind of my interlocutor or opponent. That’s why I am a winning poker player. The way I look at bragging is like this: If you feel like bragging, do so openly, loudly but truthfully, with facts backing up your bragging. Just don’t be a sneak about it. Don’t be a coward. And don’t lie. 

Nietzsche bragged that only Heine and he were the masters of the German language. And he was right. Nietzsche was universally admired for his prose. He was the impetus for my learning German. I said to myself if Nietzsche came across so beautiful, so clear, so majestic and magisterial in English translation, he must be sublime in the original.

Every educated Vietnamese knows about the bragging of Cao Ba Quat regarding his poetic gifts. He was right. When I was a teenager, I read the poems about the poverty of a village scholar, written by Nguyễn Công Trứ and CBQ, respectively. I couldn’t help noticing the marked differences in poetic qualities and thoughts. One was mundane, pedestrian, and practical. The other was sublime and defiant. NCT was an accomplished man in many fields but not a genius in poetry. CBQ was. 

I am a braggart, too. I don’t deny it. I am no hypocrite. I know I have been obnoxious in my braggadocios, but I don’t give a shit what people think of me. Do you really think I do? I brag in order to keep myself on my toes. I brag in order to boost myself to greater heights. I back up my bragging with facts. I’ve bragged that no fucker in the forums, including the assholes that love to affix and append the Ph.D. designation next to their names, even what they wrote had nothing to do with their field of specialty, can rival me in terms of the command of the English language. I have issued a challenge to them to a written or oral debate. I also claim that as far as I know, nobody can translate Vietnamese poetry into English as well I do. I have just put out two literary books in English. Any motherfucker who thinks that he can write English had better read the books and ask himself if he can actually write as sublimely as I did in the books. 

Wissai

July 29, 2019