HCM CITY (VNS)  — The famous novel Dat Nuoc Dung Len (The Country Rises Up) by veteran writer Nguyen Ngoc about Dinh Nup, a guerrilla leader of the ethnic Bhana group during the country's resistance war against the French, has been translated into Bhana.

The book, which is available in Vietnamese and Bhana, will be published next month to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Nup (1914 -2014), according to Gia Lai Province's Arts and Literature Association.

For the last 57 years, the novel has been translated into several foreign languages including Japanese, English and Chinese.

It describes the heroic exploits of Nup and the battles between his people and the French during the country's resistance war (1946 -1954).

This is the first time the novel has been translated into Bhana.

Nup was depicted in Ngoc's novel in historically accurate detail. The novel has long been included in literature lessons of secondary school students and was made into a movie a decade ago.

"I've lived in Gia Lai since 1988. I've learned a lot about the people of Bhana, their culture and customs," said Nguyen Quang Tue, who translated the book.

"I like them. I translated the book because I want the members of the Bhana ethnic community to be able to read and enjoy it, " Tue said.

Tue, a member of the Arts and Literature Association of Gia Lai Province in the Central Highlands, said he and a Bhana primary school teacher had spent more than two years on the translation.

Writer Ngoc, a native of central Quang Nam Province, lived among the Ede and Bhana in the Central Highlands many years during the wars against the French and the Americans.

He is the author of many famous novels about the Central Highlands including Reo Cao (High Mountain Area) and Rung Xa Nu (Xa Nu Forest). — VNS