Today I found a love letter that I translated a while ago. It was written to participate in a “Love letter” competition, by a guy whose nickname was Dante to the boy that was both his friend and unrequited love. The reason why I translated this piece was because I was moved by it and though there were a lot of things left unsaid, unexplained, unanswered, at least I felt the love, and the sadness. There was actually a long story behind this but I’ll cut it short.
Dante was a true G in this “LGBT”, according to rumors with reliable source, and his life before he met Vergil was just a scary darkness. His family disowned him, and he started indulging himself in drugs and online games to escape from the real world. But his life took a turn, when Lady Fate let him meet Vergil. They started out as good friends and when Vergil knew Dante’s situation, he let Dante stay with him. They, then, became co-author for a lot of famous Vietnamese online fictions (both gay and non-gay) back in 2008-2009. One of their most popular pieces is “Silver Rings”, which would be mentioned in the letter.
Actually I do not have a lot of information about these two. While Dante was quite obvious about his feelings for Vergil, Vergil was rather unsure about his. As a side information, Vergil had a girlfriend - also childhood friend.
In 2011, after backing off from the online fiction world for about two years, Vergil suddenly appeared again. And our followers also received the news that Dante killed himself. This was a great shock as well as regret to everyone in the community. Maybe to Dante, it was a good end to his sad life. Maybe to Vergil, it was a goodbye to his best and most important friend ever. But to me personally, it was an awakening sign. I kept asking myself, why would people like him have to die? It was too tragic. Death was not a right ending for an unfortunate life, because people like him deserve better. They needed to live on and found a happy ending, not a running-away.
If you follow the Chinese online gay fiction community, you might know about Nan Kang Bai Qi, also a gay male writer. There were two work of his that left readers in complicated feelings, one was “Fu Sheng Liu Qi” (inaccurate translation: My blissful story), telling readers about his seven-year happiness with the guy he loved; the other one was “I’ll wait for you until I’m 35”, about his life after his loved one left him to get married to a girl. The second piece was uncompleted. He didn’t have enough patient or bravery to wait for that man until he was 35. He ended his life young, at the age of 28.
Perhaps, to the other 6 billions people in this world, their death was nothing, because they do not know them personally, nor their story has got anything to do with them. But to us, the living LGBTs and the supporters, it was like an eternal farewell to a friend, an important one. The feelings could never be said out loud, there were only silent tears.
Why are people that are different from the majority discriminated? Why do they have to die? Why is this world so unfair? The answer might be because people are afraid to open their hearts, to accept and empathize with those who are different. People are selfish and narrow-minded. They run after beliefs that kill the minority and still think that they are right. Wow.
I’m feeling emotional today, maybe that is the reason for this post. Under the cut, I would share with you the love letter I mentioned above, hope you guys could feel the love that I felt, too.
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
snowghoul
origamiaround
kianamaiart
discoholicmusic
prguitarman
