"Every shore has waves of the Dinh River..."

(Baonghean) - In 2000, with the encouragement and support of a number of "Manh Thuong Quan", Yen Thanh Literature and Arts Association edited and published the book "Yen Thanh Poetry", a collection of selected works by more than 40 poets from the Lua homeland in the 20th century. The good news is that the book of poems has gathered most of the poets from Yen Thanh homeland or those who are closely attached to Yen Thanh land, from those who participated in the New Poetry movement such as poet Phan Khac Khoan, to the generation that matured during the resistance war against France and America such as: Tran Huu Thung, Phan Xuan Hat, Huy Huyen, Quang Huy, Nguyen Xuan Phau, Nguyen Khac Thach, Phan Van Tu, Ngo Duc Tien, Phan Sinh Vien...

A rather surprising and interesting thing is that there are 2 villages in the district, each village has 3 poets (and their poems are included in the Anthology), that is Vinh Tuy village, Vinh Thanh commune and Lien Tri village, Lien Thanh commune. In Lien Tri village alone, the authors Phan Van Tu, Dang Hong Thiep, Nguyen The Ky, each have their own voice, their own mark.

Phan Van Tu's poetic voice is both kind and novel. When his poems appeared, they captured the hearts and feelings of millions of people, forming "A bridge connecting the shores of joy". Dang Hong Thiep wrote poetry quite early but only published his poems after he retired from his position as Chief of Office of the Provincial People's Committee.

In this article, I want to talk more about Nguyen The Ky, who always calls me uncle (because I have lived and worked with his father for many years). Ky's poetry is youthful, simple, pure, and subtle, writing poetry without thinking of himself as a poet. Perhaps that is why his poetry is both expressive and contains deep, lingering emotions about his homeland and country. Even though he lives far from home, Lien Tri village always comes to mind: "The rows of lotus ponds still smell fragrant/ The fallen cotton flowers rustle the communal house yard"; sometimes the pain is unbearable: "Dear homeland, I am like a person who has made a mistake/ In the hustle and bustle of the city/ Pitying my weak mother, the deep fields are falling/ Pitying my father's blood that stains several battlefields".

When he was a student of the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University of Science, Nguyen The Ky had some very witty and profound verses: "...But that person - from the next school / Loved poetry so much that he almost forgot the way home / But Uncle Friend, Uncle Career / The school loudspeaker gently threatened: let him go back to his hometown / Because of the couples / Sometimes accidentally stood by the roadside kissing each other...". Sometimes, he was surprised in the middle of Khau Vai Love Market in the mountainous region of Ha Giang, still "The nine-year wait and ten-year wait were intact / The first unfinished love was intact / Collecting all the mistakes / To become a souvenir of this afternoon". Living in the distant West, he still misses her: "The song "Who still remembers and forgets the two banks"/ Ca-chiu-sa, the row of poplar trees standing and waiting/ Like her, the distant hometown river/ Silently drifting"... Even the seemingly indifferent water hyacinth petals on Ninh Kieu wharf, Can Tho also remind him of a fiery time, of the enormous losses of the young woman: "The purple-red color of the flower is like the color of blood/ Like a lamp burning for many missed opportunities".

Journalist Nguyen The Ky.

The unique feature of Nguyen The Ky's poetry is that from simple things, from sincere and deep emotions, he speaks of great things about the country, homeland, especially the human condition.

The poems selected in the anthology "Yen Thanh Poetry" appeared before and during the time Nguyen The Ky worked as a reporter and then as Deputy Director in charge of content of Nghe An Radio and Television Station, Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper. For the brothers in the Song Dinh (Yen Thanh) art group, everyone always had a close affection for the famous Literature student of the high school at the foot of Gam mountain: "That year, the train went to the North/ Eyes blurred, Gam mountain behind/ Salty rice waves, mother's song/ Wherever we went, Roc, Veo, Yen Thanh". When he was a young reporter just out of school, he and his colleagues and our propaganda, culture and art cadres traveled all over the fields of Yen Thanh homeland to record realistic and vivid newsreels. Hidden behind the bamboo hedges, behind the vicissitudes of life, that peaceful countryside gave birth to and nurtured many heroes and scholars that Nguyen The Ky respected and loved: "I pity the old scholars who struggled with pen and ink/ After passing the imperial examination, they still waded through the fields to return home with honor".

Still remember the eighties of the last century, the country was suffering from hunger, struggling, and withering with the price of wages and money, the people in the lowland area of ​​Yen Thanh were even more miserable. Yet, the artists of Dien-Yen-Quynh such as Tran Huu Thung, Nguyen Trung Phong, Phan Tuong Hy, Nguyen Xuan Phau, Phan Van Tu... often chose Yen Thanh as a place to meet, chat and find inspiration for their creations. Most of the "poetry and wine" sessions took place at Nguyen Cong Hien's Photo Studio (right in front of the gate of the district People's Committee headquarters). Happy stories, sad stories, bitter tears, were all opened up and shared with each other. At times like that, Nguyen The Ky rarely participated, but he was very sympathetic and encouraged the "big leaders".

There is a memory that I will always remember: In the last years of his life, photographer Cong Hien suffered from a serious illness and had to go to Hanoi for treatment. Feeling sorry for his talented and ill-fated friend, the artists, some more than others, pooled money and rice to help Hien, his wife and three young children. But then Hien was sick for a long time, until the last time he had to undergo radiation at the K Hospital, the hospital sent him home without any money to pay the hospital fees. Desperate, I went back to discuss with the leaders of Trung Thanh commune - a typical commune in many aspects of Yen Thanh to film a documentary about the locality. With the commune's consent, I called Nguyen The Ky, the next day, Nguyen The Ky and his fellow reporters came back with their equipment. We returned to Trung Thanh, carried our equipment all over the commune, to economic models, to Bau Trang dam, to the transformer station, to households with good economic performance..., working for 4 days and nights, filming during the day, only tomato sauce, fish sauce and salt for lunch and dinner, and returning in the evening to edit the script and commentary. When the filming was finished, the draft was shown to the commune's chief officer, and the commune paid him a few hundred dong. The entire film crew did not take any money, all of it was used to help Nguyen Cong Hien pay the hospital bill. After finishing the work, the reporters hurriedly carried their cameras back to Vinh, and I sent Mr. Hanh, the district's Propaganda officer, to the K Hospital to complete the procedures so that Hien could return home in time to see his friends, wife and children, and breathe some of the air of his hometown before leaving forever.

The deep memories of the poor days between Nguyen The Ky and the Song Dinh literary group kept multiplying over the years... And later, with each film, each article, each step of Ky's maturity, the literary community in his hometown was more joyful and secretly followed. Behind the responsibility of a press and cultural management officer, was a good friend, a refined poetic soul, a person who lived with morality, humanity, had a past and present, and rarely talked about himself or did anything for himself. Perhaps thanks to those things, Nguyen The Ky has achieved success in the films about the scholar of Nghe An, about the women of Loi village, about the fight against opium in Ky Son, about the heroes at Ben Thuy bridge and ferry, at Truong Bon, Dong Loc crossroads.... I and perhaps many viewers of Nghe Tinh Radio, Nghe An Radio, Vietnam Television remember and enjoy watching the documentaries and reports that Nguyen The Ky and his colleagues made, very good, very unique, rich in television language, especially Nguyen The Ky's commentary still contains a poetic soul that is hard to mistake. Those are the bridges for Nguyen The Ky, when he was transferred to be the Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper, to unite with the collective of cadres, reporters and employees here, strive to make Nghe An Newspaper the 7th daily newspaper of the localities in the country, creating a new step, a new tone and a valuable brand of Nghe An Newspaper.

This year's Tet, in an article, I quoted two verses of Nguyen The Ky's poem "No matter how far away, I still dream about Gam hill/Every shore has waves of Dinh river", that's when I remembered Nguyen The Ky, a friend, a younger brother, a simple, close poetic soul, a personality who lives and writes like a person from the rice fields: "My homeland's land supports my father's steps/ So that today I can return/ Like rivers and streams returning to that sea/ Contributing cool green rain to the source"...

I wonder if Nguyen The Ky still writes poetry now, in his position as a national manager of press, culture, and arts? I believe that this humane man, this sensitive soul, is still moved by "The wind and moon hold a full boat/ The endless treasure knows when it will be empty" (Nguyen Cong Tru). Before the people and the country, Nguyen The Ky is probably still silent (it seems he has not published any poetry collection), which is also a happy thing, worthy of respect.

Ke Gam, September 2011

Ngo Duc Tien