Nguyen Gia Thieu Street: A green space

(Baonghean) - I enjoy walking along Nguyen Gia Thieu street at midday, especially during this autumn season. Layers of green gardens on both sides of the street welcome the autumn breeze, carrying sunlight that gently falls upon the trees on the sidewalk. And you'll be moved when suddenly a rooster crows at midday, awakening the scent of straw from the Hung Dung fields, or the rustling of a bamboo broom in someone's garden... The street is truly a rare tranquil space in the heart of Vinh City...

I love walking along Nguyen Gia Thieu Street at midday, especially during this autumn season. Layers of green gardens on both sides of the street welcome the autumn breeze, carrying sunlight that gently falls upon the trees on the sidewalk. And you'll be moved when suddenly a rooster crows at midday, awakening the scent of straw from the Hung Dung fields, or the rustling of a bamboo broom in someone's garden... The street is truly a rare tranquil space in the heart of Vinh City...These outstanding sons and daughters have made excellent contributions to their homeland and country, yet their ancestral temples remain small, simple, and solemn, unlike those elsewhere that are ostentatious and extravagant. This is something worth contemplating in the city!

Nguyen Gia Thieu Street.

The street has few modern services, and the food is very simple, featuring rustic dishes: pork offal porridge, veal, eel, and freshwater fish… Yet it's a favorite spot for close friends to meet. A few bamboo stalls set up on the street selling green vegetables, tea stalls with old women chewing betel nut and chatting… that's enough to liven up the street at midday! I got to know a poet from that street and read many of his poems. When writing, he often titles his poems, reflecting his feelings about the street, as "Yen Village." Is he sensitive and subtle enough to discern the unique character of the street, or has the street's soul resonated with the heart of a poet who loves and writes poetry? And has "Yen Village" brought to his poems a genuine emotion in every image, detail, and thought that stirs and stirs? I dare call it a "love for one's homeland to the point"—a love for the house, the garden, and the street where one lives, without needing the haunting feeling of "when we leave, the land transforms into a new soul"!

The Nguyen Khac family church in Hung Dung ward is a few years old, located on Nguyen Gia Thieu street.

A segment of the population at the end of Nguyen Gia Thieu Street still engages in farming and livestock raising, but their lives have become more prosperous. Many families have built spacious multi-story houses. Even so, their lifestyles largely retain the traditions of their rural villages. The hamlet has become a cluster, and the farmers have become city dwellers. While preserving their rural traditions, these former farmers are not indifferent to the new rhythms of city life; they selectively adopt the positive aspects and, with the support of the government, improve infrastructure, maintain cleanliness in their alleys and streets, care for the trees along the sidewalks, and beautify the buildings, gradually brightening the urban landscape and moving towards civilization…

I wonder, if one day new urban areas spring up at the end of Hung Dung field, what will Nguyen Gia Thieu street be like? Perhaps I will no longer encounter those midday moments of rare street tranquility; there will no longer be the humble streetscape where I can feel the autumn breeze carrying "gentle sunlight falling on the trees"... But the echoes of a Red Village - a Peaceful Village will surely remain in the hearts of everyone on the street, always giving it a unique, familiar, and endearing charm.

Text and photos:Dinh Sam