Poet Le Quoc Han: 'Like a match giving fire'

(Baonghean) - It is difficult to say more about him, in front of dozens of articles written by friends, colleagues, students... showing a thorough understanding of the person, talent and thoughts of the teacher, Mathematician, Poet Le Quoc Han. So, I will tell about him, from the simple perspective I met, I saw...

Le Quoc Han picked me up at the gate of his house. He said, please understand, because he can't go to the corner of the shop where I made an appointment, because he doesn't know how to ride a motorbike.

Seeing my surprise, he said: “But I don’t need to go far, my whole working life has been attached to Vinh University. From home, I can leisurely walk there. When I have to go somewhere, I ask someone to take me, take a motorbike taxi or a taxi… People used to think that I only focused on that subject all day, not knowing about society or life. And even later, when people saw that I had many passions, no passion could pull me out of home or school.”

Having said that, he smiled humorously, poured tea for his guests, and recited two verses from his poem "Wild Field": "Immersed in passions/ Let the world laugh at my poverty."

Poet Le Quoc Han (right) wishes teacher Tran Duc Thinh a Happy New Year. Photo: Thuy Vinh

His jokes contained some truth. He was once considered a math prodigy, with many opportunities to travel far and fly high, but he spent most of his working life at Vinh University. The small house right behind the school where he taught was not only a home for him to live in, but also a place where he sat to prepare lectures, to research math, to write articles for newspapers, math magazines, and also a place where he wrote poetry.

It seems that all the works of that energetic man were born and grew up within four simple walls, in the gentle footsteps of his gentle wife, the sound of boiling water in the morning, the sound of the gate lock clicking when she went to the market and the fragrant smell of rice wafting from the kitchen every noon and afternoon...

At Vinh University, generations of students have passed down the story of a respected, caring, talented teacher, an excellent teacher. In the field of Mathematics, he was a person with many contributions, and was awarded the title of Associate Professor. And in the literary and artistic community in Nghe An, he was known as a person with a lot of passion for literature, with many good works, and was once the Head of the Poetry Department of the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association.

A man with many roles and talents like him, choosing a quiet life, must have a reason? I asked him that, and received a bit of surprise from him: “No, I feel happy, lucky. I choose the life I have, loyal to all my passions, never leaving, never discouraged or regretful”. Le Quoc Han said that with all the sincerity of a person who has reached the end of his life with many experiences.

Published poetry collections of poet Le Quoc Han. Photo: Thuy Vinh

Born in 1949 in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province, at the age of 15, Le Quoc Han passed the entrance exam to the specialized Math class of the University with a score of 20.5/20 (the highest score ever), but for some sensitive reasons, he was not allowed to study. Surprised and disappointed, the 15-year-old village school boy with a dream of numbers received advice from his literature teacher "should study literature to distract himself". And he found new passions in Literature, rebalancing himself, and healing the wounds of his immature soul.

Many people in the countryside still remember Le Quoc Han as a math prodigy, and also remember him for his achievement of winning first prize in Literature in Ha Tinh province three times. But then, after finishing high school, he "accepted the 10+1 Pedagogy exam to become a village teacher". Teacher Han both taught and plowed the fields (from 1971 to 1976). He loved his job, loved his students, worked hard for them, and was continuously an excellent teacher in the province. He said, he did everything with passion. And he simply explained why his students loved him because "he loved them too".

In 1976, Professor Le Van Thiem, President of the Vietnam Mathematical Association and Director of the Institute of Mathematics at that time, proposed to him to be admitted to Vinh Pedagogical University without an entrance exam. Professor Thiem was the one who noticed him since he was a student in the specialized math exam of the University of General Sciences with a score exceeding the maximum, winning first prize in the math competition organized by the magazine "Mathematics and Youth" and later when he achieved a feat in researching and teaching elementary mathematics. During his time in university and graduate school, he was an excellent student, graduating as valedictorian. After finishing his studies, he was retained at the school as a lecturer. And it was not until 1991, when Vinh Pedagogical University opened its first graduate training course, he was one of the few who passed the exam, that he was able to return to his passion for researching Mathematics.

He chose a research topic in the field of modern mathematics, a very abstract field that not every mathematician wants to approach. At the end of 1995, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis. Many invitations opened up before him, but in the end, he still chose his quiet corner to both teach and be a researcher.

He said: What I think is success, after defending my thesis, is for the first time being truly confident and thinking that all efforts in life, sooner or later, will be rewarded.

The “math path” of a “math prodigy” has many rapids and obstacles like that, but when he was on the “poetry path”, he said that he had encountered unexpected advantages. Although he had been writing poetry since high school (he said that his love for poetry probably originated from his father, who often read romantic poems to his children, especially French romantic poems), he had neglected it for 20 years (from 1970 to 1990).

In 1991, when he was a graduate student, he turned to poetry again to find balance for his soul. In the first years of returning to poetry, Le Quoc Han was noticed, his poems were introduced in prestigious literary newspapers, and appeared continuously in major poetry anthologies.

In 1996, he published his first collection of poems, “The Prayer,” and was admitted to the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association. In 2002, he became a member of the Vietnam Literature and Arts Association. Up to now, he has published 6 collections of poems and received high praise from critics. He has won many poetry awards from Song Lam Magazine, Tien Phong Newspaper, Talented Youth Magazine, and the Ho Xuan Huong Literature and Arts Award A of the province.

Poet Le Quoc Han next to the first national language book at Mang Lang Church, Tuy An district, Phu Yen province. Photo provided by the character

Many colleagues and friends who knew him were quite surprised to see "the calm teacher who only knew three math problems all day, not paying much attention to other things" participating in poetry clubs and writing poems. People realized that, hidden behind that quiet, seemingly pure and resigned appearance were breakthroughs, desires, worries, and endless contemplations. All the impacts, all the feelings about life and people were expressed by him in his poems. "Young - thought he was the heaviest / Old - knew he was light / Time was like a sharp axe / Chiseling away the green hair".

His poems are filled with the countryside, love for the countryside, contemplations on human affairs and the world, philosophies summarizing life with overlapping world images. Not elaborate, ornate, not bustling or noisy, his philosophies and emotions in his poems always bring people to a pure, benevolent and thoughtful light.

He was also very careful to explore and renew himself. Some people called him "the mathematician who built a bridge of poetry". He once said that mathematics is a product of intelligence, poetry is a product of the soul: "No matter how wise a person is, if he does not have a heart that knows intense emotions, he cannot become a true mathematician, and no matter how sensitive and sentimental a person is, if he is not guided by intelligence, he will find it difficult to become a great poet".

Not only does he write poetry, write teaching books, do research, and write articles for Math magazines, he is also an “amateur literary critic”. And in every field, he shows his talent. He told me about his love and gratitude for the land and school that have fulfilled his wishes and tolerated him for almost a lifetime, just like his gratitude for his homeland.

And he found himself fitting in here, with the house in the small alley bustling with the footsteps of students on the way to and from school. Fitting in the space, though small but spacious, without the hustle and bustle. “Here I find myself, it suits me” – he said with happiness “As a faithful person will reap the rewards”.

Live life to the fullest, live true to yourself, not trying to follow anyone, anything other than your own intelligence and heart, that is the thought and also what teacher - poet Le Quoc Han practices. Even though life is very short, just: "Like a drop of summer rain / before touching the ground it is already dry / Like a match giving fire / suddenly disappearing into nothingness" (Like - poem by Le Quoc Han)

Thuy Vinh