Poet Ngo Thanh Van: Peace is infinitely pure

That impression came to me from the first days I saw her poems in the White Shirt magazine - a beautiful literary publication, close to the student generation of the late 7X, 8X era.“The season falls at the foot of the bridge, swaying in the wind/ Because the sunset waits for my shadow to return/ Blowing the street into longing, its blue eyes worn out/ As if someone is waiting like the loyal mountain shape” (“To Pleiku”), “Returning here, I miss you so much/ The familiar hand, the eyes of those days/ So that in my heart I can hear the words of forgiveness/ Of the sad street. And the old days. I love...”(“Nostalgia for the city”).

Poet Ngo Thanh Van. Photo: NVCC

Back then, having just graduated from university, when returning to Gia Lai to work, Ngo Thanh Van was “appointed” as “Head of the White Shirt Family” (a type of literary club proposed by the White Shirt magazine), with over 20 talented and passionate friends. Those years were Van’s brilliant, rosy youth with friends and literature.

With more than 20 years of devotion to words, Ngo Thanh Van has published four collections of poetry: "Through the memory" (2006), "June 12" (2009), "Night sketch" (2015), "Lying and listening to the leaves breathe" (2018) with a series of central and local awards: "Young author" award of the National Committee of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations (2009), Gia Lai Literature and Arts Award 2nd (2005-2010), 3rd (2010-2015), annual awards of Gia Lai Literature and Arts Association, Fourth prize in the poetry contest in the Thanh Literature and Arts Magazine (2011).

As a daughter, a wife, a mother, a poetic woman, Ngo Thanh Van is full of love, gentleness, tolerance, and protection. Her feminine nature is revealed in her "rustic" (Du Tu Le's opinion) yet bright and modern words, contained in narrative stories and hidden meanings. The more you read slowly, reflecting on her poetic journey and a part of her life, the more you can fully understand her beauty (often the beauty of pain!).

Reading Van's poetry, readers can easily see the most prominent part, bearing the creative mark of the female poet Ngo, which is the lyricism of a woman longing for love with many levels of emotions. That longing is the wish of a loving heart to dissolve into a kindred heart, in communion with nature, the earth and sky:“The trembling blade of grass holds each drop of pure night tears/ the night tells me a fairy tale of love/ the wind wraps a scarf around your hair with the cool scent of magnolia/ the night welcomes you into my own world” (“Memories of the Night”); “Wake up, my love/ awaken the sunny day/ kiss me. The kiss of the sea/ salty taste of salt/ salty drops of sweat…”("Awaken").

Cover of the work of poet Ngo Thanh Van.

In the world of love, no matter how much we say or how close we are, it is never enough. So, when we are apart,“The night lingers/ Missing you fills every cell of my body”(“Against the Day”), and nostalgia gives rise to imaginations: “Imagine someone's hand in yours/ tightening my gut.../ Imagine your lips drunk on someone's lips/ rubbing salt on my heart"("Imagine").

Loving with a true heart, dreaming of an eternal love boat, but it seems that “the blue sky is used to the habit of jealous red cheeks”, the “encounter” of nearly 20 years of the female writer Ngo one day like a rainbow disappeared after a rosy dream. For that reason, the sadness of separation is like layers of sharp thorns growing on Van’s field of words, cutting into the reader’s heart with painful wounds:“I beg for a chance encounter/ to let my eyes and lips run dry of gratitude/ to listen to the wind blowing in the lonely afternoon/ to sit and bitterly mourn the days we spent together!”(“Beggar”),“I wrote a new poem/ But I can’t erase your name/ The nostalgia turns strangely/ This sadness hasn’t had time to heal!”(“I write a new poem”).

Van once confided that she is a “greedy” person, wanting to experience, wanting to explore herself and the world of words. Poetry is her breath, her flesh and blood, when emotions come, she borrows poetry to jot down, distill it so it doesn’t slip away. When immersed in prose, Van is free and wanders in the vast field of words. But even though the female poet wears the robe of a writer, she is still Ngo Thanh Van of women’s narratives with longing, passionate dreams of love, loss, hurt but still tolerant, reaching for the light, typical short stories are: “Cung toi chieu”, “Trang nguyet”, “Thi voi anh”, “Hoa noc cuoi chieu”, “Dong song tro qua”, “Dat khach”, “Nhung con con hydroelectric”...

To date, Ngo Thanh Van's prose legacy consists of two published short story collections, "Whispering to You" (2009), "Khan Land" (2018), and she is planning to introduce to readers the essay collection "Mistland of the Streets" in the winter of 2022.

Born and raised in Gia Lai, but both her father's and mother's hometowns are in Nghe An, Ngo Thanh Van is a sensitive and profound woman, so in poetry and in real life, she always yearns for her roots. She shared that although her paternal and maternal grandparents are no longer around, her relatives and neighbors are still there, the yard, the garden, the guava tree, the areca tree, the river, the pond... associated with many generations in the family are still there, as a comfort to the soul of a child who has lost her homeland.

Looking back to that place is also a way to silently miss and show gratitude to one's homeland: "The night of Vinh city is vast on all sides/ The blue Lam River leans silently/ As if embracing the love of the past/ Every minute and hour anxiously calls out your name"(“Night in Vinh”), “Sorry Lam River/ the day father left, the waves were hidden in the depths of my eyes/ the wind blew on my face, stinging/ grandma's figure disappeared behind the old bamboo grove/ her hand still fondling the hoe handle/ how could the wind understand/ the hem of her shirt brushed across"(“Words of Moss”). Writing about her homeland is something she is concerned about. Van wants that as the days go by, she can enrich her writings about her roots with more depth and thickness.

A few months ago, on a summer afternoon, I received the news that Van had transferred from the Forestry University (branch in Gia Lai province) to the Gia Lai Literature and Arts Association as Vice President of the association. I was happy for Van's turning point and new journey. From now on, poetess Ngo Thanh Van will love, live, and work with one hundred percent of her energy for literature.

After nearly 20 years of being attached to the university, leaving must have been difficult and painful for her, but she always believed that everything was up to fate, so she calmly continued, calmly accepting all the turns of life, even the turns that she could not have expected. In her private life as well as her work, Van maintained a calm attitude in living and working, always giving her all.

Writing these lines, I suddenly remember a line in the song “Night Rain” by Ngo Thanh Van. And I want to say that I hope “peace and serenity to the limit” will forever be with Van!