Poet Quang Huy - my teacher

(Baonghean.vn) - "The first day of Tet is for visiting fathers, the third day is for visiting teachers." That's the usual custom, but on the first day of Tet this year, I received a phone call from a fellow poet: Poet Quang Huy had passed away. For us, the students of Yen Thanh Secondary School from 1958 to 1961, and the generation of poets who matured in the 1960s and 70s, we can never forget teacher and poet Quang Huy, one of the people who contributed to training and nurturing young writers, and who played a key role in building the Nghe An Literature Association in its early days.

Poet Quang Huy and his wife

Poet Quang Huy was born in 1931 in Hai Duong into a family with a rich revolutionary and humanistic tradition. He began his career as a teacher. Graduating with honors from a teacher training college in Vietnam, he was assigned to teach at the Central University Campus in Guilin, China. In 1958, he returned to Vietnam and was assigned to teach literature at Yen Thanh Secondary School. At that time, Yen Thanh district had only one public secondary school. We, the children of farmers, in our brown uniforms and barefoot, moved from our village school to the district school. We were introduced to several teachers from Hanoi who came to reinforce the school, like a breath of fresh air in this poor, struggling rural area. These teachers brought with them new teaching methods and skills that captivated and attracted students in a remarkable way. With their extensive knowledge, insightful analysis, and passionate dedication, they opened up a whole new horizon for us. Especially noteworthy were their lessons on the Tale of Kieu and their extracurricular discussions on poetry and literature sent from the South. During my student years, I studied literature with many teachers, and later I became a literature teacher myself. Teacher Quang Huy's greatest success was not only in introducing his students to timeless literary works, but also instilling in them a love and passion for literature, a lifelong commitment to the literary profession. Even though that path was not only filled with fragrant flowers and exotic plants, but also with countless hardships and difficulties.

After only a few years at Yen Thanh Secondary School, and after winning a high prize in a poetry competition organized by the Literature and Arts Newspaper, he was transferred to the Nghe An Department of Culture and became one of the members of the committee for the establishment of the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association. In 1967, the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association was established in a forest in Lang Thanh commune, and poet Quang Huy was elected to the Executive Committee, directly in charge of the poetry subcommittee and as a poetry editor for the Nghe An Literature and Arts Newspaper. During the years of resistance against the American war of destruction, poet Quang Huy was present in almost all the key areas of fierce fighting, simultaneously composing poetry, building the movement, and guiding and nurturing young writers. For nearly 20 years in Nghe An, he created many works of poetry and prose, contributing to the literature of Nghe An and Vietnamese literature as a whole. With his multifaceted talent, he wrote both poetry and prose. Regarding poetry, he published the collections: Stars and Earth (co-authored with Thach Quy); Where We Meet; Moon on the Mountaintop; The Awakening Stream; Wind from Mother's Hands; A collection of poems by Quang Huy. His prose works include: Spring Flowers; Stories of Len Hamlet; In a Riverbank Area...

It can be said that the 20 years in Nghe An were the period when poet Quang Huy achieved the most success. He became a leading writer of the Nghe An Literary and Artistic Association and a member of the Nghe An Writers Association, originating from the fiery land of Nghe An.

The most distinctive feature of Quang Huy's poetry is his success in many poetic genres, especially lục bát (six-eight syllable) poetry and children's poetry. Although a poet originally from the Quan Họ region, Quang Huy was passionately devoted to the Ví Giặm and Giặm Vè of Nghệ Tĩnh. Along with poets Trần Hữu Thung and Minh Huệ, Quang Huy absorbed the essence of Nghệ Tĩnh folk poetry, creatively elevating it to scholarly works, becoming immortal poems such as a series of famous lục bát poems and numerous children's poems in three-syllable verse, about "many strange fruits," "funny stories about birds," "funny stories about fish," "a hundred kinds of birds and a thousand kinds of flowers and leaves," etc.

It can be said that Quang Huy was one of the key figures in building the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association from its early days until he left Nghe An for Hanoi to work as a poetry editor for the Voice of Vietnam Radio, and later as Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Culture and Information Publishing House. Poet Quang Huy not only considered Nghe An his homeland for creative writing, but he also became a son-in-law of Nghe An, a son who contributed to elevating the folk poetry of Nghe An to a scholarly level, contributing immortal works of literature to the Nghe An literary treasury.

In an article, poet Vuong Trong suggested that Quang Huy's poem "Twelve Girls of Truong Bon" should be engraved on one of the stelae at the Truong Bon historical site. While poet Quang Huy was confined to his sickbed, we were compiling the anthology "700 Years of Yen Thanh Poetry," and we sought his opinion on how to select the poems. He shared many valuable sentiments for his homeland and offered sincere suggestions.

This spring, poet Quang Huy, our teacher, and a member of the generation of poets from Nghe An who matured during the years of the war against the US, passed away at the age of 84. However, the creative achievements he left behind, as well as all his feelings, talent, and virtue, will live on forever in the land and hearts of the people of Nghe An. This article is our way of offering our heartfelt tributes from his former students.

Ngo Duc Tien