Poet Thach Quy: Poetry and life stories

With poetry and incident "With children"

- Dear poet Thach Quy, I once heard that in the early days of writing poetry, you set a list of prohibitions for yourself: Do not write words that others have written, do not write thoughts that others have thought, do not write vaguely without reference to the truth, do not write the bare truth without emotion, lacking aesthetics. Is that true and how did you do it?

Poet Quang Huy said I am a poet of worn-out brooms and tattered baskets, and that everything other poets do not pay attention to goes into my poems. That is partly true. My poems do not have roses or lilies, but they do have broom flowers and broom grass flowers.

Broom flowers fall under the wings of the crawling bees

White rocks exposed to the midday sun

Or

The broom flower forest is white again, the fire flower forest is white again.

The sound of birds chirping in the leaves opens my eyes to look…

Because I forbid myself to write about roses, lilies, tiger lilies… I was forced to write about flowers that no one else wrote about. Not only flowers, but I did the same with everything. That’s why my poems have “broken bricks”, because I forbade myself to write about whole bricks, so I had to write broken bricks.

After all, the ban I set for myself when composing is the strict artistic requirements that I force myself to fulfill. If you read any poem or any line of my poetry and compare it with the ban I set for myself above, you will clearly see that I have completely seriously, strictly, and earnestly fulfilled that self-ban.

Clear water, full snakehead fish

Stroll leisurely to greet each rice plant

The fish sniffed the muddy footprints in surprise.

Eyes wide open, surprised to recognize me…

Or

The mountain leans its shoulder to carry the road up

Or

The embers and ashes fall into a fire...

All of these are real details. Very real. But I think that is not the bare truth, the truth lacking in aesthetics. Right? If I were to use an example to say how I carried out the ban that I set for myself, I could say that most of my poems and verses strictly followed the above ban. I think that the "ban" that I set for myself when I picked up a pen, for young people in the early days of writing, can also have something to think about and refer to.

- “Not small and insignificant, not great / Can be thrown away in a dark and gloomy corner / Can stand on two sturdy legs / I am alone, I am layer upon layer of rising tides... I am salty with the rustic life / I am full of food and clothing and hungry with everyday life... Having faced cruelty and death / Blood flows, scars form in my soul / I am so tired that I am no longer afraid of death / But I still want to live more truly! (I). What can you say about that self in your poetry? Have you ever felt"The rough ego, not fitting the mold" as a poet once commented, has made it difficult for him both in life and in poetry?

That poem is about the Ego, not about Thach Quy's own ego. It is the Ego in me, in you, in everyone. Why do we have to forge the ego, write about the ego? You build a hundred-story house, if you want it to be solid, every brick needs to be solid. If you want a strong collective, every person in that collective must be strong. The same goes for the whole nation, the whole country!

“I” is a poem that focuses on praising the core qualities, the innate abilities, the strong character in each person as a creative individual. Praising the strong character is also praising the qualities and abilities of each person, aiming at the goal of perfecting the person, just like we care about the solidity, completeness, and strength of each brick to be able to build a modern, civilized, and beautiful house. There is nothing to complain about if art and poetry praise the good character hidden in the heart, in the mind, in the intelligence of each person. Right?

You want me to say a few words about the feeling of loneliness, right? I think that loneliness does not hinder creativity, but on the contrary, it is a driving force for creativity. It can be said that loneliness compels people to work, especially intellectual work. In this world, there are jobs that cannot be shared with anyone, that no one can shoulder together. Who can write for Shakespeare, Balzac, Tolstoy, think for Newton, Einstein, Mendeleev? To forge a strong, resilient ego, sometimes people also have to practice the ability to endure loneliness and isolation...

- Returning to the famous literary incident of the time, specifically in the article "With Children", can you tell this story again? Looking back on it now, how do you feel?

Old stories, I really don't want to mention them again. I think the story of the sudden criticism of that poem is a story outside of literature. If I have to tell it again, I will tell stories outside of that poem so that you will know the truth. The truth about human affairs, about factions and jealousy in each person in a time not too long ago. Telling it for what purpose? Every stumble is a lesson. The stumbles of the previous generation of writers should also be known to draw experience for the next generations. The incident also leaves a lesson for those assigned the responsibility of governing and managing literature and art: Be careful with matters outside of literature! In the past, literary works that were controversial and criticized always ended up with the opposite result. Most of those works later won State awards. Even the names of the once criticized authors are now used to name streets, such as Phung Quan, Van Cao, Vu Trong Phung, etc. Be very careful!

Happiness is just a concept

- Dear poet Thach Quy, what do you think about the change of values? Do you have any advice for those who are facing a life where everyone seems to feel like “a small dot in the midst of nothingness”? Readers would also like you to explain more about the verse “Solemn happiness in the search for disappointment”?

Honestly, I do not dare to claim to be more knowledgeable and progressive than anyone else. But I think that everything is changing with time, so inevitably, concepts of value must also change. For example, in the past, people's perception, thoughts and evaluation of the value of a rich person may be very different from how we perceive and evaluate them today. Maybe in the past, there were actions and thoughts that we thought were good and right, but today's reality forces us to reconsider. I think that is normal, good, sensitive, timely and progressive. What you are asking is that you are talking about the changes in values ​​in an unsatisfactory direction that are causing somewhat negative and gloomy moods with the feeling that each person is just "a small dot in the midst of nothingness", lonely and helpless in the face of changes in both favorable and unfavorable directions in society?

I think that the progress of history is often slower than the desire for change, although earnest but always somewhat hasty, in people's hearts. For history, a hundred years is just a moment, but for humans, a hundred years has ended a lifetime. Although people understand the law of history "what will come will come", few people are patient enough to wait for what "must come" in history. It is that impatience that causes different moods in people's hearts. People know that the negative, boring, and depressing things they are facing will, according to the law, pass away sooner or later. But people want those negative, boring, and depressing things to pass away today. Not being able to do it immediately as desired makes people feel helpless. Lacking people who sympathize with them in the present, not being patient enough to wait for the good things to come in the future makes people feel lonely. Loneliness and helplessness are just normal psychological states and moods at a time when society is still full of negativity and unsatisfactory things. We hope that this state of mind and mentality is also a driving force of aspiration to change life for the better.

As for the verse: “Happiness is solemn in the search for disappointment”, I think it is an easy verse to understand. Folklore says “the lost fish is the big fish”. Those who feel unsatisfied with what they have, in their dreams, in their aspirations, what they are searching for will certainly be more solemn, more sacred and also better. The more dreams, the more imagination, the better the “model” of happiness. Happiness is just a concept.

- Thank you poet Thach Quy for this interesting conversation!