The poet and civic responsibility

(Baonghean) - (Reading the collection "The Holes," poems by Nguyen Van Hung, Literature Publishing House - 2013)

I had the opportunity to read his poetry collection, "The Holes," when it was still in manuscript form. Over 40 selected poems left a deep impression on me, reflecting the mature emotions of Nguyen Van Hung's poetry, intertwined with the joys and sorrows of life...

Looking back on his poetic journey after nearly 30 years of quiet reflection, with 6 volumes published, he has created a unique voice, a way of seeing and feeling, unaffected by the surrounding noise, the new and the old. His poetry is like a heartfelt conversation, an exchange, a meeting between people in everyday life, full of joys and sorrows, as well as many uncertainties, changes, and indifference. Read a sample of the poem he wrote, "At the Emergency and Resuscitation Department":

It's winter here.
Winter
A few returned home.
In a hurry to return to the grass.

We'll be waiting here quietly.
Farewell here filled with fear.
As you travel back and forth out there, please remember this:
Every breath here is so expensive!

The breath of the writer mingles with the hurried, fluctuating breaths of those whose lives teeter on the brink of death, trembling and desperately yearning for words to express themselves.

I remember once, a group of poets from Northern Vietnam were reading a collection of poems by Nguyen Van Hung published in the Literature and Arts Newspaper - Vietnam Writers Association. One poet joked, "Hung's poetry is too thin!" I laughed. If even poetry can be distinguished as fat or thin, how can we imagine what "fat poetry" might look like? We all laughed. Personally, I thought that perhaps Hung's meticulous choice of words, disregarding the smooth, melodious rhymes, was actually an advantage. It was highly effective in conveying emotion to the reader, because the arrow of emotion had found the shortest path from heart to heart.

Bright
Together
Sitting and drinking tea in the Imperial Palace.

Afternoon
Together
Bidding farewell to someone who has just passed on to this earthly realm.
We no longer have time to be kings.
We still have plenty of time to be friends!
(Royal Tea)

This style of writing short poems, with few words and concise language, was formed right from his early poetry collections, contributing to the unique character of Nguyen Van Hung's poetry.



The title "The Holes" for the book, after I finished reading the manuscript and returned it to the author, made me want to suggest a more poetic title. But as I neared the end of this piece, the three words "The - Holes" clung to me, strangely enough! They hung suspended somewhere, not just in the ozone layer surrounding the Earth. They appeared right beneath people's feet, on the ground, in mines, in the deep sea, where people are digging and exploiting their own living environment to the point of exhaustion. And the increasingly widespread destruction of human character, emotions, and morality in the human soul is also alarming!

I reread the poem that gave the collection its title, and I found it not to be a truly great poem, but the poet's sense of civic responsibility and the impact the work has on readers—how strange!

Poet: Chu Van Long (Hanoi)