"The stars shine brightly and brilliantly."

(Baonghean) - Poet Lam Thi My Da, author of the famous poem "The Sky - The Bomb Crater" about the Youth Volunteers, once recounted the "tragic truth" that inspired her tearful verses. During the fierce years of the war against the Americans, the poet spent two days living with a squad of seven young female Youth Volunteers on the Truong Son Road.

The oldest-looking squad leader recounted to the poet that she should have been discharged three years earlier, but on her return, she witnessed a deep bomb crater engulfing her house. With no family left, she shouldered her backpack and returned to her unit – her only home. She said she would stay there until the reunification of the country… This story haunted the poet’s mind until one day, when the American bombing of North Vietnam ceased, she had the opportunity to return to the Truong Son Road and intended to meet the former women’s volunteer youth group. However, she learned they had gone deep into the battlefield! Traveling a few dozen more kilometers, the poet encountered bomb craters filled with water. A question burned in her heart: how many of those girls from years ago had lit torches to distract enemy planes, diverting the bombs and bullets away from themselves to keep the road undamaged? How many had perished in those bomb craters, still holding patches of clear sky? The poet cried out in the silent forest, seeing only the vast expanse of sky reflected in the bomb craters, gazing back at him...

Young volunteers check their equipment before departing, 1967. Archival photo.

Is it because Lam Thi My Da's poem is so beautiful, or the story behind it so haunting, or perhaps both, that I always see that distant gaze appearing in the Eight Girls' Cave, Dong Loc Crossroads, Truong Bon... and so many other places I've traveled? Places that have turned green with trees, peaceful with the scent of smoke, but with every step, I know that blood and bones are seeping into every grain of sand.

But that gaze, wasn't it directed at those who had fallen, who had become one with the earth and the trees? I once stood silently before the house of Ms. Le Thi Huong, a survivor of the Truong Bon "fire zone." Amidst the solitary walls, the former female Youth Volunteer hid her lonely tears in her shirt every night, dreaming of the cry of a child. I tried to find a connection between the quiet woman of today and the vibrant 17-year-old girl who insisted on joining the Youth Volunteer Force despite being underage, and resolutely told her mother: "Even if you don't allow it, I'll still go." I also followed the hesitant footsteps of squad leader Tran Thi Thong back to the land of yesteryear, to imagine those feet that once nimbly strode through the rain of bombs and bullets. That trembling voice today once boldly shouted, "Live clinging to bridges and roads, die bravely and courageously." Between those two personalities of the two women lies the vibrant youth that they left behind on their journeys.

You have dedicated your youth – the most beautiful years of your life – to the Fatherland. For you, the most beautiful flowers are those that bloom fragrantly when needed for a momentous occasion, and the cool, refreshing stream is one that flows in the driest place. You have offered the Fatherland the most brilliant moments of your lives. Those moments will forever retain their light, like "shining, sparkling stars" in the poem by Lam Thi My Da...

Nghe An Weekend