"Linking arms"

(Baonghean) - I love Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City. It is a natural feeling that blossomed on a summer afternoon when I saw Saigon drenched in the rain and then dry immediately. Naturally, I found everything here lovely. But I don't understand why?

Maybe I love Ben Thanh market, even though I ask for 5 or 10 times more, no matter how much I bargain, the seller still smiles, speaks pleasantly and sweetly, making me feel numb. Maybe I love the drinking places where Saigon people often sit and drink for a long time, cheap but the taste is impeccable. Or maybe I love Saigon iced milk coffee, to use the local term "bac xiu", perhaps a word of Chinese origin, like many people, many cultures, and dishes in Saigon are of Chinese origin. One thing is for sure: I am not the only one who loves Saigon. Many people I know are also attracted to this dynamic city, because of its youthful modernity, but also very "dusty", very simple. I suddenly wonder, if there was no Saigon, what would it be like?

Without Saigon, without the Southern city? Where would there be a row of immense myrtle trees in the distance for Trong Tan to sing his heartfelt words? Where would I find the Southern forest land with Vo Tong and little An so that Doan Gioi could write for my childhood to read with delight? The eyes of Pleiku, the Sea Lake are full, all my life I have searched but could not find it. The cup of coffee I drink is probably not as bitter and fragrant as the cup of Ban Me coffee, the aroma has long since faded. As for little Bim, he would not know what an elephant looks like, what a communal house looks like, because where is the Don village with the baby elephant, who knows? Mother and grandmother will only know about peach blossoms on Tet, who will send to the North a little bit of golden sunshine on the apricot blossoms...

The South, our beloved country, dare not imagine the scene of being divided into two places. Because we are used to the whistle of the Reunification train going from North to South, if we reduce even one station, it will be too short. In the past, my grandfather and my brother split the Truong Son range, using their blood and bones to build a road connecting the blood vessels of the Fatherland. Now, you and I, one in the South and one in the North, the main road has been opened, nothing is too far away. I look at North Korea and South Korea, Ukraine and Crimea, and feel unfortunate that we share the same language and the same blood flowing in our hearts, but we set one foot on the other side of the border, which is different and far apart. I just saw "Unification", oh two wonderful words!

Is it really unified? Or is there still the so-called regional discrimination? There are people who are therefore self-conscious about what belongs to their local identity, not knowing that the biggest common point is that everyone is Vietnamese. It is these unique features that make the common thing expand, extend, grow forever, forming a big circle, connecting a circle of Vietnam. I just hope that circle is always full of love and affection, and not differentiate between North and South, forest and sea, so that it becomes distorted without knowing it!

Hai Trieu(Email from Paris)