Pham Quoc Ca: A poetic heart has stopped beating

Poet Pham Quoc Ca.

As a poet, doctor of literature and a teacher in Da Lat for almost his entire life, in his heart, poet Pham Quoc Ca always yearns for memories of his homeland, where the Bung River (Dien Chau) reflects the small village of Tho Khanh with many familiar images:

"Remember the days of the cold north wind

Rain flies misty field

Wet straw beside the bare row of mahogany trees

The cow is skinny in winter.

The nostalgia for his mother, his sister, and his beloved home from childhood always haunts him, the poet's heart is always throbbing with distant memories. All of it pours into his poetry with heavy emotions, aching for his homeland.

Reading the poetry collections "Tieng bass", "Lang trong noi nho", "Chan troi ga", "Nhung canh, cua bai ca" or "Tho van trong album", we all encounter emotional ranges towards our fatherland, our ancestors' land. In every poetry collection, we also encounter poems with deep love for our homeland such as: "Ben mo me", "Can nha de lai", "Tham chieu", "Chợt wÃ*ng voi cach ga", "Lang trong noi nho", "Banh minh thoi", "Binh minh con se de duong". Even poems about love such as: "Mua xuan", "Da Lat co em", "Vang trang giao lia" ... are all associated with the image of the village and the longing of a child far from home. The nostalgia in Pham Quoc Ca's poetry is first of all the nostalgia for the village associated with his poor and difficult childhood:

Oh the old days

That's my childhood.

The cold follows the memories

Small village of a thousand years of straw and bamboo

(Miss you mom)

Poetry collection "Golden Rain" by poet Pham Quoc Ca.

Remembering the village is remembering the mother, the image of the mother appears in Pham Quoc Ca's poetry with such frequency that it occupies most of the poet's memories, the verses are filled with love for the mother:

"Lying awake all night on my arm

I miss my mother's warm and soft hands from the past"

(Mother's Lullaby Night)

In the poem "Dawn, I set out again", we encounter a hard-working mother:

"The years I fought the Americans in the deep jungle

Mom was cold and wet during the rainy season there.

Watch the children

Boom boom

Mother's heart is bombed every day.

The years I returned to school

Mother loves her grandchild, wearing wooden clogs and hammocks at night.

Mother's night is always wide

Lullaby full of crescent moon…”

Poet Chung Tu recounted memories of meeting Pham Quoc Ca in Da Lat, he choked up reading poems about his mother and brother. The touching verses commemorate his brother, martyr Pham Van Cu, who sacrificed his life on the Tay Ninh battlefield in 1969:

"I searched for you throughout the forests

Dense lines of names carved into the wood grain

Where do you stay?

Four directions of fire and smoke

Every bomb sound seems to fall on him.

Or the poems filled with love for him and his mother:

"Now there are nights when I dream of you coming home.

Then woke up startled and burst into tears

You keep waiting for something that is no longer there.”

With such heartfelt and haunting verses, poet Pham Quoc Ca certainly cannot forget the days of his childhood with his mother and family. The image of his hometown is always a painful part of his memories. Still remembering those works, when poet Pham Quoc Ca sent them to the editorial board of "Voice of Poetry" of Voice of Vietnam, poet Nguyen Bui Voi, who was then the editor of the program, had to exclaim: "It's really Ca's, this is my brother from the same hometown". The program "Voice of Poetry" immediately after that broadcast poems about his homeland and mother by poet Pham Quoc Ca and received loving responses from listeners nationwide.

Talking about friendship, poet Pham Quoc Ca also has many precious feelings for poet Nguyen Trong Tao - a talented artist from the same hometown of Dien Chau to whom he wrote a poem:

“Remember the day the straw hat went to school?

Our childhood bombs rained down on the school yard!

…

Long time no see hot wind in my hometown

Every time I come back, I just look across the river.

In that nostalgia, poet Pham Quoc Ca could not help but admire his talented friend:

"As a soldier, he became an artist.

Talents: Music, painting, literature

My heart silently ripens late

Poetry ignites the fire of the battlefield.

Pham Quoc Ca's poems matured late, but have been tempered through time, through bombs, through challenges, so that now readers across the country can enjoy and feel a poetic soul that is simple, emotional, and passionate.

Today, poet Pham Quoc's heart has stopped beating, but his poems about his motherland Dien Chau still resonate, touching and heartbreaking:

"I left the house for quiet

Night after night the moon shines in the empty garden

How many Qingming festivals do I not return to burn incense at my mother's grave?

Love the golden sunset afternoon"

(The house left behind)

That house will now welcome him back to his homeland, to the cool Bung River, to the banks, the fields, the bamboo banks… That is where he was born, grew up and he returns:

“We grew up in our mother's mahogany house.

Share the gift with me first

Boys grow up by measuring the pillars of the house.

"A durable shirt is passed on to each other."

Pham Quoc Ca has published six collections of poetry and anthologies, winning 12 literary awards for poetry and critical theory. These are the collections: “Tieng tram” (collection of poetry, 1987), “Chan troi gao” (collection of poetry, 1994), “Lang trong noi nho” (collection of poetry, 1996), “Nhung canh, nhung bai ca” (collection of poetry, 2004), “Mach moi nuoc in Vietnamese poetry 1975-2000” (monograph, 2003), “Tho thien van tho in album” (collection of poetry, 2010), “Tho thien vat thuc” (collection of poetry, 2017).