The formation of the poem "Tonight Uncle Ho does not sleep"

(Baonghean) - “Tonight Uncle Ho Doesn't Sleep” is the best poem by Minh Hue (1927-2003). Along with several other compositions, he was awarded the State Prize for Literature and Arts in 2010. He wrote the poem when he had never met Uncle Ho.

It was early 1950, after the Literature and Arts class in Quan Tin, Thanh Hoa, he returned to work at the Propaganda Department of the Inter-Zone IV Party Committee, in the composition department. One day, Anh Chat (alias) received orders from comrade Nguyen Chi Thanh, from the Border Front to go to the Binh Tri Thien area, staying at the office of the Party Committee (located in Nam Dan). Early in the morning, it was still very cold, Minh Hue saw his friend off to the ferry. On the way, Minh Hue was told by Anh Chat about the case where on a business trip, Uncle Ho stopped by a unit of soldiers marching to the front and stayed overnight in the forest. It was cold, there was a lot of dew, and the soldiers did not have enough blankets to keep them warm. Uncle Ho went to the stove that was almost out, stirred the coals and added more firewood. Seeing the flickering light, a soldier woke up, thinking it was an old Nung man in the village, but looking closely, he recognized it was Uncle Ho. The soldier cheered, and so did a few friends, who were able to chat and stay up with Uncle Ho...

From then on, Minh Hue started writing poems on that topic. At first, he wrote about 100 lines but then gradually gave up, leaving only: “The team member woke up/ Saw it was very late/ But why was Uncle still sitting/ Tonight Uncle did not sleep…”. And he chose the last line of the retained stanza as the title: “Tonight Uncle did not sleep”. After that, his pen was “blocked”. At that time, the agency was located in a civilian’s house. One cold night, he woke up and saw the landlord, who was old and did not sleep much, had gotten up earlier and was pulling the blanket and fixing it for him. So he imagined Uncle, with: “Then Uncle went to tuck the blanket/ One by one…”. He continued writing but still could not complete the poem.

Later, Minh Hue married his wife, Ta Thi Tuyen. During their honeymoon, he was still worried, and Ms. Tuyen was surprised and asked. He poured out all his feelings, saying that he had written up to that point, but now he did not know how to end the poem. Ms. Tuyen said: “With such a topic and such an expression, let’s wrap it up: Uncle Ho is Uncle Ho, what else!”. So Minh Hue completed the poem with two concluding lines: “For a common reason/ Uncle is Ho Chi Minh”.

Chu Trong Huyen