Truong Quang Thu: "Leaning on a poem to stand up"

(Baonghean) -“Thinking back, I see myself as the characters in Nam Cao’s stories, living in a simple house, with a wife busy all day, pigs squealing and children crying, and myself disabled and unable to help, my new poetic ideas were crushed by the burden of making a living…” However, that difficult and miserable situation, along with the disadvantages of fate, made him even more attached to his writing career, to stand in the hidden corners of life and see so much love and hope…

Meeting him for the first time in the crowded hall on the day the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association held a congress, he “stood out” with his slanted and stiff gait, his haggard face under his gray hair. A poet introduced him to me: “That’s the poet Truong Quang Thu”. Our short conversation began. Although he was very quiet, it was enough for me to hear his love for life and his desire to create hidden behind that small, swaying figure. He invited us to “come and listen to the waves of Quynh Lap once”, his eyes were bright with a passionate gaze…

And then, we came to his small fishing village on a hot sunny afternoon. The fishing village is proud because amidst the sand and waves, a “flower of poetry” gently blooms. The most and biggest asset in his small house is books. He cannot sit to receive guests, he stands and leans against the back of a chair or a bookshelf to chat. Over the past 30 years, poems ranging from funny, innocent, to profound, passionate, have all been written in that posture: standing. There were times when he was absorbed in writing for up to 5 hours, and by the time he turned around, his whole body was exhausted.

He talked about his passion for literature, even when his hair turned gray, it still seemed fresh. It helped him go through many storms, sufferings, and hardships in life. The boy Thu Nam, born into a family of 11 children, often overcame hunger and cold with the world of words.

From 1966 to 1967, when he was in secondary school, Truong Quang Thu wrote many poems and sent them to Thieu Nien Tien Phong newspaper. He was a rare phenomenon in a village where children preferred to go fishing at sea rather than go to school. When he grew up, his brothers joined the army, while Truong Quang Thu stayed home and joined the militia and guerrillas. At that time, Quynh Lap village was one of the fiercest targets of the American invaders, because it had a sea, was near Cua Lach port, and above was Hoang Mai station, all of which were places where the enemy regularly concentrated on "bombing".

The accident that changed Truong Quang Thu's entire life happened right when he was at the age of his youth, full of dreams and ambitions. In 1972, he accidentally stepped on a piece of bomb in a deep field. At that time, the war was fierce, there was no medical conditions, the wound became infected, swollen, and it took several months to heal. But when the wound had just healed, he also developed arthritis, pain and stiffness in his knees and hips, making him unable to stand, sit, or walk.

Once a healthy young man, after an accident, Truong Quang Thu was bedridden. “At that time, I was desperate, extremely pessimistic, not disappointed anymore. Lying in one place, not knowing where to go, what to do in the future… that was a period of time that was not only painful for my health but also mentally debilitating. I thought about death, because I didn’t know how to live. But then I thought about my parents who gave birth to me, who had high expectations for me, and found that living was difficult, but dying was easy, very cowardly.” And then, the instinct to live, the desire to live at the bottom of despair suddenly rose strongly.

He stayed at Viet Duc Hospital for a while, then he was transferred to the Central Traditional Medicine Hospital, which was evacuated to Ha Bac (now Bac Giang) for acupuncture. After 3 years of lying motionless, Truong Quang Thu began to move and stand up. During that time, he still wrote poetry. And it was true that he "held on to a poem to stand up" (Phung Quan). The touching love story of his life originated from that evacuated Traditional Medicine Hospital at that time... Until now, for him, the day he met his wife is still the most beautiful day of his life. He said, in a slow voice, that he still remembers her eyes at that time, the surprised eyes when she came to visit a relative in treatment and accidentally met his eyes. A young scholar, curled up in a corner of the bed, as if trying to shrink away from all eyes, from all inquiries. The girl came to him like that, with curiosity, sympathy and later with all love and respect.

There were many reasons why the parents of the girl named Ni strongly opposed their daughter marrying a disabled man from Nghe An. He was the one who understood this better than anyone else. However, the seemingly weak and fragile girl from the North convinced her parents and relatives with her great determination. Mrs. Ni dropped out of school at Ha Bac Technical College to go to Nghe An to be a daughter-in-law.

It was 1977, Truong Quang Thu was able to walk, but still could not sit like a normal person. The two got married, his parents built a temporary house for the young couple. From then on, the wife went to work in the fields, the husband stayed at home weak but loved his wife's hard work, so he tried his best to help her. In the morning, before going to work, his wife scooped out several large jars of water, left them at her husband's house to water the vegetables and weed. In addition to the 5 sao of rice fields outside, at home, he grew vegetables, kohlrabi, and cabbage. When it was time to harvest, his wife brought them to Thong market, Con market in Nghi Son, Tinh Gia (Thanh Hoa) to sell. She also made wine, used the wine residue to feed pigs...

He said half-jokingly, half-seriously: “At that time, thinking back, I felt like the characters in Nam Cao’s stories, living in a simple house, the wife was busy all day, the pigs cried and the children cried, I myself was disabled, unable to help much, the new poetic ideas just came up but the burden of making a living was pressing down on me…”. Difficulties, poverty, struggling to make ends meet, but every free moment, Truong Quang Thu wrote, wrote as if there was an urge inside him. He always kept paper and pen with him as an inseparable object. All day long, working hard, but at night, the small family gathered together to read the poems he wrote. Strangely enough, his poems were like fresh green sap, always wanting to overflow with passionate love for life, as he once wrote: “Life has many bitterness/ But the soul of poetry is still passionate”.

He believes that nothing born in this world does not have some meaning. Even his own misfortune, he thinks, seems to help him look deeper into each human condition, helping him know how to find beauty and joy in so many things around him. It would be a pity if we did not know how to stop, enjoy and reflect. Nothing is accidental, not even a piece of moon, a boat in the afternoon, a rice flower full of grain rustling with the wind. He talks about his wife - his wife from the North who has sacrificed her whole life, is "the person who completely changed my life". Is it true that God has given him the most wonderful thing, her love, for him to rely on, to know, and to aspire to write? The warm family is the driving force, and also one of the topics that Truong Quang Thu talks about in his work.

Truong Quang Thu and his works.

Besides, his poems also talk a lot about spring, about simple things in life, and especially write a lot for children. Although his "subjective circumstances" are disadvantaged and he has to make a lot of efforts to overcome them, his poems rarely contain words of lamentation and blame for his fate, not sorrowful and painful, but simple, bright, and full of faith and love.

When he was young, he wrote for the Thieu Nien Tien Phong newspaper, when he was an adult, and even when he was old, he still wrote children's poems and funny, humorous short stories. That was because of his heart and love for children, and also because of a personal reason: "Up until now, I have always cared about and wanted to encourage reading culture for my children, and often bought books and newspapers for my children to read. But Quynh Lap land, which is like a piece of land jutting out into the sea, is isolated from other communes of Quynh Luu district (formerly), so it became a remote area, with few books and newspapers available. I had to make up stories to tell my children. Making up stories became a habit, and those made up stories became fables, poems..."

He regularly sends his works and articles to newspapers for publication. Truong Quang Thu is a regular contributor to many newspapers: Thieu nien tien phong, Phu nu Viet Nam, Tap chi Song Lam, Van hoa Nghe An, Bao Nghe An... That is also a way to earn extra income, but most importantly, it is to satisfy his passion for writing, and writing.

In 1992, he joined the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association, which gave him more opportunities to interact and exchange with friends who shared his passion for writing. To date, he has published three collections of poems: Love of the Moon (1999), Walking Fruit Tray (2004) and Miss Cat (2010). Along with many awards such as: Award from the Nghe Tinh Literature and Arts Association (1991); Children's Newspaper (1994); Nghe An Newspaper (1996); Good Poetry from Song Lam Magazine (1998); Young Pioneer Newspaper (2000), Ho Xuan Huong Literature Award (2005).

Until now, Truong Quang Thu still continuously reads books and newspapers, surpassing himself, so that he does not get lost in the current situation, as well as the demands of the new life. He believes that poetry is his own emotions, but not easy emotions, but must always know how to find new things. He still feels that he is not old, still very young, still sensitive to life. It seems that the soul of a poet is always young, no matter how many decades he has!

Leaving, holding the bony hands of the person who wrote so many works with rare efforts, we always remember his words about the meaning of life, but also the profound words distilled from a life that has gone through many bitter and sweet moments: “I am weak, I cannot do anything heavy, I just want to contribute something to society and also to live a better life. I have suffered many losses and disadvantages, so I love, cherish and sympathize with life more. This life is beautiful and worth living…”!

Thuy Vinh - Ho Lai