I kept looking at the cover picture by Dinh Ngoc Duy, an image that seemed to be the default image of summer for rural children in the past. A boy riding on the back of a buffalo, holding a branch of green grass outstretched with excitement, his mouth smiling. The buffalo's eyes were mischievous, its head raised as if it was participating in the game with the boy. That image is very rare now, because farmers now have plows, harvesters, threshers, straw is also rolled in the fields, many farmers no longer raise buffaloes and cows, so after school children no longer call each other to herd buffaloes out to the fields to eat grass. Therefore, "Father's Fairy Tales" are stories about a childhood that is both near and far of the author Phi Tan. "Also on those half-day ferry trips on the river with my children, I told my childhood stories. Those are true stories on the green shore of fairy tales..."
Before “Father’s Fairy Tales”, Phi Tan had three books of essays that were loved by readers, “Ngoai o thuong nho”, “Ben song O Lau” and “Ve Hue an com”, the content of which is stories about childhood memories and rural life in the countryside, the writing style is that of a person with a lot of life experience. So I wondered what the author would tell in “Father’s Fairy Tales”, what those stories would give to children and to adults who are fathers and mothers today. Just imagining a tall, somewhat stout and very loving father, sitting and telling his “old” stories, I imagined that the author would laugh a lot, then ponder and remember, because childhood memories are always pure, innocent, mischievous and also the most genuine.
When telling stories to children, the most memorable ones are still the games. Except for the buffalo herding sessions and the games on the buffalo's back, urban and rural children play many similar games such as finding bird nests, playing catch, playing catch, fighting fish, catching dragonflies, climbing trees, picking fruit, bathing in the river... Phi Tan's stories in this book form a symphony about a childhood world with children's games and especially a lot of emotions.
The stories in “Father’s Fairy Tales” suggest a valuable lesson, that the living environment is very important in raising a child to develop well physically and mentally, enhancing understanding and kindness in each child. In “Father’s Fairy Tales”, Phi Tan and his friends lived fully in the natural world, surrounded by “squashes, gourds, sweet melons, bitter melons”, followed their father during the harvest to “pick ripe purple-black cassia fruits that tasted sweet, and chewy dog gum fruits that were crunchy even though a bit astringent”; saw “fish, crabs, frogs, and toads also competing to crawl out of their holes”; and smelled the pungent smell of muddy grass... (Fairy Tales of the Green Shore). Being close to the natural world, people naturally develop love for animals, plants and fields. That's why there is a story about a farmer named Thinh crying and calling out the name of his buffalo when it died (the buffalo named Vo) (Village Buffalo). Only then can we understand why we cannot catch cuckoos because they are close to farmers and their cries are pitiful" (Fairy Tale of the Green Shore).
Children all love their fathers and mothers, but they still love their mothers the most. The love of poor children for their mothers is always associated with the food their mothers cook, the cakes they buy from the market, and new clothes on Tet. Children themselves will love their mothers according to the image they remember most. According to Phi Tan, "my mother, in addition to her daily housework and farming, also has a vegetable business. She goes around the village to buy vegetables to sell at Dai Luoc and My Chanh markets ( Quang Tri ). The gifts for Phi Tan's siblings are pieces of coconut cake, ripe jackfruit, clay figurines, or new clothes. Those who are "children" born in the same era as Phi Tan (6X, 7X) and read "Father's Fairy Tales" will understand the happiness of waiting for their mothers to come home from the market. "In the late afternoons, my brothers and I often invite each other to stand at the intersection at the beginning of the village, looking towards the O Lau River, waiting for our mothers to come home from the market. Mother came home, the gongs creaked on her shoulders and we trotted after her home" (Mother returned to the year-end market).
Not a story told “so long ago”, hundreds of years away from fairies and Buddhas, but author Phi Tan still classified his modern stories into “Father’s Fairy Tales”, because that green childhood is forever a fairy tale in the soul of any child who lives in harmony with the natural world and in the love of their father and mother. There, their father and mother are the Buddhas and fairies. Children are not afraid of their parents being poor, but are most afraid of violence or witnessing domestic violence. The essential thing to create a fairy tale is love, not poverty, so the scene of Phi Tan’s brothers “lying together watching the sky through holes in the corrugated iron roof on moonlit nights” (Old Roof) is a beautiful memory in the author’s heart.
A storyteller with gray hair tells a story without magical words or symbols of children in the 4.0 technology era. “Father’s Fairy Tale” has a lot of thoughtful and contemplative language and thinking, and is a collection of essays for many ages.
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