Romantic inspiration in Vu Tuan's poetry

From the poetry collection “Alluvial Melody ” to “ The Secret Language of the Pine Hill ” and recently “ Diamond Day ”, there have been many changes in the poetic style of Poet Vu Tuan. Especially the poems about love, about romance in front of natural scenery make poetry lovers admire the language that the author uses in his works.

Poet Vu Tuan (real name Vo Van Tuan), born in 1972, in My Hoi commune, Cai Be district. At the age of 18, he packed his backpack and joined the army, the dream of composing still lingered in the soul of the young soldier. After leaving the army, he had the opportunity to compose and often had poems published in Culture magazines and Literature Magazines in and outside the province.

According to critic Vo Tan Cuong: "Recently, author Vu Tuan has many poems that are contemplative, expanding the dimension of thinking and revealing feelings in discovering and depicting the multifaceted, multidimensional mystery of people and things in the real world ."

Vu Tuan's poetry also has romantic inspiration expressed in the tone, sometimes soft, passionate, sometimes strong and impressive of beauty. Romantic writing style is expressed first in the contrast of the beauty of nature and life in the Central Highlands.

The nature in the poem “The Secret Language of the Pine Hill” is a beautiful nature, with hills, wind, roses… Vu Tuan has carefully selected the most typical images, containing the soul of this land. The bold writing style in expression further creates a picture of nature with a harmonious composition, with poetic and attractive scenery in a romantic love story.

“... I welcome you with a proud rose
The wind charms the youthful hillsides
The clouds open their hearts and call us to come.
Halfway through love
We nestle together tightly like school notebooks
Squeezing the butterflies soaked in enchanting vows...”

For Vu Tuan, it seems that the love of the cold land makes people listen to their own hearts. The young man from the Southern Delta, when going to the Central Highlands, encountered "wild sunflowers blooming on the hillsides" and quickly "quietly distilled the January sky".

The first two verses of the poem “Spring Love of the Highlands” are like a very simple feeling but they help the reader imagine the land the author has just set foot on. The next two verses describe a beautiful scene every afternoon on the plateau. The sophistication of language and emotion makes the verse lyrical and beautiful:

Poet Vu Tuan (right) at the launch of the poetry collection "Diamond Day".

Pink afternoon purple afternoon tilt
A thousand flowers smile in the night of puberty

A series of words that describe the peaceful, beautiful scenery and space of the plateau in the afternoon. “Pink afternoon, purple afternoon, tilted afternoon” are what still remain in the author’s heart when remembering the cold land:

Crossing the forest and waterfalls to find
The gong and the pistil of wild sunflowers at night

With the two verbs “cross” and “cross” combined with the unique metaphorical comparison, the picture of the Central Highlands with wild sunflowers becomes rich in form and rich in lines. Also borrowing the image of wild sunflowers, in the poem “Thirst for love, want to turn into a bird”, poet Vu Tuan looks at wild sunflowers blooming yellow in the poetic mountain and hill scene, and somewhere the whisper of a lover in his ear has a strong supernatural quality:

Golden flowers, oh wild sunflowers!
The poetic hills whisper your voice

Borrowing images of wild sunflowers and poetic hills as details to transition very naturally and emotionally, longing to be close to each other. In the treasure trove of folk songs, there are also many poems using the formula “I wish…” expressing the desire to “transform” to always be close to the loved one. For example:

- I wish you turned into a blanket.
Let me cover, let me roll, let me lie down.
- I wish you turned into a flower
Let me lift it up and put on the scarf.

But with Vu Tuan, it is different. It can be said that there are few poems that express a deep, passionate love that is also full of longing but straightforward like the two concluding lines of Vu Tuan in the poem "Thirst for love, want to turn into a bird":

Thirsty for love, want to turn into a bird
Break out of the narrow cage to find the blue sky

Not only romantic with the Central Highlands, the young man from the Southern Delta, Vu Tuan, is also passionate when standing in front of the Central Sea. Normally, the sea is a metaphorical image symbolizing a man, but with Vu Tuan, there is a different view expressed right from the first 4 verses of the poem "The Sea":

The sea is passionate and seductive.
The sea is calling passionately
Are you the sea?
He was lost all his life.

In the midst of a vast and endless life, countless times the sea has soothed the lovelorn men wandering in the quiet sunsets, so that "I drown myself in the sea/ To be filled with passion". Each wave washing ashore is like a flood of memories "Even though I close the valve of longing/ It still boils and cannot be calmed".

The author seems to confide his feelings into the waves, gently releasing his thoughts into the cool sea breeze with lyrical lines filled with emotions. For Poet Vu Tuan, love seems to always be as new as the beginning, as fragile as a “breakable” flower petal and he is always nervous and worried.

Reading Vu Tuan's poems over the years, it can be said that the author does not write poems in a certain way, is not strict about style, not heavy on syntax, but each poem resonates with its own melody, very easy to enter the reader's heart.

If in Vu Tuan's poems he is romantic and passionate, in real life he is a simple, honest but also very talented man. Currently, poet Vu Tuan is a member of the Tien Giang Province Literature and Arts Association, and has won the poetry award 6 times on the topic "Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style" organized by the Propaganda Department of Tien Giang Provincial Party Committee.

In 2022, Poet Vu Tuan won the B Prize for Poetry in the Literature and Art Composition Contest on the topic "Adaptation, safety, flexibility, effective control of the Covid-19 epidemic" of the Tien Giang Province Literature and Art Association. Most recently, Vu Tuan won the Second Prize in the Poetry Contest "New Rhythm" organized by the Thai Nguyen Province Literature and Art Association in 2023. Poet Vu Tuan was also awarded the "For the cause of Vietnamese literature and art" Medal by the Vietnam Union of Literature and Art Associations.

QUANG HUY

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