Today, I stop more, to read, think and love Dang Toan more - a young poet from the same hometown - the same age as the "Bup Group Writers" on the "sacred land of Da Cuong Huong" long ago. Dang Toan, born in 1969, Ha Giang commune, Dong Hung district, Thai Binh province. Author of 5 books that have been released one after another.
It is precious that when he was just entering the age of “Tam thập nhi lập” (The age of literature is still very young), Dang Toan has demonstrated his ability to dominate the pages of “Poetry, short stories, literary reviews”. As for poetry for children, Dang Toan has had 2 collections. “Classroom in the sky” (2016). In 2023, the poetry collection “The sun is not sick” was selected and awarded by the Vietnam Writers Association in the campaign to create literature for children (phase 1).
“Poetry legacy” for you, for Dang Toan, certainly does not stop there. “The bag of poems” on the journey of searching and waiting, for him, is still rich and abundant. Because this soul, this “Opening Way”, easily creates for “Dang Toan and poetry”, “a field of strength”. Easy to flourish, flourish. Easy to call each other and resonate even more.
That is what I value and believe more in, in each step of transition, each step of extension and enrichment on his writings and poems. Because, Dang Toan did not go through the rather long "Creative Talent Training and Development Course" in Thai Binh .
Because 48 years ago, many “Child Writers” came out of the “Association’s Temple of Literature”. That whole generation of writers with the team of writers in Thai Binh had existed for nearly half a century, yet, there was no writer, no name that “remained” with this “literary” topic. With “focusing on writing pages “for children” in their childhood.
That’s how we know its “difficulty”. In its “unique qualities”. In many factors that require a “unique soul” before a “unique world”, always innocent, pure, fresh and very magical in a subject area, in the scope of life that needs to be present in the colorful, vast picture of literature…
I love Dang Toan for that thought, when God “endowed him” with a poet’s heart. A heart that easily vibrates and moves. A heart that makes it easy for readers to recognize that those are poems that are not “intentionally written”. Rather, that is the song “From Dang Toan’s heart - A heart rich in poetic inspiration, burning on its own”…
Just read the verses: “The sun is as yellow as star fruit/Ripe in the cold wind”. Or, “The harvested rice cannot be dried/Lying sadly, missing the warm sunshine”. Or, “The snakehead fish/Floats against the shore of childhood”. Then, “Saving from the sun and the dew/The field bears a tray of incense to offer to you”… It is enough to see, in “the feeling, the hearing”. The “Soaking, spreading” and “The movement”… It is truly a place of communication, a place of “marriage” between the poet’s soul and the reality of life.
And so, there is no doubt: “Dang Toan and poetry” are one but two – in that harmony and convergence, there is always “a child” in his soul, always singing. A Dang Toan passionate and devoted to children. His soul belongs to the outside world, to the objective world. From encounters, dialogues, from intuition originating from a certain “great enlightenment”, the poet calls himself a “great dream”. But what is that “great dream”, when the reality out there has sown in him a “doubtful reality” – the reality of the hazy “smoke and mist”, stirring from the poet’s own soul?
Yes. He is clearly aware of the path of “perception” – the path from intuition to thinking. For children, for the age of “just opening their eyes to life”, their strengths and outstanding points are not thinking, “thinking” like adults? But it is intuition – looking up at the world with eager eyes, with thousands of strange, fascinating questions about countless phenomena happening right before their eyes – “the things that are right in front of their eyes”.
And, with the love of children, with “always returning, always immersed in the world of children”, Dang Toan was sensitive, both observing and suggesting. He created verses rich in “poetic vision” that bring joy, innocence and liveliness to children like this: “The most bad is the storm wind/Blowing down houses and trees/The most gentle is the cool breeze/Rustling the bamboo banks and rice fields/Her breath is hot as fire/Is the southwest wind/The spring wind steps over/Gently with the white clouds”…
That is “The Wind House Story”. Or, this is “The Shirt of the Earth”, the color of the land on the ornamental fields of our beloved countryside. “The shirt of peach blossoms/ Pink like the labia minora/ The shirt of apricot blossoms/ Bright yellow sunlight/ The red flag/ The color of the velvet pink shirt/ Like the white clouds/ The color of the shirt of Ban flowers/ The smoothness of orchids/ The jade green shirt/ A thousand petals of xoan flowers/ The purple shirt”...
Highlighting the observation of nature and scenery, Dang Toan revealed a poetic ability, with the power of association through metaphors, through comparisons, through what is "concretized" to be "generalized" and then returned to "individualization", creating an impression, in images, in symbols. Sometimes funny. Sometimes surprising. Sometimes strange.
For example: “The Malabar spinach performs a circus act/ Flexes on the fence/ The eggplant shows off its bunch of fruit/ The white moon is next to the pond/ The chili peppers tell each other/ Light red candles/ The chayote is excited/ Hang a trellis of green bulbs”… (Morning in the garden).
Clinging to the outside world, using the outside world as a background, Dang Toan finds the light revealed through collisions and harmonies. In front of nature, he brings to childhood sparkling pictures with a fresh, youthful perspective. There, his way of recreating and creating - sometimes just a way of describing, a way of "poetic movement" - is always suggestive in a charming, attractive way.
For example:
The trees said to the road:
"Cherish the little land you give me
Branches reaching high to the sky
Deep roots I vow never to leave here"
That is "Tree and Road" in "Narrative".
And here, is the way the dialogue itself illuminates, what the writer discovered:
“… Why can't dogs climb trees?
Like the calico cat?
- Ah, dogs don't learn to climb trees.
Because busy looking after the house for the owner".
In the two areas of interest in Dang Toan's poetry, along with bringing children a rich nature through "Green Eyes", through the "Watching" of young, wonderful silk, there is a truly "fun and funny" area in daily life, such as: "Waiting for grandma, puppy goes to hospital, chicken apologizes to friend, parrot learning"... Or "Inviting the moon to the festival, clouds perform magic"... These are scenes taking place in the daily life, familiar to a world of children with extremely magical imagination. In this area of exploitation, Dang Toan's poetry also has situations, creating beautiful impressions in images, poetic materials, in the message sent:
For example: “Not thinking/Reading carelessly/Learning like a parrot/Really deplorable”. Or: “Sunset spreads across the distant fields/Immense purple carpet of rice/The picture of the countryside is so beautiful/With the sun’s contribution”… Or: “Kilometer markers - The eyes of the road/Green islands of the distant ocean/Starlight eyes of the sky/The sun eyes of the shining dawn”…
And:
“Who has ever seen the circus?
Will definitely nod in approval
Cloud artist is truly talented
How many magic tricks…”
As a young writer, one of the representative faces of Thai Binh contemporary literature, Dang Toan has 5 books, demonstrating his tireless exploration and search in the face of challenges in labor and artistic creation. Dang Toan has had modest achievements, marking the initial stages in the unique characteristics of a writer.
With two collections of poems written for children, “Classroom in the Sky” and “The Sun is Not Sick”, it can be said that Dang Toan is a poet for children… With a literary field in which he is “betting” on his mission as a writer, facing a topic that is truly “rare and precious”.
Readers and writers (especially the young generation in Thai Binh and the general public across the country) are trusting and waiting for Dang Toan on the path the poet is constantly building and enlightening every day.
Kim Bell
(Hai Phong City)
Source: https://baothaibinh.com.vn/tin-tuc/19/225158/dang-toan-nha-tho-cua-tuoi-tho-tren-dat-ay
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