Re-reading Moonlight, Sitting sadly remembering my mother in the past in 'Nguyen Duy's Poetry'

The latest edition of the collection 'Nguyen Duy's Poetry' is a selection of typical poems taken from the poetry collections that made his name such as: Moonlight, Sifting Sand to Find Gold, Long Road, Returning, Dust...

Nguyen Duy's poetry collection - Photo: NGUYEN HOANG DIEU THUY

Poet Nguyen Duy is one of the typical poetic voices in Vietnamese literature. He is highly appreciated for his luc bat poetry, a poetry form that seems easy to write, but to write well and deeply is not easy.

Reading Nguyen Duy's poetry, readers feel the simplicity, tenderness and lyricism, but still carry deep contemplation and philosophy. The selected edition of Nguyen Duy's Poetry has just been republished with a new cover, including poems that have helped him leave a deep impression on readers.

Mother lulls the senses into life, milk nourishes the body, song nourishes the soul

From White Sand (1973) to Dust (1997), his poetry is a journey to find the beauty of ordinary things, a beauty full of philosophy that, according to critic Do Lai Thuy: "Nguyen Duy knows how to create cases of anti-aerobic, anti-philosophical poetry to bring in the oxygen of folk philosophy".

Many of Nguyen Duy's poems have touched the hearts of readers and become the common memories of many generations. Particularly, Sitting sadly remembering our mother - one of the outstanding poems in this collection, is a gentle yet moving memorial of maternal love.

There, the image of a hard-working mother and simple lullabies have become symbols: "I go through my entire human life / but still cannot hear all the lullabies my mother sings"; "Mother sings the way of life / milk nourishes the body, songs nourish the soul / grandmothers sing lullabies to their children / will you still remember them in the future?"

Poet Nguyen Duy received flowers from Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Literature and Arts Associations Nguyen Truong Luu and Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association Bich Ngan during an event reading his poetry at the Union of Literature and Arts Associations - Photo: HO LAM

Editor for the Nguyen Duy Poetry edition, editor and book author Nguyen Hoang Dieu Thuy confided to Tuoi Tre Online that she read the poem " Sitting sadly, missing my mother" when she was a literature student and was very moved because he described the longing for one's mother so delicately:

"When I became a mother, and understood more deeply the motherhood journey of my mother and other women, I felt much more moved by the poem. Writing about mothers is very difficult, because we always feel like we cannot say enough, or cannot say anything different from what others have said a lot.

But Nguyen Duy still brings very special images from familiar materials. From "the shadow of mother on earth from the old days" evokes a hard-working and miserable image to "my heart - the wet place where mother lies on a rainy night" is the tearfulness of an orphan. I think the poem touches the bottom of the heart of all those who have a mother in the world".

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Lam Lake

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/doc-lai-anh-trang-ngoi-buon-nho-me-ta-xua-trong-tho-nguyen-duy-20250813144317164.htm