(QNO) - Calling Moc Nhan Le Duc Thinh "a young writer at 60" is not wrong because when he really started writing (2015), in just 8 years, he published 9 works with many genres: poetry, critical essays, research, translation, prose...
Books that are difficult to write and picky about readers (Dust in the Wind - translation, Da Nang Publishing House, 2016; Bob Dylan - Rolling Stones; Nobel Prize in Literature 2016, research, translation, Writers' Association Publishing House, 2017; Bob Dylan - When Will We Know Tomorrow - Nobel Prize in Literature 2016, research, translation, Writers' Association Publishing House, 2018; Yesterday - 60 Years of The Beatles, music research, translation, Writers' Association Publishing House, 2020; AUBADE - Selected Poems of Louise Glück, Nobel Prize in Literature 2020, research, translation, Writers' Association Publishing House, 2021...). Finding a writer as capable, energetic, and passionate as him in this land, at this time, is not easy...
How many portraits does this literary portrait (as the author calls it) have? Who are they? The table of contents lists 18 authors - works that Moc Nhan Le Duc Thinh wrote about. But the most outstanding is still the portrait - of the author through 18 quite impressive articles and 3 additional articles to make the appearance of the "main character" sharper: an opening article by the author herself "explaining" about the approach, an article by Le Thi Ngoc Tram Perception of rebirth in Random Words written about MNLDT poetry, one by Huynh Minh Tam quite fully depicting Moc Nhan and the journey of words. Huynh Minh Tam and Le Thi Ngoc Tram not only added strokes to the "main character" but also "self-portraited" people who understood literature, read carefully and followed each page of the author's writing Under the layers of language...
In this book, according to the hometown - residence of the authors mentioned, there are Dai Loc (10), Dien Ban, Tien Phuoc, Tam Ky (2 each), Nui Thanh, Hiep Duc, Thang Binh (1 each).
Readers do not think that he "gives priority" to his hometown and close friends; nor does he intentionally choose authors representative of a period or a region. He only writes about works that he has read carefully or grasped what he wants to say or found some reason under the "layer of language" or suddenly wanted to play a "word puzzle"... like the usual style of Moc Nhan Le Duc Thinh. Thanks to that, the writing style of his works is free, not forced into the rules like those who are new to the field of criticism.
Reading nearly 200 pages of the book does not give the feeling of dry reasoning or long explanations, which is a common mistake even for professional critics - although the portraits he has taken the trouble to find are not necessarily truly creative images. Writing badly about something that is not bad and writing well about something that is not good is a noteworthy aspect of literary criticism.
Try reading the titles of the articles: The Returned Leaves (poem by Truong Van Quang), There is a River That Has Passed Away (poem by Nguyen Hai Trieu), Under the Rubbish Carpet, the Souls Open (poem by Nguyen Giup), Portrait of Pen and Ink (criticism by Nguyen Tan Ai), Peaceful as the Morning Mornings (Nguyen Thi Dieu Hien), Rambling in the Rainy Hands (poem by Nguyen Chien), Starfruit Flowers Hiding in the Corner of the Yard (poem by Nguyen Vinh), The Red Ripe Sunset Flows Down (poem by Hai Dieu)... and you will see the effort not to follow the footprints that were once left, the effort to find words to replace the ideas of searching, the effort to "poeticize" the entrance to the mysterious world of poetry... Setting a topic is also an element of poetics.
The critical writing of Moc Nhan Le Duc Thinh is not simply a "feeling" with the nature of "commentary" in school as a professional habit, but has theory, which is both a launching pad for the dance of words and keeps the feet from falling off the stage which is the default and limited of literary criticism. The appropriate quotations (Paul Valéry, Jorge Borger, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Patrick Rothfuss, Jakobson, Rorger Miller, Ralph Waldo Emerson...) do not let the author rely on or prove but create connections, support and increase the vibration in the deep layers of linguistic beauty.
Moc Nhan Le Duc Thinh is still embracing plans, wanting to write and daring to write. Just go ahead, don't put pressure on yourself, don't tie yourself down to this or that house and tire yourself out... It's okay if you don't write anymore. "You will find me if you seek" (Jesus). But folk songs also remind us of the hopeless pursuits of literature: "The bird flies to the North Sea, I seek the East Sea"... Just play like you play the guitar. Just go like a backpacker... It's not about getting anywhere!...
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