Anatomy of a kiss in Pham Dinh Phu's poetry

Orphaned at the age of 6, the only son of a martyr only knew how to study. In 1965, he passed the entrance exam to Hanoi Medical University. After graduating, Pham Dinh Phu volunteered to go to the Quang Tri battlefield, working with soldiers from the B5 Front to the northern border. He worked at the 43 Yen The Military Hospital, Bac Giang; the 105 Son Tay Military Hospital, Hanoi, until he transferred to the 175 Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City. In 2003, he was awarded the title of Meritorious Physician.

Cover of the poetry collection "Warm Kisses Like That" by poet Pham Dinh Phu.

Passionate about literature, after difficult surgeries, when seeing a patient off the hospital, or having to say goodbye to a comrade in pain, he wrote poems. He has published 8 publications, including 1 memoir and 7 poetry collections; he is a member of the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association.

"Warm Kisses Like That", Writers Association Publishing House 2025, is the latest work. The collection of poems is a mixture of happiness and suffering, presence and invisibility, separation and reunion, common and harsh, of which kisses are the means of expression: "It's over!/Years gradually fade away/Morning gathers the wind/Afternoon spreads the dew/Night returns with lingering nostalgia/Moon tilts the hammock/The road of the past" (Oh, old people). Stepping out from the sky filled with the smell of gunpowder, which soldier does not associate the lines of the address that once marked the past: There, "the fresh pink buds/Only for you! Blooming/The flowers of life/Simple/The rustic fields return to the vastness//Your lips stop at me" (Your buds in the lowland fields).

There, nostalgia comes back with: "The song of the hometown river, the waves are floating / The sound of cicadas gathers the afternoon into the twilight on the dike" (Home Ferry). This is a beautiful verse, awakening the reader's childhood memories, thoughts, and nostalgia. In the poem The Day She Crossed the River, the verse "The fire of war scorched the days and months / She was lost in the display of existence and nonexistence" seems to gently penetrate the deepest part of the reader's soul. The sounds from the past, like two halves of the soul, find each other with passionate love: "Truong Son / Echoing the sound of the laughing wind / Joyful in two halves / Side by side / Life // Somewhere the color of water, the scent of sky / The green forest leisurely records the words / The other half" (The other half).

Opening the book of poems, we come to “Chua có người nhận”, a poem that evokes a narrative quality, full of philosophy; the confidences of those who have “gone through” too much separation and longing. The verses carry the beauty of sadness: “For dozens of springs we have reached our deadline/The lamplight is familiar and the eyes are hazy.” The everyday words placed in the context of life become truly special. With “Warm hearts with such kisses”, the poem used to name the publication, Pham Dinh Phu mentions all the nuances of a kiss: Parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, male and female friends, meeting schoolmates again, the affection between husband and wife…

More beautiful, between the nurse, the female ambulance officer and the soldier before the moment of death: "Parents coaxing//Grandparents holding//Kiss conveying warmth//He kissing her/Nurturing love//Classmates/Love and affection kept//Husband and wife shoulder to shoulder/Wandering in the late afternoon//The nurse's kiss/Female ambulance officer/Female youth volunteer on the battlefield of bullets and fire/Dedicated to the soldier before the moment of death//Holy/Pure/Warming."

In his eyes, the kiss was like an epic poem: ""The battlefield" appeared in his eyes/The motherland on his shoulders/The homeland entrusted to his will/Danger/Hardship//Peaceful border/Sparkling curse//The scent of grapefruit and areca/Bare feet resting/He entered "Eternal sleep"/In his homeland, his mother's lullaby was passionate/And there/The kiss was still unfinished!" During the years of separation, the two lovers experienced many longing dreams: "His breathing/His chest trembled/I melted and sometimes felt helpless/He was passionate/I was filled with happiness/In the dream, his lips burned the sky". Such dreams go along with "Waiting/Immensely/Alone, until the day of peace and relaxation, the dream is full and sparkling/Fragile, soft red lips/The day I return, shyly/Complete/Only for you" (Only for you).

Each poem adds a layer of emotion, sympathy for souls thirsting for love, thirsting for life. They "cuddle" each other in the distance, to comfort their hearts, to dispel their longing, because they know the value of separation: "You are so bad/To make people feel embarrassed/Whenever we meet, we find an excuse to "kiss"/My heart is restless and restless/Flushily drifting to you to endure the battle//You are so bad/Only I am holy/In the trenches, longing for tomorrow//When the campaign comes, you lie in the deep forest//Forever after//Hungry/The past//You are so bad//Can't be "bad" anymore/Oh my dear!" (You are so bad). "Love me" is the title of a poem also called "Words from the soul of a female martyr". The distance is immense, the separation lasts endlessly, suppressing and anguishing, to the point that the female martyr (the soul) speaks herself: Love me! Then, in their heaving breaths, they realized that the sweetness was burning each other in the morning light: "I understand! For a long time...have you known?//Giving and receiving each other is so sweet/The heaving breaths hear the wild heart//Love...me...go/Whispering in the pure morning light." The poem is so beautiful, no one would think that it is a word from the underworld.

During the turbulent years amid the fierceness of war, Pham Dinh Phu's soul and heart were filled with memories. He considered the kiss a miracle, given to humans by "God". He described it in a simple, bare way, without any metaphors, just artistic line breaks that stirred emotions: "Deep wound/Painful/Stinging/Crazy/The nurse's lips were warm and chattering/Eyelashes and eyes were filled with tears/The soldier's chest was pounding/Has the pain gone?//Wide/Long/The wound "sewn itself"/The dawn was bright/A miracle given by God."

Towards the end of the book of poems, we get a closer look at the special kiss: "Forever remember the "first kiss"/Truong Son that day/Rustling late afternoon, the stream flows/The bomb crater burns with hatred and pain//The female medic struggles/Her innocent, thin, virginal features/The "forest flower" is covered with each ray of sunlight" and "Giving the girl the first red kiss//Her smiling lips/You stay with the green forest!" (First Kiss).

Written from the heart, sincere, simple but full of human feelings. The collection of poems not only enriches the way of looking at war through poetic language, but also helps us love our present life more and forever cherish the warm kisses!

Nguyen Tien Nen

Source: https://baoquangbinh.vn/van-hoa/202505/giai-phau-nu-hon-trong-tho-pham-dinh-phu-2226527/