Every time I am overwhelmed with emotions. The most recent was the program introducing authors and works of members of the Literature Association of the Provincial Literature and Arts Association at Phan Boi Chau High School (Pleiku City). Seeing the students eagerly listening and happily interacting with the authors, many memories came flooding back to me.
I reminisce back 42 years ago, when I was a high school student. Back then, where could I find a neat uniform to go to school, let alone organize literary and artistic exchanges, meet literary authors to listen to their stories about life and career, and receive books as gifts.
The library of An Nhon I High School where we studied at that time had a small, narrow room displaying portraits of famous people, including poets To Huu, Xuan Dieu, Han Mac Tu, Quach Tan...
Every time I go to the library, I look at the portraits with admiration and a desire to meet the author in real life. And I always imagine that they belong to a completely different type of person in terms of knowledge, emotions, soul, style and daily activities.
At that time, when I learned that the poet Yen Lan - the author of the famous poem "Ben My Lang" was a member of the Ban Thanh Tu Huu group, a fellow countryman, whose house was not far from the high school I attended, I was overjoyed. After all, wasn't the poem "Ben My Lang" inspired by and modeled after the Truong Thi river wharf that I used to pass by every day? So I imagined the author as a proud, worldly "horseman".
Only later, when I met and talked with him, did I know that poet Yen Lan had a small figure, a gentle face, and a calm, simple, and approachable voice and speech.
When the country was still in difficulty, there were very few means of listening, seeing, and reading. As a teenager, I learned about Vietnamese Poets, read and memorized some typical works of poets Bui Giang, Pham Thien Thu, Nguyen Sa, Nguyen Tat Nhien, etc.
I got to listen to Quang Dung recite poems such as “The Eyes of Son Tay People”, “Two Banks”, “The Roadside Restaurant” with a solemn introduction. I also got to listen to To Huu’s poems - a typical poet of the Vietnamese revolutionary poetry line with a passionate heart: “Since then, the summer sun has been shining in me/The sun of truth shines through my heart/My soul is a garden of flowers and leaves/Very fragrant and full of birdsong”. And, I cherished and kept my love for the work, admired the author and hoped to meet him one day.
Then the joy came when I was a student of poet To Huu for a whole session, in the early 90s of the last century. I listened to him talk, my heart always turned to the beautiful verses in the collection "From then on".
Now, when I talk about the past, my heart is still filled with emotion and excitement. And I see that the young generation today is truly happy to live in a time when the country is changing and developing in all aspects, not just in the fields of literature and art like today.
Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/ky-niem-kho-quen-post325545.html
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