"Listen" - the inner voice of the old poets

"Ling" is a collaborative poetry collection by authors Pham Vu, Pham Vinh, Nguyen Mong Sinh, and Tran Si Thu, released on the full moon of the first lunar month of the Year of the Dragon (2014). All four poets are retired and at an age rarely reached.

The poetry collection "Lắng" (Listening) is printed in 18x11 cm format, 108 pages thick, published by Literature Publishing House in 2023.

As reflected in the "Preface," "Ling" is a portrait, a culmination of the love for homeland, friendship, and poetry of each poet throughout their life. "Ling" comprises nearly 100 poems with profound reflections, experiences, thoughts, and feelings of the writers... but ultimately, they all subtly carry the sweet essence of love...

Among them, poets Pham Vu and Pham Vinh are also veteran journalists, whose poems are deeply imbued with experience. Poet Pham Vu – despite having served in the military in his youth – was not deterred by the brutality of war from writing heroic verses, shining with faith… in poems like "The Statue of Uncle Ho on the Truong Son Mountain," "Noc Cave," etc. The soul of the former soldier still cherishes love, longing, and hope for a bright future… Poet Pham Vinh has gentle philosophies of life drawn from plants, flowers, the sound of horse hooves, the wind, moonlight, laughter… pouring his soul into each verse in "Melancholy," "With a Thousand Pines," "On the Peak of Da Mai," "With the Son River," "New Year's Eve," "Wobbly"…

Four old friends (from left to right): Nguyen Mong Sinh, Tran Si Thu, Dinh Lan, Pham Vinh

The poets Nguyen Mong Sinh and Tran Si Thu both previously worked in scientific and academic fields. While Nguyen Mong Sinh's poetry tells gentle stories about the river, red sand, pine trees by the lake, waves and wind, a spring day in the countryside...; Tran Si Thu, on the other hand, wrote very short poems about historical landmarks, such as Pac Bo Cave, before the Tran Quoc Tuan monument, Phong Nha Cave...

This may be the first collaborative poetry collection by a group of authors in the literary and artistic circles of Da Lat - Lam Dong , so from preparation to printing and publication, there were many difficulties... causing the process to take longer than planned. However, as mentioned in the Preface, the veteran poets received support and encouragement from their contemporaries, such as calligrapher Le Muu who donated calligraphy for the cover, and cultural figure Dinh Lan who encouraged the group to publish their poems together...

The veteran poets also hope that in the near future there will be many more collections of essays and poems jointly published by other member groups, especially the younger ones; forming a new atmosphere, a new style, and a new beauty in the literary and artistic life of the members of the Da Lat Literary Association..., like "Ling" - to create beautiful memories of a time we are living and loving!

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