Uncle Ho's soldiers in poetry

“Uncle Ho’s soldiers” - a noble title, a source of pride for officers and soldiers of the Vietnam People’s Army. Photo: Document

The National Guard in the "all-people, all-round, long-term, self-reliant and certain victory" resistance war were farmers holding guns. They were gentle, honest, rustic, uneducated, gathered under the revolutionary flag, trained in the military , and optimistically participated in the resistance war: "We/ People from all over/ Met each other when we were illiterate/ Got to know each other since the "one or two" days/ Not yet familiar with guns/ Ten military lessons/ Still smiling happily in the resistance war" (Remember, Hong Nguyen).

They came from poor villages, met by chance and became "soul mates", "comrades" of each other: "Dark nights sharing a blanket became soul mates/ Comrades!" (Comrade, Chinh Huu). The National Defense soldiers were also enlightened urban intellectual youths who took up arms and went to fight to save the country. They considered sacrifice as a natural thing, and were proud when they fell to the roar of the heroic Ma River: "The robe replaced the mat as he returned to the ground/ The Ma River roared a solo".

And so, they both hated the enemy from the bottom of their hearts and were very romantic when thinking about love and the meaning of life: “Eyes wide open, sending dreams across the border/ Dreaming of Hanoi’s beautiful and fragrant figure at night” (Tay Tien, Quang Dung). That is why the national defense soldiers became the symbol of Uncle Ho’s soldiers during the nine years of resistance. And it was they who created the Dien Bien Phu victory that “resounded throughout the five continents, shook the earth”, burying the old colonialism and surprising the whole world : “Nine years of Dien Bien/ Created a red wreath, created a golden history” (Thirty years of our life with the Party, To Huu).

Entering the resistance war against the US, Uncle Ho’s soldiers were affectionately called the Liberation Army by the people of the South. This was a resistance war of new magnitude, between a small nation and a giant superpower. Therefore, the image of the Liberation Army was considered a symbol of a just war, even though they were just “barefoot boys”, but their gentle, cute floppy hats that “didn’t hurt a single leaf on the branch” were “stronger than all the bullets and bombs/making the Pentagon tremble” (Song of Spring 68, To Huu).

The Liberation Army is a generation of Uncle Ho soldiers following the footsteps of the old National Defense soldiers into the resistance war with all the attitudes and thoughts of their generation: "going the path that the previous generation has gone/ by many new ways" (A soldier talks about his generation, Thanh Thao). They leisurely "cut through Truong Son to save the country": "The car has no windows, not because the car has no windows/ Bombs explode, bombs shake, the windows break/ Leisurely sitting in the cockpit/ Looking at the ground, looking at the sky, looking straight ahead" (The car squad without windows, Pham Tien Duat).

Their sacrificial posture created the symbol of the Liberation Army soldier engraved into the century: "Only leaving the Vietnamese posture engraved into the century/ You are a Liberation Army soldier" (Vietnamese Stance, Le Anh Xuan). From that posture "The Fatherland flies up into the vast spring" - Spring 1975 was a complete victory, bringing the country into a new era: peace , national unity.

Poetry about Vietnamese volunteer soldiers in Cambodia is also different from the previous National Defense and Liberation Army soldiers, especially in the naked way of addressing the lyrical ego with the extremely intimate "I, I, you, you, we...": "Line up for me to take roll call/You soldiers from far away are very young/Line up to listen to me tell you/The stories of fighting and...love" (Roll Call, Pham Sy Sau). Living and fighting outside the Fatherland, perhaps we have to call each other like that to fully express our sincerity: "Tomorrow you will return with your lover in your arms/Please kiss me the kiss of a soldier's life" (To friends who have completed their duty, Pham Sy Sau)...

When everything is peaceful, the soldier's mission is to both build and protect the Fatherland. At this time, the soldier returns to the common title of "Uncle Ho's Soldier". Unlike the youth in peacetime in general, soldiers in peacetime, besides the mission of guarding the land and sky, also worry about keeping the people safe in life. They are still the ones who suffer the most hardships, especially when the country is hit by natural disasters and epidemics.

At that time, they still took hardship as their friend, and wind and rain as their home: "Soldiers in peacetime/ The country is without enemy shadow/ Thinking it is near, yet far away/ Still hardship as their friend/ Still wind and rain as their home" (Song of a soldier in peacetime, Tran Dang Khoa). The hardships, including the losses and sacrifices of soldiers in peacetime, clearly demonstrated the noble qualities worthy of the title "Uncle Ho's soldiers".

MAI BA AN

Source: https://baodanang.vn/channel/5433/202505/nguoi-linh-cu-ho-trong-tho-4006292/