Nguyen Van Dung, Poet with a talent for music

In Quang Tri , those who love art and are interested in the art of poetry have certainly heard and known at least once about the poet, Dr. Nguyen Van Dung.

Music lovers often hear songs such as Tinh em gio hat, Uoc uoc cua nguoi, Xuan da ve ben kia song Hieu, Thanh pho chung minh thuong, Vang mai bai ca, Chuyen tinh Dakrong, Bai ca Cong an Quang Tri, Chieu tim Cua Tung, Khuc lu mien suong ngot... These songs have touched people's hearts not only because of their lyrical, passionate, and musical melodies, but also because they leave deep emotions in the hearts of listeners because the lyrics always carry gentle, simple, and close features to life, people, homeland, and country. Those lyrics that touch people's hearts are the poems of Nguyen Van Dung.

At the end of the Ben Hai River of the fiery land of Vinh Linh, there is a very famous countryside: Vinh Giang. It is the homeland of the Nguyen Dynasty queens, of the heroic soldiers in the two resistance wars and also the land that gave birth to the Tung village's rowing style and many talented artists known throughout the country.

That is the hometown of Nguyen Van Dung. Born in this peaceful and poetic land, since childhood, folk melodies and folk songs have permeated his being from the structure, words to images and especially the rhythms. Therefore, Nguyen Van Dung's poems always carry the sound of folk songs and the breath of folk songs. The words in the poems are simple, the images are real, not flowery, elaborate, or embellished. Those kind, sincere, and passionate poems have promoted the creativity of musicians in many provinces and cities, especially musicians in Quang Tri.

His poems are rich and diverse, focusing on poems about Quang Tri, about the revolutionary war, about soldiers, comrades, mothers of soldiers, about people on the front line, the rear with all the sincere emotions of the heart. In addition, the theme of Uncle Ho, homeland, country is shown in Nguyen Van Dung's poems with many different levels. On any topic, his poems are set to music by musicians and have won many international, national, and regional awards.

I have known poet Nguyen Van Dung for a long time. Thirty years ago, I successfully adapted the song Chieu tim Cua Tung from his poem. Then Chieu Hieu Giang, Mua sim mien suong ngot. In 2020, I successfully adapted his poem "Uoc nguyen cua Nguoi" and won the C prize for composing and promoting literary, artistic and journalistic works on the topic of Studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style awarded by the Central Propaganda Department. Here are some of the songs adapted from Nguyen Van Dung's poems that won prizes at competitions such as: Tinh em gio hat (music by Xuan Vu), Second prize of Lao Dong Newspaper, C prize of Vietnam Musicians Association; I still wait for you (music by Tran Tich), C prize of the Ministry of Public Security ; Bai ca Cong an Quang Tri (music by Hoang Anh), C prize of the Ministry of Public Security ; Khuc hat song song Hien (music by Hoang Anh), A prize of the Music Festival of the North Central provinces and many awards at the provincial, department, and branch levels in the province.

Regarding the theme of homeland and country, Nguyen Van Dung has a song called "Vang mai bai ca" (Forever Song), which was composed into a choir by musician Hoang Anh, becoming a familiar song, performed many times at the Mekong Sub-region Arts Festival, the Indochina Arts Festival, and the Flag Raising Ceremony to Unify the Country at Hien Luong Flagpole. This song was awarded the Gold Medal by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. These are passionate, tender, and moving lyrics, expressing sincere and respectful feelings for Quang Tri, the blood and flowers, rising up in the work of rebuilding the homeland.

Up to now, 67 of Nguyen Van Dung's poems have been set to music. In addition to the musicians mentioned above, his poems have also been chosen by veteran and famous musicians as lyrics for many of their songs such as: Le Anh, Van Bao, Le Vi, Mai Kien... It can be said that he is a poet with a great affinity for music.

Nguyen Van Dung is a prolific poet. To date, he has published 14 works of poetry, epic poems, and critical essays, winning many awards at the central and Quang Tri provincial levels (4 awards from central ministries and departments and 12 awards from Quang Tri province).

Nguyen Van Dung was a soldier, experienced many leadership positions in a number of sectors, and has a PhD in economics. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Quang Tri Literature and Arts Association. Work is pressing every day, but the poet in him is always struggling. Perhaps those are the "voices of the heart" as writer Xuan Duc often said: "The human heart is like a stream, if it is flat, peaceful, and complete, it will never make a sound. If there is a deviation or deficiency, it will create an unusual waterfall. The voice of the heart is the sound of the waterfall. The greater the deviation or deficiency, the more rapid the waterfall and the farther the sound of the waterfall. The poet in us is the tilted waterfall in each individual world of each life."

At the age of seventy, many things are calmly forgotten but there are also things that are deeply engraved in the mind. It is still the same verses that we have read through generations of Vietnamese literature, but the words through Nguyen Van Dung are like a stream of clear, pure, and simple water. They are like musical notes arranged in separate intervals to create soft, passionate, and loving rhythms. His poetry quietly seeks the most loving and compassionate side of life and human love. That belief creates the strength to help him overcome the harshness of life.

Modesty and quietness, that is the poetic quality of Nguyen Van Dung. Ignoring all the noise and vanity, his poems are as natural as flowers budding and blooming, naturally flying high on the wings of music. The number of poems set to music has made him the poet most set to music in Quang Tri province, because he always maintains the rhyme of his poems, close to folk songs, rich in imagery and very rich in music.

Musician Vo The Hung

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