Poet - journalist Cao Ngoc Thang: Seasonal rhythm - Poetic rhythm

Before becoming famous in the literary world, Cao Ngoc Thang was a famous journalist, with thirty years of experience, from the time at the Culture Newspaper to the Hanoi Radio and Television Station. Before that, he was a lecturer at the Hanoi Pedagogical University. Further, when the country had not yet been unified, Cao Ngoc Thang was a young man from Hanoi who put down his pen and became an anti-aircraft soldier, protecting the skies of the North...

Poet Cao Ngoc Thang (left) and the author.

That young man must have been writing poetry for a long time, but it was not until 2009 that he put his name to a collection of poems - Breaking the Wind (Thanh Nien Publishing House). In the following years, Cao Ngoc Thang published poetry every year (along with collections of stories, memoirs, and political research books): Giao mua (Writers' Association Publishing House, 2010); Thuc ha (Writers' Association Publishing House, 2011); Tro nom (Literature Publishing House, 2012); Mua khong nha (Literature Publishing House, 2013). There was a break around 2014. In 2015, Cao Ngoc Thang published Ben song Me (Literature Publishing House). Then, for some reason, ten years later, Cao Ngoc Thang published Khuc chuyen mua (Writers' Association Publishing House, 2025), even though he often printed poetry in newspapers?

Previously, Professor Phan Ngoc, a poetry critic who is well versed in language, praised Cao Ngoc Thang for seeking true formal innovation in poetry, which is the way it exists in the reader's memory. That's right! Reading Cao Ngoc Thang's poetry, if you don't know him, few people would think that this is the poetry of a person who is/was a journalist. He is very frugal with words, not wasting words. Many of Cao Ngoc Thang's poems only have a couple of lines, each line has a few words, or even a few words. For example, this poem: The season has not yet awakened/ The scent of young rice/ Hiding behind lotus leaves/ Waiting (Waiting, collection Thuc Ha). Or: A smile covers loneliness/ Tears overflow with happiness (Two-line poem/ Changing seasons) ... Yet, it seems that those short poems anchor in people's hearts for a long time: Winter is almost here/ Why is autumn still lingering/ The cool breeze has just reached the top/ Autumn anchors itself to the dew drops... (Dew/ Changing seasons melody) . Because that is not an easy product! Cao Ngoc Thang writes poetry quite seriously. I would like to cite a poem he wrote on the anniversary of his mother's death in the year of the Cat (2013). When first published in the collection By the Mother River , it was titled Mother (1). Ten years later, the same poem, in the collection Khuc Chuyen Mua, the author titled it: Mother - Tam Xuan (2). A few verses, the later version is different, even if it is just a line break, or a few words removed:

- (1) With a hunchback, Mother lifts the sky high ; (2) With a hunchback, Mother lifts the sky high.

- (1) Mother's tears flow down/ Soak into the ground/ Overflowing into the vast ocean ; (2) Mother's tears flow down/ Soak into the ground/ The vast ocean .

Ten years later, changing a line of poetry " The more bent back, the closer Mother's face is to the ground " (1) to " The more bent back, the closer Mother is to the ground" (2) is not only being serious with poetry but first of all, with Mother, with Life!

More than ten years ago, I wrote about Cao Ngoc Thang:

“Yellow is the color of autumn.

When autumn entered Cao Ngoc Thang's heart, because it absentmindedly crossed the pink silk strip of the country's river and mixed with the clouds and wind, the yellow color faded into green. The green of freshness, clarity and purity. The green of sweetness and depth, suddenness and completeness.

Such is the color of Cao Ngoc Thang's poetic soul" ( Here, a poetic soul with the green color of autumn ).

Now, I am lost in thought about the soul of Cao Ngoc Thang. His first collection of poems is called Bè gió. Looking up Vietnamese dictionaries, I don't see this word, but everyone understands and can imagine it. It is similar but not synonymous with "chang gió", because it is more sudden, stronger and more violent, to talk about the change of weather and climate. The names of Cao Ngoc Thang's following collections of poems (except "Bến Sông Mẹ ") all talk about that change: Giao mua; Thuc ha; Tro nom; Mua khong nha; Khuc chuyen mua" .

Cover of the newly published poetry collection "Melody of the Seasons" by poet Cao Ngoc Thang.

In Cao Ngoc Thang's poetry, seasons exist everywhere. First, they are four periods of time, three months long, divided by humans into Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, following each other in a year. Cao Ngoc Thang did not write much about those four seasons. The poet also soon realized the relativity in that division: East-West-South-North/ Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter/ Round horizon/ Seesaw/ Rising - setting/ Sun/ Far away/ Turning (Seesaw/ Wind bending) .

The seasons of Cao Ngoc Thang have appearance, shape, sound, and taste: Because of the young spring sunshine/ The green wind is confused/ Summer is round on the mountain top/ The moon is soft on the wasp's waist/ Autumn is cold and nostalgic/ Chrysanthemums wait to open the wine/ Urging/ Winter/ Warming the strong yeast... (Change of season/ Change of season) .

The seasons of Cao Ngoc Thang, when they are old friends, people miss and wait for them: Just once/ Autumn passes by the memory/ Sprinkling pure gold paper/ Autumn soul/ shakes/ the sunny page (Just once) . When they are young girls from the village: I carry - the harvest/ Village foot - the smoke (Carrying the season/ Summer wakefulness) . When they are, I turn over, Miss Ban turns cold/ The weather turns humid, I become in love (March/ Summer wakefulness) . There are seasons of departure and arrival: Autumn steps go with a faint sobbing/ The cuckoo's soul calls but aches at the end of the stream (By the Mother River). There is a season of labor, the earth stirs ecstatically (Seasonal song) . There is a season of restlessness, dryness: The season of restlessness/ The shore/ the alluvial soil stirs... ( Hanoi 30th of Tet) ; The rocky plateau rises in the immense season (Rocks turn over/ Seasonal song). There is a season of homelessness/ wandering about empty/ The flower petals are silent somewhere... (This autumn is not passionate with milk flowers/ Season of homelessness) ...

And, much, much more. The rhythm of the season is also the rhythm of Cao Ngoc Thang's poetry. Perhaps that is why, no matter Hanoi, the homeland, wherever Cao Ngoc Thang goes, he feels the soul of that place. I close the lines about the Hanoi man with the poem he wrote about Nhon Trach nearly ten years ago and it is among the best modern poems about the land of Dong Nai :

I come here/ Green branches rustle/ Forest fragrance soothes a thousand-year sleep/ Heroes of Sac Forest in the past ...

From this tunnel/ Group of 10 special forces/ Every night drowned in the river/ From this tunnel/ In their twenties/ They flew away/ Up into the starry sky

I looked up/ Clouds playing with silk ribbons/ Arms/ Very young age/ My brothers/ Embracing everything/ The river/ Orchard/ Flowers and fruits/ Children singing and spelling... (Where I come from/ The song of changing seasons) .

Cao Ngoc Thang once wrote: The season has ended without knowing / Summer keeps wandering / making autumn cry / leaves turn yellow (Summer and Autumn / Homeless season) . Seasons come, seasons go. But seasons will stay forever in people's memories. Because there is poetry...

Tran Huong Thuy

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/dong-nai-cuoi-tuan/202506/nha-tho-nha-bao-cao-ngoc-thang-dieu-mua-dieu-tho-b110e8d/