But Pham Dinh An's poetry is not only for children. He also moves readers with poems rich in depth and emotion such as "Sôi Tóc", "Nhung cach thuc" or "Nang fairy sau dat duong" - where memories, love and loneliness blend together in a unique voice, gentle yet haunting...
The person "Walking along the Central region"
Poet Pham Dinh An was born in Phu Ly town (now Phu Ly city, Ha Nam province), into an intellectual family.
The name "An" that his parents gave him, was like a deep affection, a reminder of his kindness, thoughtfulness, and sincerity with the hope that these qualities would follow him throughout his life.
Before he was even a year old, An followed his parents to a remote countryside in Hung Yen . A year later, his mother died of a serious illness, leaving his father as a single father. That pain followed him all his life, permeating every verse of his poetry and becoming a constant obsession in his life.
In the poem “Phu Ly”, he expressed that pain in the poignant verses: “Mother lies alone in another land/ A father, a child, more than a year old/ Wandering thoughts keep returning to mother’s homeland/ Always feeling nostalgic for the place where the umbilical cord was cut and buried” … This poem was later included in the collection “Sunshine on the Head”, his first collection of poems, published in 1990 as a milestone marking his poetic journey full of feelings and hopes.
After his mother passed away, his father, a village teacher, still went to school every day, and he was entrusted to the care of the villagers. When the French army arrived, his father carried his young child and evacuated to Tho Xuan ( Thanh Hoa ), teaching and helping the people with medical treatment. Here, his father remarried. Although his stepmother loved her stepchild with all her heart, deep in Pham Dinh An's young soul, the longing for his biological mother still burned, like a small flame that never went out.
After graduating from high school, Pham Dinh An studied at the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University of Science (now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi) - a place that gathered many literary talents later.
After graduating, with a literary legacy of poems published in newspapers, Pham Dinh An worked at Nhan Dan Newspaper and became a familiar name to readers through the columns "Poetry of the Blacksmith" and "Big and Small Stories". He worked at Nhan Dan Newspaper for more than ten years before moving to work at Van Nghe Newspaper until his retirement.
Poet Pham Dinh An once shared that he felt that journalism was an essential part of his creative career: “Thanks to journalism, I have been to many places and met many people, so my poems also carry many experiences and emotions.” Indeed, Pham Dinh An’s poetic path cannot be separated from his real-life trips, the times he penetrated life, discovered and recorded the marks of the times.
Poet of childhood
Readers know poet Pham Dinh An not only as a poet and journalist, but also especially through his works for children.
As a former member of the Children's Literature Committee - Vietnam Writers Association, poet Pham Dinh An has always devoted much of his passion to writing for children. He has 3 works included in the Primary School textbook program, of which the most prominent is the poem "Sac mau em yeu", printed in the textbook "Tieng Viet 5", volume 2 (Canh Dieu series).
“I love the color red/ Like the blood in my heart/ The national flag/ The scarf of the young pioneers…” , these poetic lines are rich in images and emotions, like an innocent confession of a child that gently sows the seeds of life ideals and patriotism into the souls of countless Vietnamese children.
His other works that have been included in textbooks since 1980, such as the poem “Chameleon”, two essays “Comet”, “Mother Banana Tree”, as well as some essays in new textbooks... all have a rustic style, expressing a harmonious combination of knowledge and life experience, along with a keen sense of observation, humorous and emotional descriptions.
The poem “Chameleon” is a typical example of that style. With poetic words that evoke images and sounds, the author brought nature closer to children: “There is a friend, a chameleon, who built a “tower” on a banyan tree, who plays hide-and-seek in the cold, who waits for the weather to warm up, who comes out in April and May, who calls out loudly: “Chameleon,” as if telling children: “Summer is coming! Summer is coming!” …
It is undeniable that the simple words in the poem not only evoke the atmosphere of a time when people and nature lived in harmony, but also inspire in children a rich imagination and love of life.
In the poem “Sao Hom, Sao Mai”, Pham Dinh An uses a whispering poetic voice, like an intimate story: “The sky has just turned dusk/ Sao Hom appears/ The star acts as a night light/ Welcoming me into the night/ I wake up early in the morning/ The Sao Mai appears again/ The star acts as a torch/ Seeing me off into the day” … He has succeeded in making the stars come alive, helping children understand more about time, feel the gentleness of the earth and sky, and nurture love for life from the simplest things…
In particular, his field trip and writing in Truong Sa archipelago in 1997 brought him many outstanding poems and essays. Among them, his collection of poems for children was awarded by Van Nghe Newspaper. The poem “Dad’s Gift” - composed during that memorable trip - has become one of the works loved and memorized by children: “My father is a soldier / On a remote island / Never came home on leave / But always brought gifts…” .
Having devoted his whole life to literature and poetry, at the age of nearly 80, poet - Doctor of Literature Pham Dinh An has published 35 works. Among them, he has 6 poetry collections written for adults, 9 separate collections of children's poetry, 4 prose collections, 1 book of criticism and many other collections.
He was admitted to the Vietnam Writers Association in 1993 and won many prestigious literary awards: Poetry Contest Award of Cua Viet Magazine (Quang Tri) in the period 1996 - 1997; Second Prize of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and the Vietnam Writers Association for the poetry collection "Flying Pollen"; Award of the Literature and Arts Weekly in 2003 and the Vietnam Writers Association Award in 2020 for the poetry collection "Dat di choi bien"...
He also spent more than 10 years as Head of the Theory - Criticism Department of the Literature and Arts Newspaper before retiring in 2010. After that, he continued to collaborate with the newspaper until 2014.
At the age of 61, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic "The Lu in the process of modern Vietnamese literature".
For his lasting contributions to literature and journalism, he was awarded the Medal for the Cause of Vietnamese Journalism and the Medal for the Cause of Vietnamese Literature and Arts.
In recent years, he has been diligently and passionately working on interpreting folk literature through the books: "Telling stories about the origin of idioms and proverbs", "Stories about idioms", "Entering life with folk songs"... He also compiled hundreds of riddle poems printed in the collections: "Fun riddles to help you study Vietnamese well" and "Nature - Society in primary school" (Vietnam Education Publishing House, 2010) and "Fun with riddle poems" (Women's Publishing House, 2023).
The life of poet Pham Dinh An is a testament to a person who works with all his heart, diligently sowing words, preserving the beauty of language and passing on the fire to future generations. Looking back on that journey, we appreciate even more a quiet yet persistent love for literature - a "seed sower" who tirelessly sows seeds throughout his life.
Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/nha-tho-pham-dinh-an-nguoi-soo-hat-suot-doi-khong-moi-704233.html
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