Remembering White Bird - Dong Khoi Online Newspaper

Poet White Bird (1938 - 2011). Photo: ST

If there is a talented, selfless and kind poet in the world, it is Chim Trang. He has round, black eyes, is honest, has strong emotions and is generous. Mr. Tam Nhan - writer Nguyen Van Bong, from Ca Mau, after training the young people here, returned to Cang Long - Tra Vinh to open the next training class. Ms. Yen Ca and Chim Trang attended this class. I have read some very majestic poems by Chim Trang or heard them on the Voice of Vietnam Radio such as:

“Ham Luong, oh immense Ham Luong

I write your name so brilliantly!”

Or:

"Girl's feet, small feet

I died in the bright afternoon sun .

When I met Chim Trang at the training camp, I realized that the author was gentler and more intense than I had imagined through his poetry. Ba Quy (the poet Chim Trang's name) lives by poetry, in poetry... but he never commented on poetry, recited poetry or talked about poetry like many other poets (even the poet Pushkin - the sun of Russian poetry, had to read his own works).

After liberation, Chim Trang had a “good season” of poetry. He was in charge of the Ho Chi Minh City Literature and Arts Weekly and took the time to write. This period of poetry had a different resonance from the time of “Hoa toc do trai bo me tim” in the confrontation with the opponent in Ben Tre , in “Mother Luong Hoa”. But Chim Trang was supported and thanked by the youth.

For me, the most memorable moment was in 1974, the winter of the year before the war ended, I went to “R” (Central Office of the South) to prepare to go to the North at the request of the Southwest Region Party Committee. During the three months I stayed in the old forest of War Zone D - Tay Ninh (Lo Go - Xa Mat - Ta Not area), I shared a small hut with Ba Quy. Mr. Sau Lang - writer Bui Kinh Lang, Head of the “R” Literature and Arts Subcommittee, asked the security guard to build me a hut nearby, where Chim Trang and I still lived together. There was a tiny set of pots big enough for one of us to lie down, the other had to hang a hammock above to sleep. I was very afraid of mosquito bites. Mosquito bites in Ta Not caused malaria, malignant fever right away. At that time, Nguyen Be was only 14 years old, Tran Thanh Phong was 16 years old and had just reached “R” when he had malaria. Ms. Sau Kieu from Ca Mau went to attend a journalism class and was also tormented by malaria. One day, by chance, reading a passage of my notes about the night I missed my appointment with Thi Tuong Song Doc, Chim Trang suddenly asked, "It seems this is Sau Kieu's hometown."

Ba Quy and I took an iron box with 250 American machine gun bullets, poked holes in the bottom to make a stove to boil water, cook rice, cook sweet soup... Ba Quy had a habit of turning over newly lit firewood, so the fire kept going out, but Quy wouldn't let me try to light the fire. Building a stove like Ba Quy's took a long time for the firewood to burn well, because the wood was disturbed.

In the 1990s, I wrote movie scripts, and White Bird acted as an actor, a private detective... It looked very impressive. When people asked me how it was, I said, "That's fine." Whatever the young people asked us to do, we happily did. If it was beneficial to the Fatherland.  

(Collected and introduced by journalist Nguyen Be)

Nguyen Ba

Source: https://baodongkhoi.vn/van-hoa/doi-song/nho-chim-trang-a141289.html