Stepping into the museum, I felt as if I had returned to the peaceful, tranquil home of a loved one, seeing the spacious courtyard paved with red bricks and the shady grounds. The gentle green of the foliage covering the exterior of the museum makes anyone who comes here slow down and leave all the hustle and bustle of the city behind the gate. The trip becomes more like visiting a dear relative than a sightseeing tour or a pursuit of knowledge.

Students from Edison An Khánh Secondary School (An Khánh commune, Hanoi ) visit the Tố Hữu Museum.

Opened in 2020 on the site of the To Huu Memorial House, the To Huu Museum, with an area of ​​120m2, offers visitors a comprehensive and multifaceted perspective on the great revolutionary and poet To Huu. Visitors to the museum will experience two main sections. Section 1 displays the life and career of To Huu with 9 themes, named after 9 of his representative poetry collections and poems, linked to different historical periods of the country. Section 2 recreates a part of the space of the poet To Huu's house at 76 Phan Dinh Phung Street (Hanoi) – where the poet and his family lived from 1960 until his death in 2002.

Interspersed throughout the exhibition areas are precious artifacts, carefully preserved by the poet's family and meticulously arranged by experts. Talking with Ms. Pham Kim Ngan, the Museum Manager, I was impressed by the stories behind each exhibit. The exhibition titled "From Then On" features To Huu's memoir and Party membership card. Ms. Pham Kim Ngan explained: "The pages of the memoir, as they unfold, reveal To Huu's emotions upon his admission to the Indochinese Communist Party in 1937. To Huu wrote: 'I trembled all over, overwhelmed with emotion. Blood rushed to my face, burning hot...' A year later, those emotions remained intact and fresh within him. Along with his political understanding, he wrote the poem 'From Then On' in 1938."

Next to the memoir is To Huu's Party membership card, the paper and portrait faded. It's the card the poet used from the time he joined the Party until his retirement, a single card as a lifelong oath of loyalty to the Party's ideals. Connecting these two artifacts, and then listening to the song "From Then On" recited by People's Artist Thuy Mui via an audio box in the exhibition hall, I was even more moved by the poet's passionate heart and absolute faith in the revolutionary ideal.

While visiting the museum, I met the students and teacher from Class 8A1 of Edison An Khánh Secondary School (An Khánh commune, Hanoi) who were there for an extracurricular lesson. Each student held a small notebook filled with hastily written notes expressing their feelings. Student Ngô Hải Phong shared: “I was deeply moved to learn about the life and career of the poet Tố Hữu, who dedicated his entire life to the revolution and Vietnamese poetry. Thanks to his works, we felt like we were immersed in a glorious period of our nation's history.”

According to Ms. Pham Kim Ngan, embracing the trend of digital transformation, the To Huu Museum is researching the use of QR codes containing in-depth information about the exhibits; implementing an automated audio guide system in multiple languages, including Vietnamese, English, French, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese; and combining the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the translation and audio guide process. Open free of charge on Fridays and Saturdays, visitors can also participate in exhibitions and experiential activities organized by the Museum.

Text and photos: HOANG LAM

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/van-hoa/doi-song/noi-giao-thoa-cua-tho-ca-va-lich-su-849549