Writer Phung Van Khai is one of the very few literary colleagues who have surprised me. That's right, it's hard to find another word, when the level of surprise always exceeds the universal dimension. And Khai himself, he also created "concepts" that, to mobilize all efforts into a portrait of Phung Van Khai, I tried my best but could only find one key. One key opens many "houses".
Phung Van Khai (PVK), tell me right away, who is he?
Can't say right away, except for the personal information I know: Personal life - Born in 1973, married early, became a grandfather at the age of 50. Position: Lieutenant Colonel, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Army Literature magazine. That's it, that's all I can say right away.
What about literary portraits? Usually every few months or half a year I receive news that Khai has released or is about to release a new book. Meeting Khai is a rubic complex. Who doesn't like gifts? Coming to Khai is a gift - a new book. Being knowledgeable and fond of reading, I consider books as a gift for circulation. If I read well, I keep it for my children, and promote it to everyone - a branch of the generous and talented nature that I inherited from my father's Cao Bang bloodline and my mother's straightforward and fierce attitude towards art from Hai Phong, so I did something rare: Distributing PVK novels to famous connections.
PVK broke my long-standing surprise with admiration. He admitted that he was only a student of writer Hoang Quoc Hai, but through the number of pages of books Khai devoted himself to publishing, I believe that: PVK is not a true disciple of anyone, but Khai is a brilliant historical novelist of contemporary Vietnamese literature. He is a warrior who embarks on a dangerous path without being able to buy safety insurance from any company; he only insures himself with patriotism and courage. In the midst of the stormy times of money being scattered, confused, and counterfeited more than real, a writer who thoroughly understands "general history" is rare, but who takes the effort to research and collect historical data to create works that no one has done before, then Phung the warrior has few competitors, if not to say that he is currently unrivaled.
Heavy on books, thoughtful and fond of gifts for friends, when I returned to Hai Phong I had to rent a 7-seater car to have a seat. I was lucky to hand over PVK's novel Ngo Vuong to Hai Phong Secretary Le Van Thanh and City Chairman Nguyen Van Tung in the spring of 2021, they both appreciated it.
PVK, an excellent student of the 6th course, Nguyen Du Writing School (Hanoi University of Culture), entered the school in 1998 - when he became a member of the Vietnam Journalists Association , never let the "press mill" grind him, even though he wrote for newspapers and made war films, he is still a top 7X literary writer today. He is keen in observing and selecting details, sensitive, sentimental and nurtures poetry within himself. Poetry is not frivolous and far from reality. But poetry is a reality - art. PVK is a poet.
Why mention PVK's achievements and signs through historical novels and a series of talented articles and then affirm that Khai is a poet? Is a poet more noble in a time of "family chaos", blatant hypocrisy, self-proclaimed, and shamelessly praising?
Sang, because poetry is the soul's vein, the intelligence of language, the cultural mirror of each nation. Poets have been respected since ancient times, as thinkers, founders, even prophets, forecasters. Despite the chaos and chaos, sophisticated readers can still distinguish between real poets and poetry and poetic qualities. PVK, I recognized you as a poet when reading Sen's poetry collection written in 2014 after a trip to Dong Thap. Khai writes diversely because Khai has a rich reserve of life capital and ideas. Khai writes a lot, writes well and interestingly because he lives well with a poetic soul. He is sociable, has many friends, manages, goes to school, meets, and frequents drunken parties, so when did Khai write that he was so strong?
Because of his poetic nature, Khai is romantic in his precision in making appointments and rushing into work; that is, he only thinks about beauty and selflessly commits himself. Khai writes poetry when describing nature right before and after a battle; the parallel poems are condensed at the beginning of the chapters of the novel. Khai writes well thanks to his risk-taking and poetic life. This is the golden key for Khai to open the door to a Harvest season welcoming "the age of fifty knowing one's destiny".
To find the answer to PVK's use of time for writing, I started from the memory of us joining the Vietnam Writers' Association at the end of 2007 at the International Conference Center 11 Le Hong Phong. Having been on stage at the same time, after 15 years of being a member of the most "formidable" professional association in the country, I found myself completely inferior to Khai. Even when I was young and full of creative energy, I could not have Khai's writing ability. Whoever argues that "few but excellent" is not being fair and square. A great author, first of all, cannot be one with few books, few pages and a small number of personal books. I started on stage in September 1995, Khai had poetry since 1993 - when he was 20 years old. A poet of the stature of a great writer, is V. Hugo of France. An outstanding playwright like W. Shakespeare still has classic Sonnet poems that are considered exemplary, creative and meaningful to this day in the use of words and expressions in the English language.
PVK chose the name Harvest for the presentation of 30 years of poetry. Harvest evokes fields, plowing, planting and harvesting, sun and rain, worries and joys. Harvest in agriculture does not only refer to rice, crops or fruits. Harvest opens up the rural space, larger than the Northern Delta that Khai is familiar with, the rice civilization of the Red River.
A person who built a wealthy fortune from scratch, dynamic like PVK still retains a deep "country" quality. In his hometown of Van Lam, Khai and Thu's parents are still healthy. Their house is still on the old land, over 80 years old, enjoying their grandchildren. Khai's family is in Minh Khai village, Thu's family is in Lac Hong commune, both are the third children of a family of 4-5 children, both fathers are war invalids fighting against the US, mother is a Cooperative cadre. Nhu Quynh's hometown preserves the name of a daughter who resembles her father, in a private company named after the two children Son Quynh, whose wife Minh Thu Anh has supported many times to accompany the army to "play all-in" printing thousands of books to give away, without regard for profit. That hometown is the love before and after, kindness to everyone near and far, like a sincere, simple, humble life without any inferiority complex, spirited without arrogance, simple but still dreamy.
The crop is a rich, multi-cropped field, the most lush is the six-eight plot, the rainbow rows of six and eight words. Khai's poetry is not new in technique or language, but its strength lies in images and emotions.
The great scientist, one of the greatest brains of the 20th century - A.Eintein generalized: "The power of intelligence is in the ability to imagine". Poet PVK has that power. From images, materials, realistic details, he expands the spatial dimensions and exploits deep layers to create profound and resonant poems. Khai's journalism is very "deadly" and fortunately, he has escaped the disease of many journalists who write poetry: Poetry is less poetry but is short journalism, full of the smell of new literature. Khai does not "newspaperize" poetry and events, he knows how to listen to choose the vortex. That vortex is the "overlapping" technique in cinema that creates the sedimentation - compression of space - time. That is, Khai's poetry is not flat, flat, not copied like a newspaper. Khai has "montaged" words/formed poems - films. This is the high criterion that modern world poetry always uses as a basis for evaluation: Many images - suggestiveness - obsession in rhythm and speed against confusion and slowness.
80 pages of poetry, 40 works are enough to make a panorama of PVK's poetic soul. Starting from the inspiration of the Red River , his house is in Long Bien district, every day driving a black Camry through the Nhi Ha - Cai river alluvium. Khai loves the 1013-year-old city from the bullet holes at the city gate, the reed fields, the red alluvium. Khai piles up feelings when writing about the heroic and wise people of poetry, the poem about Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Binh Khiem is Khai's talent to emphasize when creating a portrait in poetry. He clearly shows his "softness" when developing the theme of war, from family stories to even taking on the "role" of a teacher whose parents were martyrs fighting against the US. His family has been bearing the loss of war for more than 50 years. The poet's two uncles - martyrs Phung Huy (1951), Phung Huu (1953) sacrificed in Phu Yen in 1971, now the remains of uncle Huy have been found. Khai does not think flatly and monotonously on one channel but is full of complex emotions. The romantic night of Go Thap lotus (p.39) still reminds me of the Commander Vo Duy Duong and the Commander Nguyen Tan Kieu. The collection of 6 poems about lotus proves that Khai is a polygon of worries.
Throughout the poem, the "hero of Lang River" is deeply attached to the ancients, ancestors, and history. Khai also "reveals" his sentimentality when writing about Hoang Cam and confides his personal feelings: " The sky is equally wide/ The rain gradually turns greener the grass/ Life is equally cramped/ Wind and waves all around ". Khai's casual appearance is just the surface, connecting the space, creating a surreal feeling when bringing "Fairy Tale" (Betel and Areca) to the dry riverbank. I often tease: PVK doesn't know anyone but his wife, at 23 years old he hasn't had a few relationships and is already a father; then reading his poems, I can see that this person is a playboy. With Hoa Binh (p.70) is an example, and the Sen poems are full of romance. At the end of the collection of poems, the author "stops" to flatter his wife with Poetry for his wife , praising her in the hope of being "shared for life" with a virtuous wife of "supernatural" stature to please her multi-talented, nomadic husband. The most condensed word is Doi (p.51). The most interesting thing is the way PVK satirizes himself, better than the six-eight poem that concludes Harvests - Self-portrait (pp.84-85), which is Poetry about Mother (pp.56-57). Writing for his Mother, Khai is a foolish child who examines himself: " I am almost fifty/ foolish, mistaken/ deceived by money, love, reputation, fate/ only love clouds, grass, moon, flowers, butterflies, temples, pagodas/ only play with poets/ Twenty years of being drunk, only talking loudly "...
A real drunkard insists he is not drunk. If Khai is drunk, he is drunk on poetry and words. The drunkenness that gives Anh a 25th hour is something that few people possess.
I rotate 24 letters through 24 hours, as if I had crossed New Year's Eve to sympathize with PVK's poetry.
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