Poetry by Nguyen Kim Huy: Fragrance in words

This is the 4th poetry collection out of 8 books of various genres printed during Nguyen Kim Huy's more than 60 years of diligent poetry and writing.

With 280 pages, Pure Dawns includes 78 poems concentrated in four sub-sections with very poetic names such as: Between the waves of time, The colors of sunlight, Outside the window, The wind makes the sea sigh. Each small name like that is considered a topic in Nguyen Kim Huy's writing.

Like a confidence

Reading Nguyen Kim Huy's poetry, readers have the feeling that his poetry often leans towards the beauty of the spirit in the idea of a writer who is constantly concerned about life with a gentle and profound tone. Therefore, many times he seems to resemble a Jia Dao, the poet of "stirring" in Tang Dynasty poetry in China. Nguyen Kim Huy once lay awake before dawn to find the most precious words for poetry:

In the tolling bell

Words of restlessness before dawn

In the sound of rooster crowing in the morning

Words of restlessness before dawn

In the morning, I sit and write a poem

From the restless words

(Words of restlessness before dawn)

Thơ Nguyễn Kim Huy: Làn hương bay trong những ngôn từ- Ảnh 1. — Poetry collection and epic poem *Pure Dawns* by Nguyen Kim Huy ( Da Nang Publishing House, 2025)

That speaks of the "hard labor" of poets when creating art, of which Nguyen Kim Huy is one. It is also that which has created his creative personality through his carefully crafted verses as an obsession on the journey to find happiness:

Haunted by windy and rainy days in dreams of suffocating

… Foolishly leading each other to find happiness

Happiness not yet found, already foolishly lost each other...

(Before the pure dawn, I want to engrave a thousand verses of poetry)

Also because of that carefulness, Nguyen Kim Huy's poetry in each poem, each sentence in Pure Dawns All have neatness in language and rhyme. In the song "Lullaby of the Wind for You" , Nguyen Kim Huy wrote in the six-eight meter with very smooth rhyming:

Wind across the horizon

Bring more sweet dreams to the person of yesterday

Lullaby of the Wind

Cannot connect my heart with the afternoon

Nguyen Kim Huy's poems in "Pure Dawns" mention many topics of life. From human love, couples, grandparents to comrades and colleagues, in every relationship he raises philosophical questions of life. That makes his poems profound, sometimes the meaning is beyond the words. With Nguyen Kim Huy, whether it is a blade of grass or a flower, when it is in his poetry, it is personified to become soulful and have personality:

The grass never asks why it grows.

They are just green and innocent.

In the morning sun still sparkling with early dew welcoming the sun

The flower never asks itself why it has such bright colors.

They just bloom naturally.

Butterflies and bees fly around, creating a bustling and exciting prom season.

(The grass, flowers, and wind do not ask)

With such philosophical verses, Nguyen Kim Huy's poems enter the hearts of readers like confessions between people who sympathize with all things.

Thơ Nguyễn Kim Huy: Làn hương bay trong những ngôn từ- Ảnh 2. — A poem in *Pure Dawns*

Responsibility for life

As a poet, Nguyen Kim Huy is also an editor at Da Nang Publishing House. This quiet and lonely job requires him to be responsible for each manuscript page that authors entrust before bringing it to the printing house because it is the sweat and tears of each writer:

Each page of the manuscript is silent

But love is burning, thoughts are restless

Sparkling with intellectual light and aspirations and feelings

Whose manuscript pages?

On the editing desk, eyes blurred reading

See it as your own

(Farewell to the manuscript pages)

The beauty of Nguyen Kim Huy's poetry is that he has brought that professional responsibility into poetry and turned it into lessons of work and artistic creation.

Thơ Nguyễn Kim Huy: Làn hương bay trong những ngôn từ- Ảnh 3. — Author Nguyen Kim Huy

Is a song about love of country

In the epic poem in *Pure Dawns* , Nguyen Kim Huy looks at the country from the rays of dawn. That is why he gave his epic poem a name full of civic qualities: *My Country Seen From the Dawns *. It can be seen that Nguyen Kim Huy's epic poem in *Pure Dawns* is a The love story of a couple that began at the age of fifteen. It was a student love like childhood sweethearts but originated from love for the country:

Fly away, fifteen-year-old colorful clouds

When I told you my story about my country

My country is shaped like smoke from the mountains at dawn

And my fifteen year old smile is radiant

Just like that, although only a part of the Pure Dawns, the epic poem My Country Seen from the Dawns by Nguyen Kim Huy has led readers through the historical journey of the nation's resistance against foreign invaders to build and defend the country. That makes a clear difference between Nguyen Kim Huy's poetry and epic poem. If his poetry is the lyrical voice of love between couples, friends, and relatives, then his epic poem is a voice imbued with civic lyricism. Inspired by the verse When we grow up, the country already exists in the epic poem The Road of Aspiration by poet Nguyen Khoa Diem, author Nguyen Kim Huy has expressed in his epic poem a source of inspiration about a Vietnam that is constantly developing and changing every day. That is the result of the revolutionary work of building a prosperous country in the new era to open up an "era of rising up" of our nation. It is that soaring civic lyricism that brings forth the heroic verses in Nguyen Kim Huy's epic poem:

My village is bustling now

Bright and spacious houses

…The sound of children singing on the road I went to school on was covered in floodwaters.

The smooth asphalt now leads to the bustling open economic zone.

… More bustling with the bright colors of dawn

Therefore, Nguyen Kim Huy’s epic poem is like a summary of his life history and the history of his country. It is a summary containing many great achievements of his homeland and it makes his poems take flight.

Everyone will have to mature, grow up and grow old, but the country and life will always be fresh like "pure dawns". That is the most significant contribution and meaning of the poetry collection and epic poem My Country Seen from the Dawns by Nguyen Kim Huy.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tho-nguyen-kim-huy-lan-huong-bay-trong-nhung-ngon-tu-185251011091453286.htm