Love extends to the very life of a flower.

Reading "The Herd of Cows Lost in the City," I kept thinking of Pham Hong Nhat's "Thuong River."

The river with that striking name seems to remain with him forever, beginning with: "One side muddy, the other clear / Thinking of the two halves, I feel pity / Like an unfinished love / The Thuong River, two streams" and ending with: "Hungry and ragged, I wander far and wide / Dreaming of returning to the old Thuong River / Where my childhood and my sister reside / Both the clear and muddy streams of my life."

The entire poem is a heartfelt and poignant lament in a specific situation: one side muddy, the other clear, a river always divided into two halves, always splitting into two streams, like an unfinished love affair. Even so, the poet cannot let go, and even though he must "stay far away in rags and hunger," in his heart he still "dreams of returning to the old Thuong River tomorrow."

Acceptance and refusal to give up; viewing a painful past as an integral part of oneself; seeing life as a pretext for reflection and always striving to transcend it, not letting it crush one... could this be the starting point of Pham Hong Nhat's poetry?

Then, building upon this starting point, like many other poets, Pham Hong Nhat consciously cultivated a necessary and sufficient degree of solitude. Otherwise, why would he express it through " Hai Phong Six-Eight Poem": "Passing through Ben Binh, going towards the Cement Factory / alone in the streets of Hai Phong" ? Otherwise, why would he express it through "Drinking Alone": "Gold sinks, fate rises, weeds drift / How easily can one person in the world understand me?" Otherwise, why would he express it through "Searching": "Deeply sad, I search for myself / all my desires drift away to the Turtle Tower" ? Otherwise, why would he sometimes identify himself in "Every Day" like this: "I am a traveler on a long journey / stepping onto the Milky Way to return home..."

These are masterful verses, each possessing its own unique character and significant "meaning" on its own.

But for Pham Hong Nhat, loneliness doesn't mean withdrawing into oneself, being pessimistic, or being self-centered and self-destroying. In many of his poems, he looks outward, primarily to sympathize with the lives of those around him. Witnessing the life of a hired knife sharpener, he develops the poem "The Sharpening Stone" with profound meaning and imagery. When setting out, he writes, "The earth is dulled / under the sky" ; and when returning, "The knife is sharp, the road is slippery." Seeing "The children lying sleepy all around," he feels compassion for the sleep of homeless children: "Where will they go? Oh, sleep without a blanket / empty bags, tattered clothes / shoulders burdened with so many things to remember / with the stormy road chasing behind them" ...

Upon encountering the inscription "The most magnificent pass in the world" at the gate of the Great Wall, he still recognized the price paid for it. Therefore, he exclaimed: "For over two thousand years / the majestic, winding stone Great Wall / thousands of kilometers / hundreds of thousands of corpses lie exposed" ...

Besides that, Pham Hong Nhat also has moments of ethereal swaying, a poetic blend of reality and illusion that is truly precious. This is most evident in "Drinking Alone," with the following two six-eight couplets: "Swaying, half the game is roasted / The rest of life, half empty, half submerged; Raising the glass, hand touching hand / A chill in the back contributes to making winter."

Amidst the jumble of restless poetic details, Pham Hong Nhat still possesses beautiful poetic details, such as his own moments of quiet reflection: “The red kapok tree, the traveler sits waiting / like someone longing for another / remembering but not daring to call / ferryman, oh ferryman” (“The Call of the Ferryman on Ha Chau Wharf”) or: “Phan Thiet like an unfinished poem / a land of love between sky and clouds / joyful amidst mountains, forests, and rivers / for generations, the vast sand dunes have flown” (“Phan Thiet”).

A person who loves deeply, even to the point of loving an entire flower's life, even after it has withered, and from that understanding expands to "love for countless destinies," is truly precious!

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/thuong-den-ca-mot-kiep-hoa-720281.html