Familiar memories
Reading "The Song of Return," each reader is like turning over layers of memories, each realm of longing. Throughout the collection of poems are images associated with Binh Nguyen Trang's name, such as March, kapok flowers, drizzle, boats, and rivers... These images are not new, even having become a "shared asset" of poetry, but under Binh Nguyen Trang's pen, they take on a unique vitality, a rhythm that is gentle, heartfelt, and yet haunting.
Her poetic space is the space of the Northern Delta, where there are quiet ferry landings, meandering rivers flowing through countless seasons of memories, and where the kapok flowers bloom red every March as a signal of time.
There, the scenery is not just scenery, but has become a part of the soul, of nostalgia: "Perhaps it's a long story/Haunting me with drizzling rain and rice flowers/And the thousand-year-old ferry dock never fades its color/So even its posture is ancient and moss-covered" (Every March Comes). Or like: "Never has March been so sad/When on a rainy day you take me across the river/The flowers are so pale in the afternoon on the dock of memories/Silently red, regretting a page of poetry" (To my sister, March).
The verses are like a very gentle sigh. "Drizzle," "rice flowers," "ferry landing"—all seem veiled in a mist of nostalgia, making the reader feel the precariousness of time, the fragility of memory. It is a memory that cannot be clearly named, but is always present, always recurring in the mind.
Emotional axis - the mother
One of the highlights of the poetry collection is the image of the mother – a recurring, enduring, and haunting image. The mother in Binh Nguyen Trang's poetry is not an idealized image, but a very real, very down-to-earth mother: hardworking, weary, and struggling, yet still compassionate and warm.
Mother is associated with March – the month of kapok flowers, of lean times, of poverty and nameless hardships: “That year my mother gave birth to me during the famine season / March, a time of hardship, kapok flowers falling into lime pits / Father was away, the biting cold of the Ban season / Mother was drenched in sweat, I cried as I was born” (The Sorrows of March).
And it is: “My heart aches for the bustling countryside/My mother’s face is like a stormy field/The plump grains leave the homeland, the empty grains remain in the nest/With the warm golden straw of my mother’s hands providing shelter” (Remembering Mother in the Rainy Afternoon).
Here, poetry is no longer mere linguistic ornamentation but becomes a slice of life. Very specific details: "the famine," "rice flowers falling into the lime pit," "the cold of Lady Ban," "sweat"... have created an entire harsh, realistic space. Within that space, the mother's appearance is not just an image but a symbol, a symbol of sacrifice and unconditional love.
It could be said that the mother is the "emotional axis" of the poetry collection. In every poem, whether directly or indirectly, the image of the mother is subtly present, serving as a spiritual anchor for the poet to return to. And perhaps, the "day of return" in the title of the poetry collection is not only a return to the homeland, but also a return to the mother, to the deepest roots of every human being.
As mentioned above, this poetry collection contains many poems written by the author during his school days, so summer, exam season, and farewells appear frequently. Perhaps, those innocent years under the school roof provided the poet with much material to write verses that have touched the hearts of so many people, especially poetry lovers of the 70s and 80s generations like myself: “You hear not only the wondrous harmony / Another exam season waiting at the threshold / Your eyes red and your lips red in summer / Your chest full of brilliant dreams” (For the Exam Season).
It could also be: “The school gates have closed behind me / I walk through the streets in my coat and shoes / And now even the poem feels strange / My feet feel unfamiliar in the morning light” (Musings on Graduation Day).
What is valuable in Binh Nguyen Trang's poetry is its sincerity. She doesn't try to reinvent herself with excessive formal innovations, but remains faithful to her lyrical, gentle, and emotionally rich tone. It is this very simplicity that creates its power. Because poetry, ultimately, is not about showcasing technique but about touching the heart.
The poet once confided: "Many poetic images and ideas that were familiar in my time have become alien to young readers today." This is true, in the context of a rapidly changing modern life, where "ferry docks," "drizzle," and "rice flowers" are no longer present in the daily experiences of many people.
But precisely for this reason, Binh Nguyen Trang's poetry becomes all the more necessary, like a bridge connecting readers back to values that were once very close, once an indispensable part of their spiritual lives.
"The Song of Homecoming" is not just a collection of poems, but a journey. This journey takes the reader through realms of memory, through years gone by, to the realization that: Deep within every person, there is always a "green day," a time of youth, a place of love, a place to return to.
As the collection of poems concludes, the lingering impression isn't the specific words themselves, but rather a warm, gentle, yet poignant feeling. It's the feeling of someone returning home after a long journey, standing before their old house, observing the traces of time, and suddenly realizing: no matter how much time passes, these memories cannot fade.
And "The Song of Homecoming," in its own unique way, has become the anthem of youth – a song that brings us back to love, to our homeland, to our roots, and above all, back to the deepest self within our souls.
Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/tu-trang-sach-khuc-ca-cua-ngay-xanh-post778008.html
Comment (0)