At the end of the year, I sat counting on my fingers... I can't remember how many times I've been back to Thanh Hoa.
It's called Thanh Hoa because I was born in Thanh Hoa in early 1955 during my parents' trip to the North, exactly 70 years ago.
But my family only stayed in Thanh Hoa for exactly one year before moving to Hanoi, then in 1975 moved to Ho Chi Minh City to live and work until now.
In the past three years, with many jobs and opportunities, I have had many opportunities to return to Thanh Hoa, sometimes to teach journalism training classes, sometimes to attend events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Southern people regrouping to the North. There were also times when I returned with the sole purpose of finding the place where my mother gave birth to me in Thanh Hoa hospital.
Once, when he heard that I was teaching a training class in Thanh Hoa, journalist - writer Xuan Ba, former reporter of Tien Phong Newspaper, wrote a letter as an introduction about me to the training class:
“Who is Huynh Dung Nhan?
He is indeed a Hoang! His family went to the South to make a living, so he followed the rules of his ancestors and avoided the first lord Nguyen Hoang carrying a sword to open up new territory, so Hoang Thanh was named Huynh! As for the rest, the phrase DUNG NHAN is not worth discussing.
At first, I heard that he was looking for his hometown where he was born and raised? It was late one afternoon when a mother from the South broke her water and rushed to the "real" hospital (in) Thanh Hoa town, which not long before was called the "real" hospital of the commune where he was born.
That land, that place and that profession gave birth to Huynh Dung Nhan who was imbued with the spiritual energy of Thanh land when he was born into this land?
Born in the Central region and born in the South (Thanh is the headland of the Central region). The South is the city named after Uncle Ho. Huynh Dung Nhan is worthy of the name of his birthplace. He has tried so hard to be full of names and ages. And the GOOD titles of the journalism profession!
If there are questions about why he chose Thanh Hoa during his NORTHERN JOURNEY, perhaps it is for that reason?
...
I like this letter from journalist and writer Xuan Ba because it is like a certificate affirming that I belong to Thanh land.
Another journalist - Mr. Cao Ngo, was also very enthusiastic in guiding me to visit Thanh, no matter how far or early or late the conditions were. He himself made appointments, drove me here and there, to get to know his friends and colleagues. Wherever he went, he excitedly introduced me: "This old man was born in Thanh Hoa!". Thanks to him, I was able to update the situation of the land and people of Thanh, to know how Thanh Hoa has changed to modernity, to enjoy the specialties here: "If you want to eat, go to Moi intersection. If you want to think about life, go to Bia intersection". He took me to visit Ben En tourist area, known as "Ha Long of Thanh", to visit Hai Van blast furnace to cast iron during the resistance war, the predecessor of the military industry of the Vietnamese army, to visit Nong Cong district, his hometown...
I remember the time he personally drove to Tho Xuan airport to pick me up, and before leaving he carefully washed the car. He was a person who rarely wrote poetry, but that day he came back and wrote a few poems for me.
Several times later, when we met again in Thanh Hoa, knowing that I was suffering from a stroke and still using a cane to carry out the program "Xin mot tuoi" (spending 1 year visiting friends and memorable places), he wrote a poem full of heart and affection...
In my career as a journalist, my motto has always been to go there, to meet, to ask, to understand everything thoroughly. During my visits to Thanh Hoa, I have achieved all of these things thanks to meeting very friendly and loving people.
Another local god who helped me learn about Sam Son in great detail was the poet Dinh Ngoc Diep. He was clueless about technology, house numbers, street names... but had a wonderful memory and ability to read poetry. Each of his poems was no different from the love stories of Thanh land, listening and absorbing. He took me to a familiar restaurant on the mountain and... read his poems. He read loudly, regardless of the strangers around.
The day I visited his house, I gave his wife a typical Southern scarf. Just that, but the next day he was inspired to write a poem for me, with the line: "The poet gives a Sam Son girl a scarf of longing/ Tomorrow, when the monsoon winds blow, the scarf will lightly wrap around someone's shoulders"...
...
Thanh is a land of "spiritual land and talented people", a land of history "kings of Thanh, gods of Nghe", and a place with deep cultural sediments to create the names of famous artists. I suspect that not only artists but also ordinary people of Thanh also love their homeland passionately, willing to become a tour guide, a collaborator of newspapers and radio stations to express their love for their homeland. I have a friend Le Trung Anh, who is the head of the pharmacy department of a hospital in Thanh Hoa city. He is also an active collaborator of many newspapers and radio stations, especially the newspaper "Medicine and Health". When I returned to Thanh Hoa, still confused, he drove me to visit Ham Rong bridge, Truong Le mountain, Trong Mai island... and introduced me as a real tour guide. Then when I left Thanh Hoa, I wrote a poem about this place to thank the special tour guide.
Male and Female
The country has been through thousands of years and still has the old story of the Rooster and the Hen.
I've been gone all my life, the Rooster and the Hen don't have any age.
Love each other until old age still vow faithfulness
Whether angry or resentful, the Rooster and Hen are inseparable.
Where is the rock? You and me.
That chest, that shoulder of the past
Only water can shape ice.
Stay in each other and keep hugging each other
Yes, the Rooster and the Hen are for heaven above and earth below.
There is yin and yang in life
Have a happy embryo fighting cock and hen
To conceive a couple legend
Male like mountain, Female like forest, mating
Who named Truong Le mountain more sad
Endless green tears fall on the mountain eyes
Which couple is making a fire in the field?
I hear the sound of old pages
Still screaming the desire of love
What would life be like without cocks and hens?
Maybe I won't have you"...
I post poems about Thanh Hoa not to show off my poems but to show off my Thanh Hoa friends. Even the people I don’t know much have left me with memorable feelings. That is the taxi driver who took me to Doc Cuoc Temple, knowing that I was a journalist born in Thanh Hoa 70 years ago, he insisted on not charging me for the fare. That is the beautiful girls who drive electric cars in Sam Son, willing to be tour guides and willing to wait for customers to turn off, take shortcuts along the way without charging for waiting. That is the volunteer who looks after and preserves the Hai Van Blast Furnace Relic Site. Those were the three old ladies who were guests at the live TV broadcast in Sam Son about the 70th anniversary of the Southern compatriots gathering in the North. Knowing that I was the one who "gathered in the mother's womb", they kindly asked me like a child returning from afar... Those kind feelings made me, a "seasick fetus under the belly of the gathering ship", a person who crossed the sea with my parents to gather throughout the journey "Ca Mau seasick, Thanh Hoa shoresick" 70 years ago, always regret that the days in Thanh were too short, too fast... But just those few days alone had such overwhelming feelings of love, so overflowing that I wrote these verses when saying goodbye to Thanh and returning to Saigon: "I'm going home, will I ever return/ Oh shore, I dare not promise my debts/ I miss you like a sail returning late/ With the tide, I gather my life"...
Huynh Dung Nhan
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/chat-voi-ban-be-xu-thanh-238008.htm
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