Meeting poetess Bang Ai Tho, I found the saying "literature is the person", meaning reading literature to know the person, to be so true. In real life, she is gentle and tolerant like each poem she writes...
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| Cover of the book Poetry Magic. |
One windy weekend in Hanoi, I had the opportunity to travel to Ba Vi with two poets Nguyen Bich Ngoc and Van Phong. The place we visited was a place where, just by hearing the name, one could tell there was poetry, music, chess, and painting… It was the Artist Hill - the private home of writer - poet - musician - painter Bang Ai Tho and veteran actor Van Bau.
As soon as the car stopped, I could not contain my excitement at the space filled with the green of trees and the brilliant colors of flowers swaying in the cool, pleasant late autumn sun. It should be called a place where the outside is a work of nature and the inside is a garden of art.
While I was still admiring the view, the two owners had already arrived. Ms. Ai Tho smiled warmly to welcome her two fellow poets, and I was both surprised and shocked when the person shaking my hand was actor Van Bau - someone I had only seen on TV. Ms. Ai Tho gently said to me: "Surprised, right? Many people know me but don't know about Mr. Bau and vice versa. Today, the not-so-secret thing has been revealed!"
Fate with art
Looking at Ai Tho's family lineage, one can understand why she possesses so many talents. The poet, born in 1958, is the grandson of Mr. Bang Nguyen Dung (aka Mr. Nghi Bac Ky), the 32nd generation descendant of Ly Thai To, the direct descendant of the third Prince Ly Hung Tich Hoai Nam Vuong and the biological son of poet and painter Bang Si Nguyen - a multi-talented, well-educated and famously upright person.
Ai Tho's paternal uncle is the country poet Bang Ba Lan, leader of the Song Thuong Poetry School, who is famous for the two verses "Hey girl, you're scooping water by the roadside/Why are you scooping up the golden moonlight and pouring it away?"... The lineage is the cradle, the big tree for poetess Bang Ai Tho to lean on, look up to, follow, and strive persistently.
She shared: “When I was young, I loved reading, writing, and drawing things around me. I drew pictures with my innocent, naive observations. Then from somewhere, like an invisible urge, I wanted to write down the innocent thoughts of a 7-8 year old child.”
“I was deeply influenced by my father, imbued with the education within the unique discipline of a family with a long history in the country’s literature. While other children were still craving for the love and affection of their parents, I separated myself from the world of children, creating quiet spaces for myself to write, draw and let my words blossom… Images from nature sprang up in my soul and from then on, I pursued my dream: a person who lived sincerely with the profession of writing. My father quietly encouraged his daughter when he saw that I had the ability to continue the family business in a reserved but certain way,” poetess Bang Ai Tho confided.
Walking together in the garden, Ai Tho took me back in time to the past - when she followed her father to the young writers class of the Vietnam Writers Association and sat at the back of the class listening to her father discuss modern literary approaches with famous writers. Perhaps the source of literature was deeply ingrained in her like a destiny.
“The poems, paintings, music, and photography of my ancestors, the glories of our country's literary and artistic journey are the main factors that give me stronger motivation, giving me the inner strength to continue my family's legacy,” she shared.
Imbued with the thoughts of her family's predecessors, no matter where she goes or what she does, the country and people are always present and play a leading role in her poems, her deep musical notes, and her paintings that still carry the breath of Vietnam.
| Bang Ai Tho has won three national literary awards. At the same time, she has also won three music awards. In particular, she is a talented painter with three solo exhibitions, and the paintings have already found owners before the exhibitions have even opened. |
Poetry is life, is life
Picking a fragrant rose and giving it to me, Bang Ai Tho shared about her career of rhyming and making friends with words: “I write poems from the worries of daily life. I always have the thought that: women are half of the world responsible for creating miracles in life, contributing with the other half of the world to create a prosperous civilized planet...”.
That is also the reason why Ai Tho wants her works to reach out to the world, to reach the hands of poetry-loving readers, hoping to touch the hearts that sympathize with her poetic soul. According to her, women - in addition to common points, each person has their own uniqueness, hidden corners of life, which only women can understand, sympathize with, and share with each other in many contents and forms. Poetry is also one of the forms of sympathy, expressed through solemn language.
“I try to be responsible with every word and hope that the loving messages from my poems will one day be welcomed and accepted by readers around the world,” she confided.
Bang Ai Tho did not intend to delve into any specific art form, but somewhere in this life, the sounds of life kept forming in her brain and required her to decode them.
“If the language of poetry does not help me convey all that I want to say, then painting will help me do the rest. And so the art forms appeared, crowding each other in my brain. So I opened my soul to let music infiltrate my work, so that they could intertwine. Whether it is cheerful and bustling or sad and thoughtful, my poetry, music, and painting naturally accommodate each other and flutter and take off with my soul,” Ai Tho confided.
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| Couple Van Bau - Ai Tho. (Photo: MH) |
Landing in love
Life was not kind to Bang Ai Tho on the path of fate and she tried to resist the harshness of fate and rise up from the storms of life.
She said: “More than half of my life, Mr. Bau came to me, became my friend as if it was destiny. He understood my work to some extent and tried to share it. He was happy with me when I let go of my work and wandered into nature like a little bird in the open air. He read my works to broadcast on literature programs through his voice, emotions, and nuances, responsibly conveying the messages in the works. My works, he read and expressed, were welcomed and received by readers and listeners domestically and internationally, and they had special feelings for my husband and I.”
With her own efforts, Bang Ai Tho's works have spread to the world. In addition to the poetry collections printed in many other countries' magazines, in Canada, France, Spain, Germany - her poetry collection Poetry Magic has also been published and released.
She said, “I still and will continue to make great efforts with the rhyme-making career like the ups and downs of fate in life. Thank you fate for not creating a circle with no way out for any living being. When we are human, when we fall into some ironic situation, believe that the way out is in front of us. Fate is only fickle and fickle, like playing with human life. We ourselves must make efforts to overcome fate to change our steps, to find balance for our lives.”
Goodbye to the female poet of the musical instruments, chess, poetry and painting named Bang. I am truly impressed by the resilience and great strength hidden in that small, gentle woman. I hope she is always healthy and truly happy to continue the responsibility that has come to her life like a line of fate. And as she said, write what needs to be written while time is still favorable for her to enjoy her human life.
| Poet, painter, musician Bang Ai Tho has published seven books of poetry, including the latest work published bilingually in Canada: Silent Eyes (Writers Association Publishing House), Light from Pebbles (Writers Association Publishing House), Spring Morning (Literature Publishing House), Returning to Me (Writers Association Publishing House), Thin Sand (Writers Association Publishing House), White Candles and Roses (Writers Association Publishing House), Poetry Magic (Ukiyoto Canada Publishing House), printed in Germany in German. |
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