Poet tells story of 'correcting poetry' in textbooks

Poet Nguyen Lam Thang

That is poet Nguyen Lam Thang, born in 1973, he is also a lecturer of culture, language and Han Nom, Faculty of Literature, Hue University of Education.

Gift for son

Nguyen Lam Thang's poems are published in Vietnamese textbooks from grades 1 to 5 of the 2018 General Education Program. The grade 5 textbooks have been approved by the Appraisal Council and will be put into use from the 2024-2025 school year.

Notably, his poems are included in not only one set of textbooks, but in the current textbooks: Creative Horizon; Kite; Connecting Knowledge with Life.

Nguyen Lam Thang's poems in textbooks

Poems by the Quang poet in textbooks include Walking in the street; Thunderstorm; Recess; In a morning dream; Bougainvillea; Small stream ...

Responding to Thanh Nien Newspaper reporter, the poet who has a deep love for Quang Nam countryside said: "I have a total of 14 poems, excerpts of poems included in textbooks from grades 1 to 5. There are poems that have just appeared in this textbook series, and have just been printed in another textbook series."

Poems and excerpts of poems by Nguyen Lam Thang were mainly selected by the group of authors who wrote the textbooks in his poetry collection Morning Dream . This is also a collection of poems that holds many memories for him.

"When I was a student, I wrote children's poems. Since I got married, I have written even more poems for children. I wanted to dedicate these verses as a gift to my son - since he was still in my mother's womb. The period when I wrote the most poems was from 2002 to 2006, when my son was still very young, babbling and learning to walk. After that, I was so busy with work that I wrote less. The book Morning Dream could have been published in 2002, but to be honest, there was not enough money to print it at that time," poet Nguyen Lam Thang recalled.

"Until 2012. At that time, I had a friend who was the deputy head of the primary school department at Hue University of Education. He said that in the department, students really needed children's poetry as teaching materials. He told the students to register to buy my poetry collection and pay in advance. At that time, the number of registrations was very large, from that amount of money, the poetry collection Morning Dream was printed, the book was also distributed to students immediately after that, and a little was left as gifts for teachers and friends. That was truly an unforgettable memory," the poet was moved.

Poet Nguyen Lam Thang

Poems "ordered" to be used as textbooks

Nguyen Lam Thang said that some of his poems were selected by the group of authors who wrote the textbooks from the published poetry collection Morning Dream , and then asked for permission and completed the procedures... to include them in the new textbooks.

There are some poems that have not been published anywhere, because the author of the textbook "ordered" them and he composed them. Therefore, these works have a more "reverse" journey, from the textbook, then into the author's own collection.

Poem Recess by Nguyen Lam Thang in textbook

VIETNAM EDUCATION PUBLISHING HOUSE

There are also poems in which the group of authors who make textbooks suggest that he change one or some words to make them more suitable for textbooks for primary school students, achieving the highest educational effect. The poet finds this reasonable and happy, and is willing to do so. That is why a poem is included in the same book, but in textbook series A, the poem may have one or some words that are different from those in textbook series B…

Father and son both have poems in textbooks.

Not only has many works and excerpts been published in new textbooks, poet Nguyen Lam Thang also has a special relationship with textbooks when both he and his father - poet Nguyen Su Giao - appear in the same textbook. The two pages are next to each other.

That is Vietnamese textbook 1, volume 1, Connecting knowledge with life series. In it, poet Nguyen Su Giao has the poem Pink Spring Sun , on page 179. And on page 180, it is the poem Paper Flowers by poet Nguyen Lam Thang.

Dad's poem "Pink Spring Sunlight" is on page 179. And page 180 is my poem "Paper Flowers".

The poet from Quang said that his father was a great influence on him in his life and in his writing career. Mr. Nguyen Su Giao is 90 years old this year but is still very clear-headed and has a sharp memory. He is blind in both eyes, has lost his right hand and right foot, but still writes poetry.

"He wrote poems at night and memorized them. The next morning, he read them to his children and grandchildren to copy. When I was little, I was also the one who copied poems for my father. When I was born, my father could not see anything. He still touched my face with his hands to imagine how I would grow up...", poet Nguyen Lam Thang recalled.

Poetry of Nguyen Lam Thang in textbooks GIA

VIETNAM EDUCATION PUBLISHING HOUSE

Impressive numbers

Talking with Nguyen Lam Thang, I found the numbers related to the author to be impressive.

The poet, born in 1973, has written more than 2,000 poems for children (in fact, more, but because the poet's computer was broken, the data could not be retrieved), published the poetry collection Morning Dream for the first time in 2012 with 333 poems, then the poetry collection was reprinted in 2016 with 345 poems with a very beautiful presentation and vivid illustrations. The poetry collection Spring I Love with 80 of his children's poems is also being presented and is about to be printed.

There are nearly 500 children's songs adapted from Nguyen Lam Thang's poems by musicians Hoang Luong, Ho Hoang, Quynh Hop, Nguyen Ngoc Tien, Truong Phap (also over 100 songs)...

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/nha-tho-ke-chuyen-sua-tho-trong-sach-giao-khoa-185240229142145273.htm