Every time we mention poet Tran Hung, my family recalls fond memories. Tran Hung was not only a talented poet but also a soldier who was as close to our family as a younger brother. When my wife passed away, he did not hesitate to return from Cao Bang to Quang Ngai to burn incense for his beloved sister. That sentiment makes us always cherish it every time we think of him.
Poet Tran Hung lived a particularly emotional life, always caring for others, especially those he loved. Born as a soldier, Tran Hung had the qualities of a soldier. Guarding Cao Bang, the northernmost region of the Fatherland, Tran Hung's unit confronted the Chinese invaders on February 17, 1979.
Many years later, when I met and became close friends with Tran Hung, he told me about the battle after February 17, 1979 at the gateway to Cao Bang town (now Cao Bang city). An enemy tank with the serial number 406 escaped from the Dong Khe defense line to Cao Bang along Highway 4. When it passed through the town, crossed the Hien River bridge to the north, it was shot down by Company 1, Battalion 40 of the Cao Bang Provincial Anti-Aircraft Artillery; at that time Tran Hung was the deputy company commander, who lowered the gun barrel, replaced the explosive shells with armor-piercing shells, and set it on fire.
Poet Tran Hung
That story is very close to this image in my poem Fatherland :
The moment the soldier stood up, his feet planted firmly on the ground.
At that moment, the land under his feet was the Fatherland.
The bullet left the barrel in the blink of an eye.
Tanks burned across the hill, the enemy retreated.
The young soldier smiled and wiped the sweat off his face.
The face is gentle like our Fatherland.
There is an image of Tran Hung in that young soldier's image, including his smile and gentle face when he shot down an invading tank.
The day I officially met Tran Hung was by chance, at the house of my close friend, writer and translator Nguyen Trung Duc. When he met me, Tran Hung innocently boasted: "I just wrote a poem, I'm bringing it here for you to read."
Tran Hung’s poem is about a famous American singer, Madonna, who was honored as the “Queen of Pop”. I found the poem interesting and a bit strange, because it was knowledgeable and full of music, at that time pop music was quite new to Vietnam.
I asked Tran Hung and found out that he was studying at the Vietnam Academy of Music in Hanoi. Later, Hung played the piano for me, and he played quite well. From a soldier who shot down tanks of the invaders, Tran Hung studied music systematically and wrote poetry. The first poem of Tran Hung that became a bridge of communication between us was as follows:
Madonna
The orchestra whirls
Lightning breaks the world's colors
Madonna appears
Fluffy hair
The whole forest of arms
Shivering rhythm
Madonna sings
Spring chest bouncy
Her body tightened.
Secret
The seizures
She injected into human blood vessels
Madonna
Chapped lips
Panting against the rhythm
Again like trying to hold on
Something is about to be lost
Throw yourself like Jesus
Suddenly panic howled like a she-wolf
Wild love songs
African Sunset
Lovers quietly leave
No looking back
World
ruptured artery
In the frenzied crowd
Someone tore off her bra and threw it into the air.
Many people grit their teeth against the bars
But Madonna stopped singing.
Gone in a flash
Only fragments of color remain
Being merged.
Hanoi 1991
Even back then, Tran Hung’s poetry had a clear modern poetic appearance. Later, Tran Hung’s poetry blended national and modern elements, or more accurately, modernized national elements. That was a poetic trend, which could be called postmodern or “neo-national”. Here is a poem by Tran Hung following the “neo-national” trend for readers:
Call Green
Hey bro
I still have one bitter leaf
I still have a flock of night leaves
the moon path i still have one life
a life we go without season
a season of soaring high
a season of kites fluttering gently
a season of red boat and golden buffalo
a virgin bamboo grove season
hand in hand, endlessly saying the night words
diamond cry my sister proposed
pristine keys, wavy keys
Waves rise up to sing a shoreless song
we sing our song without season
put on my heart a green though bitter leaf
the moon rose to his lips and then left him.
Music permeates this poem, and the very Cao Bang ethnic "poetic speaking" style gives the poem its own unique appearance.
For many years, Tran Hung did many jobs unrelated to poetry, such as being the chief of the provincial party committee office, the director of the cultural department, and finally the vice chairman of the province in charge of culture and society, until his retirement, but Tran Hung never left poetry, and poetry never abandoned him.
During those years, my wife and I also had many opportunities to visit Cao Bang, and were taken care of attentively by my younger brother Tran Hung. Especially during the period from 2012 to 2014, I went to Ha Giang and Cao Bang many times to prepare to write the epic poem The Cloud in the Shape of a Hunter and a Dog about the Mong people. Our brotherhood was strengthened through poetry.
And a poet needs only that to live and love.
Since his retirement, Tran Hung has devoted all his time to his family and to poetry. Perhaps that is why he was elected to the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Writers Association, and has worked for the Association with all the responsibility of a veteran poet.
I am surprised that in recent years Tran Hung has written a lot of poems, and his poems are especially dedicated to the nature of Cao Bang, to the leaves, to the trees, to the young shoots and to the giant trees. Tran Hung has chosen the right subject to express in his poems, which is the green color of the primeval forest that may be lost. That is what worries us the most. Here is a poem about the giant tree by Tran Hung:
Big tree
Roots crawling underground
groping
grow a tree for life…
throughout life
a forest of leaves in the sky
green gaze
green weary
wait
one time writhing
broken in the storm.
That was storm number 3 Yagi that just hit Cao Bang and caused many painful destructions to this forest land at the headland of the Fatherland.
Missing Tran Hung and his family, I just hope everyone is at peace and that one day we can meet again to eat a bowl of Trung Khanh roasted duck pho or a bowl of Cao Bang specialty rice rolls.
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