Nhu Mai Vo
“LISTENING TO THE DISTINCT SENTIMENTS” IN HUYNH THI QUYNH NGA POETRY
PHAN HOANG
Poetry what comes first, for me, is the feeling. Feel the beauty of words and distinct structures. The sense of spatial beauty creates a distinction. The sentiment of a misty voice raising up in between magnificent moments of a soul. From then, loving messages glow. The love of human and nature presently exists or only in our dreams.
I enter the poetic world of Huynh Thi Quynh Nga with such sentiment. A poetic world that is not created by the naked eyes with normal and smooth rhythm. A poetic world nurtured by a sentimental soul, a sensitive heart that vibrates, especially with the ears that know “listening to the distinct sentiments” and absorb the multi-dimensional collisions of life. A poetic world is not easy to grasp if blatantly entering with the mundane routine: “No borders on the lines of sentiments / No exclamation forms” (I take the wild seasons and leave). A poetic world “flying up” in dreams of fragrance:
“Blooming a white lily of the valley
Towards the pilgrims
Going against the direction of delta. Seeking a passionate melody of grey field
I bent down to pick up evening shadow
Listening to the plain, deep in the palate
You are flying up towards the flock of Viet birds”
(Time stick)
It’s clearly that the main idea that governs and leads the entire collection of poems Cut along the Scent by Huynh Thi Quynh Nga is a pilgrimage of memories and dreams without borders. With a sense of creating a distinction in poetic device, genre to discourse, the pilgrimage of Quynh Nga has its own path and flight different from any others, in the world of its own.
Going back to the time when the Mekong Delta first welcomed Huynh Thi Quynh Nga to life, she does forgets herself in telling long narration but recreates memories with gratitude, passionate literature and unique associations. A fictitious picture made with wonderful beauty, fertility, harmony between man and nature from the depths of history. The picture of the original consciousness of the modern female poet of the Tien River:
“My soul is like rain
Like sunray you play
Town leaning leaning
Your blouse, silky blouse
Cutting along the scent
Drifting through street of memory
Cutting along the scent
Drifting back to the origin”
(Cutting Along The Scent)
When the scent is able to be cut vertically to drift to the origin, from afar, waiting for “the smile as clear as the river eyes”, affection shows, it’s natural, but the nature only appears in the poetic soul that bloom distinctively.
“I’m back listening to a thousand years waiting
Fluttering pink clouds
Falling seasons gently
The smile as clear as the river eyes”
(River Eyes)
The material of Huynh Thi Quynh Nga’s poetry is rich and diverse, but it is still based on the cultural background of the Mekong Delta. Even the dreams that seemed to escape into the fanciful universe, finally, the poet’s wings also landed in the dreamland to be born. The materials are billowing like silt but delicate and seductive like misty incense, lotus branches “hide the voice” of fragile human fate:
“As light as the scent of silk you hold
Afternoon field spreads its fragrant on silver waves
Yellow smoke season from a hundred year
Holding a lotus branch in front of the sea
Human fate is as tender as a soft grass”
(As Light As the Scent of Silk You Hold)
The culture of the Mekong Delta is also the literary homeland of Huynh Thi Quynh Nga. A Southern culture crystallized from the footsteps of generations of nomads who reclaimed land, conquered vast forests, immense rivers, and built vast fields with flying storks. More closely, it is the silhouette of the birth, childhood memories and natural rhythms of life, “Drifting in the breath of leaves” green every day into pure dreams:
“I envision a season of ripe leaves
On mother’s shoulders
In the colour of father’s eyes
Love and miss the season of frankincense wafting away
Leaving me with old memory
Tapping into the river beat. The nameless reminiscence
Listening to the blue float of time. Listening to the sound of waves
I see in your eyes. Spring and fresh bubs
I dream the childhood dream. Floating in the breath of leaves
Floating in the rivers that you are in
Listening. The golden sunray singing
Listening to the distinct sentiments”
(Listening to the rivers singing)
The feeling that seems to be very different but not. Because that is what has been and is existing in the poet’s spiritual life. What seems a surprise, with her naturally born talent as a poet, Huynh Thi Quynh Nga “Listening to the blue float of time. Listening to the sound of waves” that turns into a special ingredient to create a captivating world of free verse that doesn’t step on the trails of its predecessors and tries to avoid repeating itself.
In the age of digitization, all the old stereotypes are gradually receded into the past, but for creators, it is not easy to completely get rid of them without talent and creative courage. After the first book of poems, The Resurrection Moon, came the second collection of poems Cut Along the Scent, poet Huynh Thi Quynh Nga has proved her bravery to dare to escape, creating a rare distinctive poetic discourse, especially for poetic life in the Mekong Delta. When in our mind it is still “smoke of burning copper stings my eyes” with pride “Scent of a homeland” and gratitude for the culture of the delta, also her literary homeland, Huynh Thi Quynh Nga’s dreams also fly up with many interesting ideas. The poetic path of the female poet from Cai Lay – Tien Giang will also open new horizon ahead:
“The south is as soft as silk in the moon
People come here
Please bow your head to thank the ancestors
Thank you for water spirit
Thank you for gains and losts
A quiet south in the middle of a very real plain
I smell the earth
I smell straw
The smell of burning copper stings the corners of your eyes
Hi the Southern, white stork wings flying into the song
Placed on people’s clothes”
Fragrant a flower of homeland”
PHAN HOANG (#translated by Vo Thi Nhu Mai)
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