With 44 selected poems, “Ngâm ngai tìm Trầm” expresses a refined, musical language, combining words that are creatively distilled, through evocative poetic images: “The smoke from the train back then was like a dream/ the vast river looked green” (Many times); “The wind blew my hair against the mist/ flying with the dragonfly listening to memories” (The Returnee) or “The wine has faded the color of autumn water/ still intoxicating the spring mountains”. .. The collection of poems successfully builds a system of consistent symbols such as: ngai, aloeswood, forest, wild flowers, pink grass, waves, mist... The images are repeated, creating a distinct and haunting artistic space.
Notably, Ho Si Binh's poetry has both the silence and antiquity when mentioning "To Dong Pha", "Lieu Tay Ho" in the relationship of human concern with plants, and the breath of modern life expressing the attitude of resistance and opposition to war, especially the war of aggression. In the poem "To a friend who loves to read Erich Maria Remarque", the poet had very profound assessments of the works of the author of "The Western Front is still quiet": "The best book about war of all time / was burned to ashes by the wicked / but who can burn the wills" ... The poem shows a clear, decisive attitude, is a warning to humanity, indignation towards any war that comes from anywhere, showing a perspective rich in humanity and conscience of people.
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Throughout the collection of poems is the image of a lyrical subject on the journey to find the true, precious values of the “person holding wormwood in search of agarwood” despite going through many bitterness. “Holding wormwood in search of agarwood” is to find ky nam, a precious aromatic and medicinal material that the person seeking agarwood must go through deep forests, through “tens of thousands of dó bầu trees”, “millions of winds pushing each other and fighting” and “accumulating the wounds of one’s life into fragrance/ keeping that pain hidden to keep ky nam” to “offer to the person holding wormwood”. The search is extremely arduous, sometimes requiring the sacrifice of one’s life in the deep forest, so “do you know/ the face is pale with hair and beard/ where fairies transform into ky trees” (Holding wormwood in search of agarwood). The poem is written in a language full of metaphors and hidden words. That is the main theme and emotional flow that creates a multi-dimensional artistic world of the collection of poems. Besides the search for eternally valuable beauty, “only beauty can save the world” (Dostoevsky), hidden deep in the poetic image, there are also moments of reunion in love, searching and hoping for love and happiness even though they have been through from youth to a lifetime. And sometimes, in the midst of a fragile hope that has exhausted all strength amidst the vicissitudes of life, there is no certain moment of “reunion”: “Whose eyes are filled with the color of vicissitudes/ but youth still knocks on the door of life/ with such a bright and cheerful smile/ the fragrance drifts in the early morning sunlight on the hill” (Color of the Waves).
Love also has many nuances in poetry: there is waiting, passionate moments and also separation and distance. The image of the girl is a great source of inspiration throughout and covering the entire collection of poems, appearing vaguely in the "flowery shirt", in the "green dress", "when stepping out from the vastness of flowers and grass". There is something that is both concrete and symbolic of beauty, of what the author has pursued since her sacred youth, written in a main tone of sadness, contemplation, contemplation but not tragic because of the pure, romantic moments and a persistent belief in beauty and love expressed flexibly in poetry with a gentle, deep emotion that is heavy with worries.
“Chương ngai tìm Trầm” repeatedly mentions flowers with transmissions that evoke creative inspiration. Flowers are not only objects of description but have become lyrical subjects that are vague but based on a passionate love that conveys secret thoughts: “Flowers have returned in the ivory hand/ like a love that has been waiting for a long time” (Chiều trên hill cũ); “Where the wild daisies, the sunflowers/ the timid, wild low notes… where the call from the abyss of error” (Where the dream began too late). It is not by chance that there are the appearances of “white wild flowers wandering”, “five-color flowers in all four seasons”, “who is far away and entangled in the mountain sunflower shirt”, “wild flowers swaying on the porch staring”, “is there still the scent of wild flowers at night”, “purple morning glory with epic color”, “pure white chrysanthemum”… These “poor” wild flowers that “people rarely know the names of/ have quickly forgotten/ but I remember/ I love them” (Words of gratitude salvaged from memory). The story of the life of wild flowers here is also the story of miserable people whose values and qualities the world does not see, and we are sometimes indifferent and quickly ignore.
“Chew the wormwood and find the agarwood” shows the maturity in the style of author Ho Si Binh. The collection of poems is not only a confession of personal feelings but also touches on universal issues of human life: the journey to find the essence of eternal beauty that literary creation aims for. It is a journey to find the quintessential beauty from profound experiences of life, expressed through a delicate poetic language and a haunting world of images…
Tran Trung Sang
Source: https://baodaklak.vn/van-hoa-du-lich-van-hoc-nghe-thuat/van-hoc-nghe-thuat/202507/tinh-yeu-va-cai-dep-vinh-hang-76d121b/
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