From 'contracting fields' to the first bowl of rice of the season

QTO - In Vietnamese poetry, the image of the simple farmer and the hard-working mother always evokes deep emotions. With empathy and artistic talent, many authors have successfully portrayed their image associated with rice grains soaked in sweat and tears. Thereby, honoring the simple beauty imbued with humanistic meaning. The poem "Bow of Rice" in the collection "House Filled with Laughter" by Ngo Mau Tinh, a member of the Provincial Literature and Arts Association, is a typical work on this topic.

Ngo Mau Tinh is a teacher but has a special affinity with literature and art, showing his versatility in many fields such as journalism, writing, and poetry. His works are imbued with the breath of life and are widely published in central and local newspapers and magazines. With deep affection for his mother and the simple life of the villagers, he has sent sincere emotions into the poem "Bow of Rice" about the arduous journey of rice grains, crystallized from the sweat and tears of farmers.

Author Ngo Mau Tinh shared: “Growing up in Le Thuy, a land often affected by natural disasters, I witnessed floods that took away ripe rice fields. At those times, I saw my mother helplessly sighing, tears flowing with the rain. I felt sorry for my mother, the farmers, the fields and the hardships I had gone through, so I wrote this poem late one night. Because only when I was alone and in pain with my mother’s pain could I express all the emotions from my heart.”

Portrait of author Ngo Mau Tinh - Photo: NH.V

The poem is divided into 4 stanzas, each with its own nuances, creating a seamless story. The first stanza opens with a sad space of the field after the storm and flood, with the highlight being the mother "looking up at the dry clouds" . There is no lamentation, but each verse seems to be soaked with tears. Using personification, the author has turned the inanimate "rice fields" into an entity that can "cry" because it has to endure the pain caused by natural disasters. The author has cleverly used the word "hardship" associated with "rain" to turn nature into a character of human life to highlight the harshness of the weather and the hardships of farmers.

The beauty of the poem is not only in the image but also in the rhythm of the emotions. The sadness continues to be pushed to its climax in the second stanza. The verse "there is no sadness strong enough to be sadder" is like a sigh, a confession. The sadness deeply engraved in the mother's figure becomes the ultimate limit of emotions. And then, the most unique poetic image, making the strongest impression appears: "there is no grain of rice that is not wet with mother's tears" . The author has dissolved the mother's tears into each grain of rice, turning the salty sweat into bitter tears spreading "with the wind" . The phrase "the rice granary is heavy with sunset" is a beautiful image, full of poetry but contains a vague sadness. The "heavy rice granary" should have brought a bountiful harvest, but the author placed it in the context of "sunset" to emphasize the moment of the end. The word "heavy" in this context is heavy with thoughts and nostalgia.

If in the first two stanzas, the author delves into the image of the field and the mother, then in the third stanza, the author brings the reader to the image of the child, the witness, the inheritor of the days of hard work. Faced with reality, the child has to "fold the joy", "pick up the sadness" when witnessing "each grain of rice covered with deep mud" .

It was thought that the next verse would continue with that sad emotional flow, but then the last verse of the third stanza “the season returns full of paths” seemed to contain a strong belief that: No matter how many storms, the land will not fail people, life will continue. The verse is short but has weight, proving the extraordinary endurance and determination of humans in the face of harsh nature.

The last verse is the sublimation of emotions, the highlight that crystallizes the entire thought of the poem. "The fields contract in May/the mud streaks brighten the horizon/the child wraps up the hard-working days/mother listens to the first bowl of rice of the season" . It can be said that the verse "The fields contract in May" is a bold and profound association. The field is likened to a great mother, having to go through the painful "contractions" of sun, rain, storms and floods to give birth to "golden grains" . And it is from that hardship and dirt that "brightens the horizon" , suggesting a new dawn, a ray of hope lit from the "mud streaks" of the present. The child quietly collects and "wraps up the hard-working days" with all the care and gratitude for the mother's hardship and toil.

The poem ends with the verse “mother listens to the first bowl of rice of the season” leaving the reader with many emotions and thoughts. Mother does not “eat” , does not “look” , but “listens” . Perhaps, in that bowl of white, fragrant rice, mother hears the echoes of wind, rain, the cry of rice, sighs in the night... The bowl of rice at this time is no longer a mere material but becomes a musical score of a lifetime, a symphony of tears and life.

With concise poetic language, rich in evocativeness, unique images, flexible and creative use of contrast, metaphor, and personification, the author has successfully portrayed the life of farmers through the image of the mother. Ngo Mau Tinh did not intentionally send any message other than maternal love, but only wanted to share with readers the value of rice grains and potatoes. There, there are drops of salty sweat of farmers and the bitterness in their lives. Each bowl of rice contains the "flesh and blood" of the land along with the "contraction" of time, the wind and rain, the hard work of the mother to wrap it up for her children. From there, each person needs to cherish and be grateful for what they have, especially grateful to the mother, who "shouldered" the stormy season so that her children could live in peace and happiness.

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Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/van-hoa/202509/tu-canh-dong-co-that-den-bat-com-dau-mua-03d3a7f/