10 fingers between the two shores of reality and illusion

(Reading the poetry collection "10 Autumn Fingers" by Vo Van Luyen, Vietnam Writers Association Publishing House, 2023)

Poet Vo Van Luyen, a member of the Vietnam Writers Association, in 2023 released the poetry collection "10 Autumn Fingers" and this work was recently awarded the A prize in literature by the Quang Tri Provincial Literature and Arts Association.

The above collection of poems is a legacy and continuation in the writing of poet Vo Van Luyen, showing the consistency in the writing style of a professional poet in Quang Tri. Interspersed between realistic poems are non-realistic poems, showing the diversity and exploration in the author's artistic work. The themes of the collection are also rich, with many forms and aspects. They can be memories of trips and poetic feelings from places or personal thoughts and philosophies of a writer with a heavy heart for poetry and life.

Like the realistic poem "The rain reminds me of someone" is as affectionate and meaningful as a folk song with a folk flavor but still finds another way of saying: "After the burning sun comes the pouring rain/ the Central region has silently endured for so long/ the winter is cold as a plow/ the green buds are still full of precious oranges... not many storms have passed/ the old wounds have not healed yet remind me/ waiting all night for a moment of silence/ but why is heaven and earth sulking with each other...". "The winter is cold as a plow" or "Waiting all night for a moment of silence" are the poet's subtle discoveries.

The poem “Sen Thuong Xa” begins: “the lotus buds are like the age of the full moon just beginning/stop singing the nursery rhyme/stop wearing the ponytail/the waves have known the rough waves...”. The first three lines have a folk song feel, but the last line is a modern poetic exploration, bringing unexpected associations to the reader.

But there are quite a few surrealist poems that overwhelm realism, and if there is any realism, it appears as an excuse, a nail hammered into the wall to hang the author's poem. "Ten fingers of autumn" is an example: "...ten fingers, short and long, undulating, an illusion/a dream of a herd of cows/coming back to the heart of the city/the ambition of the wind/lying dead in the fragrant grass..." to the end of the poem, the poetic meaning is condensed, blurred and intermittent, appearing unclear, requiring a different field of association than usual and even vague judgments from suggestive verses: "ten blind fingers/black and white reversed characters/green river turns into red sea/the sound of the flute kills memories/suddenly autumn".

From another perspective, if examined from a formal perspective, there can also be quite interesting discoveries. For example, the writer's creative restlessness is often entrusted at night or after sleep, or it is insomnia as the names of many poems suggest: Awake with the sound of birds, Awake, Sound of birds in the night, Last night, Dreaming about Hue and you at night, Spiritual night, Sad as night leaves, Moonless night, restless night missing mother, Night no longer frivolous with the blue sky, Dream, Night filled with dreams, Awake with the sound of birds, Dreaming of the sound of birds knocking on the door at night, Lullaby for an insomniac night, Bird dream, Dreaming of singing about sick Saigon at night, Listening to the sound of rain at night, Calling night.

Night obsession has become an artistic concept, a symbol that is repeated quite a lot in this collection of poems. It is also the author's way of confronting his own self, delving into his thoughts and drifting between the two shores of reality and illusion, with both incarnation and separation, sometimes like psychoanalytic sleepwalking: "as if there is a steady spinning sound counting the rhythm of time/the night watches are now different/sleep is fitful, dreams are wrong/as if he is reflecting himself/someone said fear makes people cowardly/cannot lift their feet/but recklessly accompanying death/knowing how to bet in the dark..." (The Night is no longer frivolous with the blue sky).

Vo Van Luyen still maintains his poetic style through “10 fingers of autumn” and many of his works have also become more “mature”, with more experimentation. I hope he will continue his poetic journey, always standing firm on the path of life and poetry.

Pham Xuan Dung

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