The story of a man who has "two lives in the sun and one in the rain" with... literature

There are many journalists who like to write, and there are also many writers who want to be journalists. Anyone who pursues a career in writing certainly wants to have works that will last a lifetime. The Duc is no exception, even though he is just an amateur in the literary world and not a “professional” in the field of painting.

Writer and artist The Duc presented the author with a copy of the novel The Moon Rises. (Photo: Bich Ngoc)

I visited the writer-painter Thế Đức on a really hot summer afternoon. The heavy rains after storm No. 1 passed quickly, leaving Hanoi to endure the scorching heat.

In a small apartment cooled by air conditioning and beside a pot of fragrant jasmine tea, The Duc and I had a really open conversation about the path full of… rose thorns that he chose to find his life's work in his literary career.

The difficult path of art

The Duc is a writer who has lived and worked abroad for many years. He has written a number of articles with strong cultural colors in foreign lands, published in the Literature and Arts and Public Security Literature newspapers. He is not afraid to "plow" on literary lands that many people avoid because they think it is "difficult" to overcome the shadows that are too big. He believes, "writers and painters, like gardeners, must work hard in the sun and rain and always be creative and innovative in production labor in order to hope to have seasons of fragrant flowers and sweet fruits to offer to life!"

Thế Đức knew how to draw since he was illiterate, knew how to write poetry since he was in secondary school, but it was only a childish whim. At that time, the country was at war and still in poverty. The same was true of his hometown, now the outskirts of Hanoi. There was no food to eat, clothes were patched up to seven pieces, who would pay attention to a little boy who spent all day holding bricks and chalk (sometimes someone would give him a black pencil or two colors, red and blue) scribbling in the yard and on the wall...

Later, through many ups and downs in life, in every field of work, including his time serving in the army, he was assigned to work related to cultural propaganda thanks to his talent for drawing and writing. In 1999, when his family faced a huge change, The Duc decided to give up everything to pursue art.

Coming to painting, The Duc studied drawing with Mr. Pham Viet Song, a famous teacher in the Vietnamese Fine Arts community. Mr. Pham Viet Song graduated from the Indochina College of Fine Arts (1935-1939).

For nearly 60 years, he has been famous as a painting teacher, continuously opening painting classes for all ages and levels. The legacy he left behind is paintings, lectures on painting, the book "Self-study Drawing" which he compiled very elaborately and carefully. And, more than that, he is an example of passion for art dedication. The Duc learned this dedication from teacher Song and he continued to nurture his literary dream when he attended the class at Nguyen Du Writing Training Center, course I.

Unlike many people, The Duc's feelings about life away from home are completely different. When asked: "Do you have any regrets when returning to Vietnam?", he frankly said: "I spent a long time studying and working abroad. But during that time, there was nothing worth mentioning except rushing into making money."

“The thing that is most deeply engraved in my memory is the pain of a person who has to go abroad to make a living. I always ask questions and then answer them myself, and the pain just keeps multiplying. That is why returning to my homeland, then becoming a writer, artist, and citizen of my own country, my homeland, is for me a way to heal that pain,” he said.

The Moon Rises Novel. (TGCC).

"The moon rises" still rises

My feeling as well as many friends in the industry is that The Duc is a romantic person in real life but in literature he is a writer with a "restless" and "ascetic" style.

The “asceticism” of Thế Đức that I feel is that he dares to embark on writing about a classic topic of our country’s literature: War and Soldiers. Many people ask, what will he exploit in a land that has been plowed by many people, in front of which are many old trees?

However, writer Thế Đức still found his own way to increase production on that barren land with his own creativity, asceticism, and hard work to achieve a bountiful harvest. That is the novel The Moon Rises published by the Vietnam Book and Media Company and the Writers Association Publishing House.

A 500-page novel, telling the story that took place in nearly a quarter of a century, from after the August Revolution in 1945 to after the Tet Offensive in 1968. Although it was his first time writing a novel, thanks to his life experience and strong writing ability, The Duc succeeded. It was the result of his "ascetic" labor.

Quickly displaying the fruits he had just picked from his hometown to invite me, his voice became very quiet when mentioning his work: “During the resistance war against the French, my hometown was a resistance village, absolutely refusing to join the militia. Many times the French sent troops to sweep, but they were all defeated by the guerrillas. The feats of arms were as vast as the sky. I am a writer, but if I cannot do anything to record the feats of arms of my homeland, it would be a sin. That is why I decided to write the novel The Moon Rises .”

The Moon Rises has nearly 50 characters, each with its own unique personality. The Duc especially loves characters like my grandfather, grandmother, my father, my mother, and Dang Vu… According to literary critics, The Moon Rises is a work full of humanity and very human! The above characters are typical of those characteristics.

One of the very specific evidences is the descriptive passage about the character of the grandfather. Not long after the North was at peace , the grandfather sat and talked with Mr. Tue on the banks of the Nhue River about how he himself had killed the officer, the station chief stationed in Van Nhue village: “But it is also a pity, in war, if you do not kill him, he will kill you. But that station chief is also a human being, with parents, wife and children. Surely now, his parents, wife and children are suffering a lot. Just think from your own heart, you can understand. Later, when I think back, I often feel sorry for his fate.

As we all know, both grandfather and Mr. Tue were two positive characters, on the resistance side. Thus, it is clear that The Duc had gone beyond the circle of ideological control. Being friends, one must “must” be good. Being enemies, one must “must” be bad, and forever and ever “must” hate the enemy to the core, never showing such compassion to the enemy!!!

Literary critic Bui Viet Thang once expressed his hope that The Duc would write a second volume of The Moon Rises when commenting on this work.

Sharing about his future plans, The Duc said, “I am currently writing a novel tentatively titled: Post-war Love Story”. But in parallel with writing, I still spend time on painting. I am focusing on landscape and portrait paintings. Literature and painting go together, complementing each other to create a very unique color.”

Saying goodbye to the multi-talented writer Thế Đức when the moon had just risen. I left his small apartment in the urban area of ​​Định Công when the first moon of the month was just like a young horn emerging in the sky. If there was enough time, the moon would be full and its light would continue to shine, adding to the beauty of the streets. At this moment, the moonlight was also shining brightly on the small river along my way home.

In 1999, The Duc both painted and composed many poems, possibly hundreds of poems, and the poetry collection Hoa Rung was published, a collection of his best poems.

In 2006, The Duc switched completely to writing prose. He wrote three collections of short stories and novels from the end of 2006 to 2014. They are Sacred Curse, Threshold of Life and Red Storm . Of these, the collection Sacred Curse was one of four works that passed the final round of the Vietnam Writers Association in 2009. (There was no award in 2009).

In 2014, The Duc became a member of the Vietnam Writers Association.

In 2022, The Duc published the novel The Moon Rises . This is one of five works that entered the final round of the 2022 award of the Vietnam Writers Association.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/chuyen-nguoi-hai-suong-mot-nang-voi-van-237101.html