Le Nhu Tam – The land of happiness

It must have been 10 years, such a waiting time for literary creation is too long. But in the hope that it has its own beauty, poet Le Nhu Tam quietly sowed the seeds, and then the poetic buds blossomed on the pages of poetry. I waited too long, when I caught the words in “The Season of Not Waiting for Age”, it was truly worth the time of carrying, of both readers and poets when carrying on their shoulders the whole life of poetry.

From “Thuc” - a collection of poems published in 2012, readers have been imbued with the poet’s suffering and happiness in each word, each page of poetry. Le Nhu Tam’s “literary virginity” has allowed “Thuc” to nurture the hearts of poetry lovers for a long time. Then, with “Silent Shadow at the End of the Day” - a collection of essays and notes published in 2015, readers encounter Le Nhu Tam no longer wandering in the field of poetry, but rather the voices of the heart, sentences filled with thoughts, sometimes sad, sometimes lost in the hustle and bustle of life, selfish and lonely in a crowded world.

Absent and then returning after 10 years with “The season that does not wait for age”, which I call “The Country of Happiness”. Because, although not old enough, not yet reached the end of the road of life, of poetry, but when the poet finds it enough, he can also summarize happiness in verses. Or more correctly, Le Nhu Tam knows how to absorb the happiness of the land and people in a foreign land into poetry and from there “spread the carpet of happiness” on the language of Vietnamese poetry:

"nowhere on earth"

Bhutan, the land of hidden happiness

wild land, pure love

where nature lives with humans"

(Land of happiness)

Sometimes, that happiness is love: "Hearing the sound of Pi flute; calling each other back to warmth; the door of the soul is open; back to the origin of the fatherland"

"Who sang in the mind of the child of the temple far from home

each rain has not come in time

Who calls the moonlit night bustling the city

The Empty City Fragrant Moon of Pi My Hometown

mountain wind nostalgia

nostalgia for the harvest

barefoot nostalgia walking across the wild grass fields

on the vague festive forehead

love for Chua village, a village in the middle of the countryside

Pi flute season, the girl waits for him by the stream

know you are not coming back

not coming back next season

in the middle of the mountain, two hands grasping the void

"Turn it upside down, everywhere you turn it touches the old warmth."

(Pi Flute Season Temple Version)

Happiness in Le Nhu Tam's "Seasons that do not wait for age" is the love for the sea, homeland, and country, so when it comes to poetry, it creates both the depth of history and the aftertaste when the poet created the poem "Once upon a time when our fathers and grandfathers":

"listen to the storm and miss your ancestors

years ago, I went to protect the land in the middle of the sea

go to keep the island in the middle of the ocean

day and night drifting on a bamboo boat

rain and wind day by day

take the waves as friends

take the night as a curtain

Hoang Sa, Truong Sa once

...

maple tree blooming maple tree

Vietnamese wind blows to Vietnamese land

Vietnamese sea flows to Vietnamese land

homeland island permeates the mind

old days tell stories today

today keep forever"

Happiness also comes from the time my mother let me be a human, to see the simple things of life, of the countryside, sometimes even poverty, but those things, that is not a barrier but a catalyst for people to grow up, to mature (June of my age). Sometimes it is even a bit fragile, in the world of poetry when the poet shares the clouds, shares the wind, then love becomes an immortal flower fragrance that goes into poetry (Four seasons of Khe Sanh). There are also times of waiting in pain: "That same year you left, you promised

March the bauhinia flowers bloom and I come back

The years are long and the fragrance is cold.

"White bauhinia flowers in the forest, white the path I walk on"

(March white bauhinia flowers)

good

"So you're not going back?"

The maple leaves have turned yellow

How many couples are in love?

I alone go up the mountain to catch the empty moon"

(The season of changing leaves)

"All season looking for sunshine

The river is thin

You are also far away

White clouds across the fields

(The season does not wait for age)

Suddenly my heart is heavy: “Gathering distant dreams; Later, sitting and untangling my fate...Gathering white hair, remembering my youth; Prosperity and decline are just fragile human lives” (Gom), with a heart full of nostalgia: “Let's go back and sit under the old tree; Let the vast emptiness make me sad; Let's go back and sit in my homeland; After so many years, I still miss the corner of home; Let's go back and find myself; The long road leaves my chest empty to be silent; Let's go through seven ups and three downs; No matter how precarious, I still seek oblivion” (Stop)...

Nearly 150 pages of poetry with 79 poems, “The season does not wait for age” brings readers to many poetic emotions. When thinking, lingering about love, about homeland, country and people. And even in the midst of pain, “The season does not wait for age” is not simply an individual pain. Le Nhu Tam is a person who seeks light, gathers love, collects in himself the colors and scents to then highlight the words of the season of happiness, of people very elegantly. For that reason, poets or anyone in this life, just need to live and be filled with love to be full of happiness.

Hoang Hai Lam

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/le-nhu-tam--dat-nuoc-cua-nhung-hanh-phuc-194663.htm