“You changed my life, You changed my poetry...”

Then, on September 2, 1945, at Ba Dinh Square, President Ho Chi Minh read the "Declaration of Independence", giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, opening the birth of the first independent state in Southeast Asia.

These two important historical events had a strong impact on many Vietnamese poets. In “The Man in Search of the Shape of the Country”, Che Lan Vien predicted very early: “Lenin’s thesis followed him back to his homeland Vietnam/ The border was still far away. But Uncle Ho saw it coming/ Look at Uncle Ho’s shadow kissing the soil/ Listening in the pink color to the embryonic shape of the country” . And not long after that, he exclaimed emotionally: “The person who changed my life/ The person who changed my poetry” .

More directly, Xuan Dieu has the poem “The National Flag” with the following verses: “The uprising broke the life of slaves/ For the first time following the red flag with the yellow star” . To Huu has the poem “The morning of September 2nd”: “Today, the morning of September 2nd/ The capital of yellow flowers and sunshine in Ba Dinh/ Millions of hearts wait, birds also stop/ Suddenly a voice of love resounds” , and in “ Hue in August”: “The flat chest of four thousand years/ This afternoon a strong wind/ Blows up, the heart suddenly turns into the sun” . All three poems resonate with a heroic tone, full of the spirit of the nation in the historical moment.

Still To Huu, those two important events recurred in his poems at least twice. The first time in “We Go To”: “The dark shadows of enemies have scattered/ The August autumn sky has brightened again/ On the way back to the Capital/ The red flag flutters around Uncle Ho’s silver hair” . The second time in “Oh Uncle!”: “The sky suddenly became bluer, the sun was dazzling/ I looked up at Uncle, Uncle looked at me/ The four directions must be looking at me too/ The Democratic Republic of Vietnam” .

In “Country” by Nguyen Dinh Thi, the ending has 4 lines: “Gunfire shook the sky angrily/ People rose up like water bursting from a dam/ Vietnam rose from blood and fire/ Shaken off the mud and stood up shining brightly!” . In which, “Gunfire shook the sky angrily” opens with a rapid, resounding sound, evoking the thunderous spirit of the entire nation rising up to fight the enemy. The two words “angry” not only describe the physical power of gunfire, but also express the anger accumulated from years of oppression.

“People rise like water bursting its banks” is a comparison that is both familiar in Vietnamese rural life and heroic. Water bursting its banks is an unstoppable force, when applied to the image of people rising up, it creates a feeling of intensity and surge... “Vietnam from blood and fire” encapsulates an entire historical process: From pain, loss, and sacrifice, the nation regained the right to live. The image of “blood and fire” is both the reality of war and the fire that forges will.

“Shaking off the mud and standing up, shining brightly” is a powerful metaphor: The country is like a person who has just escaped from a life of misery (“shaking off the mud”), and is shining in the light of independence (“shining brightly”) with the posture of “standing up”. From a state of being submerged in the mud of slavery, Vietnam entered a new era, beautiful and confident. The highlight of the four concluding sentences above lies in the sentence: “Shaking off the mud and standing up, shining brightly”. With just those 6 words, Nguyen Dinh Thi has very skillfully named the nature and strength of the August Revolution and what the August Revolution has brought to our nation.

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day September 2, recalling the heroic verses of a historical period not only helps us review the spirit of national uprising, but also affirms the enduring vitality of revolutionary poetry. And certainly, those verses will accompany the nation through the years.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/nguoi-thay-doi-doi-toi-nguoi-thay-doi-tho-toi-713887.html