Poet Nguyen Duy burst into tears at Duc Phuc's victory

Early this morning, September 21 (Vietnam time), singer Duc Phuc won the championship at the Intervision 2025 international music competition, held at the Live Arena stadium, on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia. The 3-minute and 30-second performance of the 2015 Voice champion completely conquered the 16 international judges with an outstanding score of 422 points, much higher than the runner-up (373 points) and the prize of 30 million rubles (nearly 9.5 billion VND).

- Ảnh 1. — Duc Phuc transforms into the image of Saint Giong on the stage of *Intervision* 2025

The image of Duc Phuc transforming into the image of Saint Giong, wearing iron armor (stylized from the four-panel dress), holding a bamboo whip in battle against the backdrop of an ancient Vietnamese countryside, has become a beautiful Vietnamese symbol on the international music scene, attracting more than 4.3 billion views worldwide.

'Duc Phuc's performance is… a beautiful royalty for me'

Witnessing Duc Phuc's "stormy" performance with the opening lyrics taken from the first verses of his poem Tre Viet Nam , poet Nguyen Duy could not hide his emotions. Having just suffered a stroke 3 months ago at the age of 77, the author of Tre Viet Nam said that before that, he had never heard the song Phu Dong Thien Vuong by musician Ho Hoai Anh and did not know that the verses he wrote more than half a century ago (1969) had been respectfully included in the song by the musician. The verses were as simple and innocent as nursery rhymes, familiar to many generations of students when included in textbooks:

Green bamboo
Green since when
Once upon a time... there was a green bamboo bank
Skinny body, fragile leaves

But why should we build walls, bamboo?

- Ảnh 2. — The symbol of Vietnamese bamboo in Duc Phuc's "stormy" performance

Recalling the circumstances of composing the "memorized poem", which had been deeply ingrained in the minds of many generations of students and now resounded once again in Duc Phuc's performance at Intervision 2025 , poet Nguyen Duy emotionally said: "The poem was written in 1969, on the march, when I was still a private soldier. At that time, I had just joined the army for 3 years, and my heart was always filled with homesickness, with a deep longing for my homeland. I missed the bamboo groves and the riverbank in my hometown Vu village (Do Len, Thanh Hoa ). The first verses of the poem came to me when I was sitting in a cellar hidden under a clump of old bamboo, the bamboo roots even pierced my head when I leaned against the cellar wall. I just sat there describing the bamboo tree from root to tip. That's all... it took 2 years, today I wrote a sentence, tomorrow I wrote a sentence, then I revised it over and over again, until I couldn't revise it anymore. Only the first few verses were written in one go, without revision."

- Ảnh 3. — Poet Nguyen Duy: "Duc Phuc's performance is a beautiful royalty for me"

The author of Tre Viet Nam also said that thanks to the beloved poem, he received a lot of royalties in exchange for… alcohol. "People may not know who the old man Nguyen Duy is, but when mentioning the poem Tre Viet Nam , almost everyone remembers and knows it by heart. And every time I read Tre Viet Nam , I am always treated to… a drink," he said happily. And now, with the performance Phu Dong Thien Vuong opening with the first verses from this poem, the author of Tre Viet Nam believes that this is also a very beautiful and special "royalty" because it has helped revive in him beautiful memories of his time in the army.

"The simple and sincere verses flowed out from my heart, just like that, without any artistic work here, without any technique like many of the poems I wrote later. That proves that what is simple and innocent will stay in people's minds the longest. That is perhaps the purest beauty of art", author Tre Viet Nam shared with Thanh Nien .

Vietnamese in Russia and 'Looking from afar at the Fatherland'

The "Vietnamese bamboo" diplomatic school is also a phrase mentioned by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the National Foreign Affairs Conference on December 14, 2021. In his article, the General Secretary mentioned the verse: " Skinny trunk, fragile leaves / but how can you form a rampart, a bamboo tree? " in the poem Vietnamese Bamboo, to affirm the diplomatic school imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo": "firm roots, strong trunk, flexible branches".

"I understand that the late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong wanted to use the image of bamboo to emphasize the flexibility and adaptability of our foreign policy. Of course. And furthermore, bamboo is also a symbol of integrity…", said the author of Vietnamese Bamboo .

- Ảnh 4. — Vietnamese lyrics sung by Duc Phuc resonate in Russia

Interestingly, 37 years ago, also in Russia, in a small room at the Maxim Gorky Academy of Writing, poet Nguyen Duy also wrote the famous poem Looking from afar at the Fatherland. The poem, written on 11 handwritten pages, immediately caused a stir in the Vietnamese poetry scene at that time. The author was invited by Radio Moscow to record his own voice to broadcast in the Vietnamese program in June 1990. Many troubling questions were in it, when the country had just passed the Doi Moi milestone for 2 years, and was still in turmoil. But above all, from the "far away" perspective of Russia when looking back at the Fatherland, author Tre Viet Nam still firmly affirmed the value of trust and love. Trust in the Fatherland, trust in the people:

"Wherever you are, the Fatherland is always in your heart."
border post from love to memory
…No matter what, still believe in people

…No matter what, the Fatherland is still in my heart

the spiritual vein is infinitely pure…”

- Ảnh 5. — Duc Phuc won the *Intervision 2025* championship

"It's interesting that exactly 35 years later, also in Russia, Vietnamese poems are once again resounding and another young Vietnamese person "looks at the Fatherland from afar" with a solemn voice, believing in the Fatherland...", the author of Tre Viet Nam emotionally shared with Thanh Nien .

"It has been 44 years since Ai Van's Grand Prize in Dresden (Germany) with the song Construction Song , no Vietnamese representative has reached the same heights, until Duc Phuc made history at Intervision 2025 "

Journalist Vu Manh Cuong

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nha-tho-nguyen-duy-bat-khoc-truoc-chien-thang-cua-duc-phuc-185250921122914903.htm