My First Epic

Writer Nguyen Chi Trung, the "boss" of this Writing Camp, sent a dispatch to the General Department of Politics asking me to return to the camp. That was the dispatch I had been waiting for, not daring to believe I would receive it.

Trường ca đầu tiên của tôi- Ảnh 1. — Poet, Lieutenant Thanh Thao - 1976

Arriving in Da Nang , officially becoming a member of the largest and first literary creation camp in the country, I was very happy, because I had been cherishing a long poem that I wanted to write but had not had the opportunity. Now the opportunity had come.

I signed up directly with Mr. Nguyen Chi Trung, that I would write a long poem about the war. Actually, while in the Southern battlefield, I had written more than 100 verses, which was called a "sketch" of this future long poem. Then I temporarily titled my first long poem " The Months and Moments" .

At the end of May 1975, from Saigon I followed a group of Central writers including Nguyen Ngoc, Nguyen Chi Trung, Thu Bon, Y Nhi, and Ngo The Oanh to Da Lat before returning to the Central region. I had the opportunity to attend a "sleepless night" with the student fighters in Da Lat. During that party, when I was introduced to read poetry, I chose to read nearly a hundred verses from the manuscript of Months and Moments . That was the first time I read my poetry to Southern urban students. It was a bit touching.

Then, when I had free time to sit at the writing desk at the Military Zone 5 Writing Camp, something I had dreamed of for a long time, I suddenly received a suggestion from my subconscious. I suddenly remembered the epic poem Those on the sea gate by Van Cao. I had read this epic poem in Hanoi , before going to the Southern battlefield. It was the title Those on the sea gate by Van Cao that suggested to me: I could change the title of my epic poem to Those who go to the sea . It sounded more reasonable. Thus, from Months and moments it became Those who go to the sea . Why is it Those who go to the sea ? I think, our generation participated in the war consciously, therefore, "going to the sea" means going to our people. The people are the sea, Nguyen Trai said this hundreds of years ago.

Since changing the name of the epic poem, I feel like I'm "floating" more, as if I'm a small leaf meeting a river, just floating out to the sea.

1976 was my "Year of the Fire Monkey". Yet there were some big things I planned and basically completed in this year. First was writing a long poem. Then came love. The girl I loved and who loved me agreed to spend the rest of her life with a poor soldier-poet like me. I brought her home to meet my parents, and they happily agreed.

There is only one thing I cannot count back. That was in 1976, I was promoted from lieutenant to lieutenant. I was extremely happy about this promotion. Because from then on, my salary went from 65 dong (lieutenant salary) to 75 dong (lieutenant salary). Only those who lived in that time could understand how important an extra 10 dong in salary each month was. I was very aware of how hard it was to have a constantly empty pocket. Sometimes when I went out with my girlfriend, I had to ask her for 5 cents to buy a cup of tea on the sidewalk.

Not to mention, when I was a poet-lieutenant, I immediately remembered how good works Soviet writers and poets wrote after the Great Patriotic War, when they were all Red Army lieutenants. The extra ten dollars in salary when promoted to lieutenant was both a material and a spiritual encouragement.

Then just focus on writing the epic poem Those Who Go to the Sea .

At the end of 1976, I completed this epic poem. When I read it to "boss" Nguyen Chi Trung for review, I received a nod from a very fastidious and meticulous writer. Mr. Trung only said that I had to change one word. That was the word "rán" in the verse "Đồn bamboo shoulder pole with nine cracks on both shoulders", a poem by Nguyen Du. Mr. Trung said that the word "dàn" was correct, "Đồn bamboo shoulder pole with nine cracks on both shoulders". I agreed immediately. It was true that "boss" was different, he said it right.

After finishing the long poem of more than 1,200 verses, I was so happy that I invited poet Thu Bon to listen to it, accompanied by wine and spicy snacks. Thu Bon listened with emotion. When I read the verse: "Please keep chewing betel nut for a quiet afternoon/Before your smile fades, the moon will be full again", Thu Bon burst into tears. He remembered his mother, the mother who had waited for him throughout the war.

When writer Nguyen Chi Trung finished "approving" my long poem, he had it typed and sent immediately to the Army Publishing House. At that time, the poetry editor for this publishing house was poet Ta Huu Yen, a brother who used to work in the Military Propaganda Department with me in Hanoi, before I went to the battlefield. Mr. Yen immediately accepted to edit. At the same time, writer Nguyen Ngoc was in the leadership of the Vietnam Writers Association. Mr. Ngoc heard "rumors" about the long poem *Those Who Go to the Sea* , he told Mr. Ta Huu Yen to lend him the manuscript to read and see how it was. It turned out that, after reading it, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc told the Army Publishing House to immediately print this long poem. And so, from the time the work was sent to the publishing house until the book was printed, it was only within three months. That was the record for "fast publishing" at that time.

After the Lunar New Year in 1977, I got married in Hanoi and welcomed the publication of my first work. At that time, the paper was bad, but the cover was drawn by artist Dinh Cuong. I was really happy.

Now the Seafarers are 47 years old. In three years, 2027, they will be 50 years old.

Rereading my first epic poem, I feel that the best thing about this work is its clarity. From the first four verses:

"When I told my mother

rain blurred our fields

tomorrow i go

The smoke from our kitchen suddenly stopped on the thatched roof.

to the last 4 verses of the epic poem:

" when I scooped up salt water in my hand

I met your life

under the sun is slowly crystallizing

"Innocent and pure little grain of salt"

complete clarity