Dao cultural identity in Ban Tai Doan's poetry

had to live a dark life, suffering from the heavy oppression and exploitation of the feudal regime, with corvee labor, taxes, wars, and natural disasters.

From darkness to light, I swear to follow the Revolution for life.

…

The king who ascends is also called the king. He brings elephants to trample on the nests in the graves. The people have to pay taxes and duties. The people have to take care of wars and natural disasters.

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(Twenty-five years) [15,p.103]

Life becomes more difficult and arduous when the burden of bad customs weighs heavily on their shoulders. Poet Ban Tai Doan raised his voice from his heart, the voice from the soul of the Dao people to condemn the oppression of the feudal colonialists and the bad customs of the nation that pushed the Dao people to extreme poverty, hunger, and backwardness. The image of the Dao ethnic community before the August Revolution always appears in his poems, with the scene of here and there, not having a piece of land to settle down, a life of rags, poverty, and misery:

Resting my hand on my forehead, I thought, I can't sleep at night, I miss my compatriots.

How many generations have walked without stopping? The nomadic life of the Dao ethnic group

(What do the Dao people think) [11,p213]

The nomadic life has always made poverty and hunger accompany the Dao people. If the weather is favorable, their life is still enough, but if there is drought or flood, they have to face crop failure and famine:

Having gone through many lives of hardship, Cutting down roots and eating the tops to live a nomadic life. With favorable weather and wind, it was enough. In a year of drought, hunger and helplessness.

(The mountain is still where I live) [11,p292]

That life has caused the Dao people to lose many opportunities for a good life. Not only that, their lives are always faced with priests , landowners , and lawsuits in which the poor will never win.

The rich and the poor are the ones who are always in trouble. The poor and the poor are the ones who are always in trouble. The poor and the poor are the ones who are always in trouble.

Grinding the color of the lead to fake the image

Poetry translation:

At that time, only the rich had power. Those who were poor said they were not sacred. Those with money could sue for anything.

Reasonless lawsuit still loses

(Life story) [4, p.6]

Ban Tai Doan understood the suffering of his fellow countrymen, he sympathized, shared, and spoke out the indignation and sorrow from the soul and heart of his fellow countrymen. It was also from that sympathy and sharing that helped readers recognize a true Dao soul in Ban Tai Doan: honest, simple, full of emotions, and completely loyal to the people, to his family, to the Party, and to Uncle Ho.

The Dao people's life was poor in the past, but since following the Party and Uncle Ho, the Dao people have been enlightened by the Revolution. They followed and followed the Revolution, so the Dao people's life has changed. They have food to eat, clothes to wear, salt, cloth, and oil. Witnessing that change, Ban Tai Doan wrote:

Today, we have the Party, Uncle Ho taught us to follow the Party without fear or worry. Every day we plan to become rich, so that life can be warm and comfortable forever!

(Replying to a letter from a Dao friend) [11, p.91]

With the leadership of the Party - Uncle Ho, the Dao people have changed their lives, have a free - prosperous - happy life. If before the Revolution, they lived with the status of servants with no food to eat, no clothes to wear, and especially they longed for salt to eat.

Poetry translation:

Drying pun kiuong pe doang fried pe doang fake grind look fake grind

Tighten the box to find the right pair of Kiuuong yellow stained frame belt buckle

Poor people suffer in a thousand ways. Lacking rice to eat, salt is even more scarce. Grains of salt are as expensive as grains of gold.

Craving salt but no money but dare not care

(The Road to Dong Van) [13, p.77]

After the Revolution, the life of the Dao people turned a new page. They had rice, salt, and fabric, and their lives changed dramatically.

It can be said that the poem Muoi of Uncle Ho is the most outstanding poem of Ban Tai Doan, accurately describing the painful and humiliating state of mind of the Dao people before the Revolution. The poem is the heart of Ban Tai Doan speaking on behalf of the Dao people's gratitude towards the Party and Uncle Ho. The poem describes the contrast between the old life and the new life of the Dao people after the Revolution. If before the Revolution:

The child cried for rice with salt. Where can I find salt for the child?

…

I asked where the salt was, my father shook his head.

Rich people don't sell if they don't have enough money...

Then after the Revolution:

(…) Since Uncle Ho's cadres came, there are many kinds of goods sold in the market. There are stalls selling salt, with plenty of choice. There are stalls selling red and blue fabric.

Uncle Ho brought back clothes, the people wore them. Uncle Ho brought back salt, the people ate them.

(Uncle Ho's Salt) [11, pp.148-149]

Only by being a child of the Dao people, living and speaking the Dao language, can one deeply understand and express the sufferings of the people caused by the feudal colonial regime and backward customs. Through the verses written about nature, we humans can appreciate more the pure and innocent Dao nature in the soul of Ban Tai Doan's poetry.

Along with the feelings for the Revolution, the Party, and Uncle Ho in his poems, readers also see many poems about friendship, comradeship, mother-child love, husband-wife love... those feelings are the profound expression of a true Dao soul in Ban Tai Doan's poetry.

Marital love is a very sacred and noble feeling. Many poets have written touching poems about their spouses with love, respect and gratitude such as: Tu Xuong, Xuan Quynh, Nguyen Duy... Ban Tai Doan also wrote a lot about love, marital love, he wrote very honestly, rustic, simple like himself. His poor family did not have nice clothes, no silver, so it was not until he was over 30 years old that he was born into a family without a son, needed to marry a son-in-law to worship, so he brought his old mother to live with her husband. He recorded his feelings at that time with rustic narrative verses:

In the year of Canh Thin, Tan Ti, in Khuoi Ken village, Ban family, there was a girl who had just become a widow, and there was also a small flower.

People do not despise me for being poor and ugly. They just come to beg for marriage.

I think we should go with the intention of becoming fated to meet each other.

(Life is so miserable) [11, p.455]

Although he got married without going through the love stage like other couples, when living together their feelings for each other were extremely close and warm. In Ban Tai Doan's poems, we see him mention many things.

to his wife with infinite gratitude. She alone took care of her mother, children, and the family so that he could participate in the Revolution.

Fang pao dom the most handsome man Canh tsán nin cô chủ nhất cô Nhựt tao kiếp thin dom love pot Chia lo fai thin pa dom giant

Poetry translation:

Decades of separation, leaving her to fend for her family, leaving her to worry about a house, only afraid that our house will be abandoned.

(Missing you far away) [13, pp.88-94]

Not only did his wife work hard from dawn to dusk to take care of his small family, she was also the source of his poetic inspiration. He confided:

Being the husband of a young mother, from then on I loved poetry

(My dear) [11, p.218]

Like many other couples, they love each other dearly. Sometimes they get angry with each other, but that anger passes very quickly.

Lived together as a couple When in love don't want to leave for a day

When angry, I don't want to look at the sky, but I weed the fields and wait for the night to come !

(My dear) [11, p.219]

As a Dao man who always respects the traditions of his people and at the same time absorbs progressive ideas, he deeply loves and appreciates the sacrifices his wife makes for the family. He feels restless when he puts all the burden of the family on his wife's small shoulders.

I know I made many mistakes when I was away. I couldn't help with housework. But you understand that I'm busy. If I can't come back right away, please forgive me.

(My dear) [11, p.219]

His wife, a typical Dao woman, was honest, simple, hard-working, patient, and devoted to her husband and children. Her virtues made us understand more clearly his loss, loneliness, and dismay when she passed away.

My beloved wife passed away, leaving me alone to live alone. Having her and children is like having none.

I had to wander around the village.

(Life is so miserable) [11, p.457]

Perhaps, in national poetry, there are few poets who write about their wives as well and as touchingly as he does. Besides the verses dedicated to his wife, Ban Tai Doan also wrote verses dedicated to his beloved mother with a strong Dao style of speaking. He expressed his gratitude and filial piety to his mother. Ban Tai Doan was born by his mother in Xi Keng cave, her whole life she worked hard for her husband and children. When the country became independent, looking up at the independence medal awarded to him by the state, he was moved to remember his hard-working mother who worked day and night to raise him:

I write a few lines to my mother. She lies in the grave listening to the good news.

I just received the precious Independence Medal, the country recognizes!

The name my son gave me grew up from that cave

Nguyen Binh I got to see Uncle Ho New name: Tai Doan I received.

(Good news for mother) [11, p.216]

When he was born, his mother named him Ban Tai Tuyen. During his revolutionary activities, he had the alias Doan Ket, and when the country became independent, he was named Ban Tai Doan. That is why when he received the noble award from the state, he remembered his mother and his compatriots who had raised and hidden him so that he could be who he is today:

A medal worn on my chest I am grateful to my mother and my compatriots

Old age makes one's will more vigorous. I am not self-conscious, only proud.

(Good news for mother) [11, p.217]

Besides the poems about his mother and wife, there are also poems about friendship, comradeship, and the people who helped and encouraged him to overcome the initial difficulties so that he could join the Revolution and be enlightened about the Revolution:

Dao cultural identity in Ban Tai Doan's poetry - 6

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