Philosophy of a Mountain Boy

In the highlands, people work hard. The heavy basket on their back carries all the corn and rice from the house.

Carrying buffalo up the rugged mountain

( Carrying buffalo )

Duong Thuan wrote with the eyes of an insider. The poet's soul is full of the feelings of the mountains and villages. That is why there are realistic features that are very difficult to turn into poetry, such as the problem of traction in agriculture in the highlands. The image of an old man carrying a buffalo up the mountain has surprised any reader who does not live in the mountains. The unique poetic image has conquered the readers: we feel admiration and emotion before the will to overcome difficulties of the people in the mountains. The poem has touched the hearts of readers, that is the most valuable success of a work of art.

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For Duong Thuan, writing poetry is writing about "our fellow countrymen" to serve our nation. His poetry carries the unique vitality of an entire country, so that uniqueness is merging with the common soul, the common national character to create unity. In Duong Thuan's poetry, the image of a woman as a mother, as a "younger sister" appears gentle, kind, close, and through that shows the poet's special respect and favor. The mother of the May land is associated with lullabies, instructions: showing the way, teaching her son to be courageous and upright in life (Don't love me, Mother of the May land ). The image of the girls of the May land has the standard physical beauty of a mountain girl:

She sat silently by the fire alone cooking bran. Oh, her skin was white, her breasts full, her hips thick, her legs strong.

“White skin, full breasts, thick hips, strong legs” shows the appearance and healthy, youthful vitality of Tay girls. In particular, the author emphasizes that the beauty standard of Tay girls “strong legs” is different from the beauty standard of

Lowland girls - long slender legs. That beauty was discovered by the author from the working life of the mountain girls: always having to climb slopes, cross streams and floods, sometimes unsteady legs will be swept away by the flood. Tay girls are not only beautiful in body but also beautiful in spirit and soul:

Your laughter melts the mist of the sky (…)

Your soul is as pure as pear blossom

( Tomorrow I am eighteen)

Through Duong Thuan's poems, the beauty of women, especially Tay girls, is a natural beauty filled with vitality, blending with the nature of the mountains and forests.

Love is always present in every heart, every soul. From ancient times to the present, mankind has never stopped yearning and loving each other. No one can deny the miraculous power of love, it makes all reason collapse, all ice melt, it makes even the most intelligent and knowledgeable people become infatuated and foolish. And so, love has become a familiar but never boring topic for every poet. In the realm of love poetry, Duong Thuan also affirmed his position with a collection of Love Poems consisting of more than 200 poems, including many "nailed" poems such as: Looking for the shadow of the mountain , Betel leaves , Extreme love , Confession song ... Duong Thuan spoke for the men and women of his people with the stirring voice of the heart when in love: The crooked tree of love / Who doesn't want to climb / Climbing up, the heart is in turmoil / The branches are straight / The branches are truncated / The branches are curved / La dang... ( Extreme love ).

The two words “want to climb” express the desire, the lust that has become a human need in love. The two words “tangled” speak of the complexity, all the levels: straight, curved, truncated, loose… that love brings. Faced with the challenge of “ Step up the knees/ Step down the dizzy eyes of love”, the child

The love story between the boy and the girl in Duong Thuan's poetry is still very strong. The boy expresses his love as clearly as a river or a stream:

Without rice, I can go hungry. Without water, I can go thirsty. Without a house, I can sleep under a tree. But I can't go without you.

Or sometimes the young man should be extremely furious because of love:

Missing you for just one day makes me want to destroy the earth

The girl in the Song of Confession boldly gave the boy strength when he encountered a barrier: the lover's father: " I rushed through the field / I was stabbed in the neck / She also stopped / Crawled through the door / She came to me / Just looked without breathing / Then she whispered / - Just like that / And you were scared! The girl's courage and confidence created the strength to give the boy to walk steadily on the bumpy road of love. Compared to the painful, sad, tearful emotions of the songs and poems about broken love that are ubiquitous in the media today, the strength and enthusiasm of the Tay boys and girls have created a healthy, wholesome beauty in love. They are attached to each other by love and loyalty, and the way they love is also very special:

Lovers often use charms. Put it in water and when thirsty, the heart will miss it. Whoever drinks it will never be able to leave it again.

Make the lost heart come back

Duong Thuan's love poems also illuminate the beauty of a healthy mountain girl with a pure soul (as analyzed in the section on the image of women). That beauty is embodied in the characters "she" and "you" and becomes the source of life close to the surroundings, which is what is currently happening.

possess, spread and create true meaning for the whole life: “ What are you / I don't know anymore / A knife with a handle / A house with a door (…) / What are you / When I'm happy, I often ask / You are a small stream of water / Flowing into my jar ( You - Stranger).

The love between men and women in Duong Thuan's poems also leaves a strong impression on readers because of the love of separation and separation ( Remembering Ms. Thin, Looking for the shadow of the mountain, Betel leaves, Separation, Remembering your words, Missing you one day ...). It is worth mentioning that although the love is broken and hopeless, that feeling is not tragic but becomes sadness, a lonely and empty feeling: " Now the horse returns to another train / I alone hold the song / Looking for the shadow of the mountain of the past / Now there is no more rain / The two of us carry the same leaf train / Now there is no more summer / The corner of the red afternoon is waiting / Now you have followed your husband / To the mountain to clear the fields and plant rice / Now let go of the longing / I wander among people " ( Looking for the shadow of the mountain ).

The poem is a young man's nostalgia for a broken love. Now everything is gone because "I followed my husband", only he is left wandering among people, holding an endless longing. The loneliness and despair are conveyed through the painful repetition of "no longer". "No longer" contrasts the past but the present, expressing the regret and disappointment of a beautiful, romantic love that has become the past. The act of "letting go of nostalgia" makes the poem, although a poem about broken love, not sentimental and sad, but only sows in the reader a feeling of immense regret. Because, "letting go of nostalgia" is both mixed with a bit of emotional attachment and the control of reason and experience, turning past love into eternal love even when it is not complete.

In short, in building the image of the mountain people, Duong Thuan always paid attention to bringing people to the position of representing the cultural beauty of the nation. The girl, the boy from May, the old man, the baby, the mothers, they are the specific people of Hon village, but from the way they speak to the way they think, they are

generalization for all mountain people with innocent, pure, loyal, strong personality.

2.3 Experience, philosophy

At the beginning of the poetry collection, Duong Thuan wrote the title with two verses: I am a boy of the mountain / I only know how to say words for the wrong result . Then in the poem Looking at the reverse sky , the poet affirmed: People born on the mountain / Holding a knife to make their own way. It can be said that the above verses are like a manifesto in his poetry, the voice of a brave artist who seeks his own path. With more than 800 poems and two long poems, there is no duplication, expressing the inner content of Duong Thuan's spiritual life as well as his extremely rich observation of the world. Readers of all ages can recite his poems, love his poems because they have great generalization, speak to the soul of the human heart and importantly, they contain profound beauty. He wrote about the life of the Tay people, our country and humanity. The philosophy in his poems is partly conceived through his observant eyes, who like to contemplate the world around him. Duong Thuan recreates a diverse world, illuminated with many different dimensions. This is clearly shown in Duong Thuan's poetry collection consisting of three volumes: Children's Poetry, Love Poetry, Ban Hon and other places . Duong Thuan directs his poetic eyes to all human life and the world to summarize into verses with profound philosophical meaning of life.

The collection of poems for children shows the discovery of beauty in the innocent, funny view of children: " Oh father, why is Dragon Mountain in front of the door / Oh mother, why is Phoenix Mountain behind the house" ( Dragon Mountain, Phoenix Mountain ) or: " In those days, the mountains / Pulled into flocks and herds / Moved like buffaloes / Passed through many kingdoms / Passed through many countrysides" ( The Legend of the Mountains ). Through the eyes of children, each poem is an interesting discovery and explanation of things and events around. The boy Duong Thuan passionately observed and imagined the world, seemingly opening up

When he opened his eyes he saw many strange things but when he closed his eyes he saw another world that was just as interesting as the real world.

The collection of Love Poems with more than two hundred poems is about the levels of love. The poet's loving eyes have discovered many surprising and daring beauties in the souls of mountain boys and girls. Charms and love are things that have attracted boys and girls everywhere since time immemorial, but the intense, bold love without being sad or sentimental is the love character of Tay ethnic boys and girls that Duong Thuan has discovered.

With the collection Ban Hon and other places , it is the way of looking at the world of a mature man with many life experiences through traveling a lot, thinking a lot and writing a lot. Each poem is a story about life, the reason for life. Perhaps the homeland, childhood with legendary stories about Ba Be Lake, Nang River, Ban Hon and real trips have given wings to Duong Thuan's poetic soul. His poetry creates attraction, strong appeal and broad generalization because the poet has a delicate artistic eye, is immersed in life, deeply attached and contemplates that reality.

2.3.1 Philosophy of a mountain boy

Some people say that Duong Thuan "spits out" poetry wherever he looks, but living in a bustling urban area, his poetry always bears the cultural characteristics and breath of the highlands. Perhaps for Duong Thuan, the emotion that bursts into poetry is not the immediate inspiration when encountering something or something at that time, but the echo from deep within the subconscious of the soul that already exists. Love for the homeland, understanding of national cultural traditions... everything must come from the subconscious so that the emotion is always present, then when looking at reality, it will resonate and resound into sounds and words. Duong Thuan's poetry talks about stilt houses, stairs, about grandparents, fathers, mothers, brothers and friends.

The raft is full of affection. The scenery and people of the mountainous region come into his poems simply, rustically, without exaggeration. The life experience, the attachment to the mountains and villages have helped the poet convey his feelings and then summarize them into experiences, lessons of perception about real life, images. The life of the mountainous people with the characteristics of living and culture is the material that creates unique poetic images with many meanings ( Riding a horse, Carrying a buffalo, The old men sowing seeds, Waterwheel, District town... ). Readers are surprised by the ordinary things of life through the eyes of Duong Thuan appearing poetic, rich and fresh. For example, in the poem Riding a horse , through the innocent, funny view of the way children see and think about a game, a philosophy is expressed: Loosen the rope / The horse is stubborn / Hold the reins tight / The horse runs / Want the horse to jump / Whip

The poem gives readers many thoughts. Perhaps for children, the poem is just a guide to horse riding, but when they grow up a little, they will understand the profound meaning of these three short verses: horse riding is like orienting life, if you let life drift aimlessly, you will lose direction. On the contrary, if you want to achieve many successful leaps, you must be determined, bold and try your best. The meaning of the poem is profound, but here there is no loftiness, preaching, nor is it the way of saying "trying to act young", the author only implies that each age group can absorb it in their own way. Or in the poem Carrying a Buffalo , the author talks about the image of the mountain people who persevere and patiently overcome difficult circumstances:

In the highlands, people have a hard life. The heavy basket on their back carries all the house, corn and rice. Carrying buffaloes up the undulating mountains.

With a poetic and affectionate writing style, the author expresses a simple yet loving view of the hard-working farmers who know how to overcome their living conditions through honest labor. Readers are often surprised by something that is both pure, lovely, funny, and joyful, expressed in a very national and unique way of speaking that only people from the mountains have.

Born in the homeland: Not enough room to drop a coin/ Three steps to meet a mountain/ Going out the door is climbing and wading , so from the day he was in the cradle, Duong Thuan was raised by his parents with the desire to "go out" to find his own horizon of knowledge. He reflected on the journey to fulfill his desire:

Born with a bath of scented water, then you are your mother's child.

Growing up, bathing in the river water, then becoming a villager, building a boat to go to the sea, bathing in the middle of the ocean.

Just became a person of many places

The poem is simple but the meaning is very profound about the process of growing up of a person from a family member to becoming a member of society. That journey urged Duong Thuan to leave to grow up, but the more he learned and the further he went, the more profound his contemplation became:

Born as a human, I cannot sit still. When I reach the sea, I want to climb the mountain.

When going up the mountain, I want to return to the sea.

( Going against the sun )

“Going against the sun” is Duong Thuan’s return to himself. The longing to return to his homeland is constant and unceasing.