Symbolic System in Tay Poetry from 1945 to Present

like the leaves in the forest that cannot be counted, I wish tomorrow I would go to the river/ I wish the deer would give birth to a female deer/ Like bamboo shoots growing in March, Vehicles like buffaloes lurking on the mountain, You will be fragrant like a newly picked pear ... (Duong Thuan); Many young poets like Dinh Thi Mai Lan also often use many comparisons: A life of hardship/ Father cultivates the crops of love/ Not waiting for the day of harvest/ The children, though as solid as ironwood/ Though as firm as mountains/ Still round as pebbles/ Rolling towards father ( Father's Field ), sometimes the comparison is hidden: I am a small pebble/ Moss and mistakes/ Strange lullaby/ Deep and clear stream ( The sound of the zither in the night )... With Vi Thuy Linh, she also often uses comparisons but the things used for comparison are often angular and rough like the dark side of life: The night is as vast as compassion, The leaves are as rough as a widow's eyebrows ... In this aspect, poetic language creates a powerful effect in expressing previously hidden emotions, it carries the breath of primitive life, bold and strong like Doan Thi Lam Luyen when comparing: Jealousy like boiling and anger like crazy, The night is as long as a firecracker/ Tearing apart the age of twenty ... and is very different from Bui Thi Tuyet Mai (Muong): Our peace/ Like raindrops falling from a thatched roof/ The house/ Heaven and earth/ Peace comes from there , etc…

3.2.2. Tone

Poetry is a creative product of each individual, each soul. Each author has his own way of expressing and expressing. Besides words, images..., poetic tone affirms and is an important factor that creates the style of a poet. Tone reflects the social stance, attitude, feelings and even aesthetic tastes of the author. In poetry, many different tones can be interwoven and mixed and have rich changes. Many poets have sought poetry in everyday life, so poetic tones have left their mark and achieved remarkable successes. Tone clearly expresses the poet's inner self before life. Interwoven between many types of voices, many tones, there are gentle, sweet voices but there are also strong, powerful, bold voices, sometimes even dry in narrative prose style. The unique features of tone originate from the unique features of the era, of culture, of human psychology. Different ways of feeling and thinking have led to differences in writing style and tone.

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But if the poets of the lowlands have been very successful in exploiting the musicality in poetry (the current trend is that many poets reject rhyme and rhythm), the majority of ethnic minority poets in general and the Tay ethnic group in particular still do not pay attention to this characteristic. Y Phuong, sometimes with his explorations: My father's voice falls and hums in the silence/ The immense silence carries the scent of my father going far away ( The road home ) is still very different from Dew follows the moon stopping in the sky/ Longing lifts the heart up in despair (Xuan Dieu), Oh, my dear, Poland, the snow melts/ The white poplar road is filled with dew and sunshine (To Huu) or High talent, low fate, depressed spirit/ Wandering around, lost in play, forgetting the homeland (Tan Da)... of the previous century.

Maiacovsky once affirmed that rhythm is the basic strength, the basic energy of a verse. Verses and rhymes have a charm that even when the words and ideas are bad, the poet still captivates the listener with rhythm and balance (Isokrate). The poems of Mai Lieu, Duong Thuan, Ma Truong Nguyen often have a whispering, intimate tone when telling stories. The poems of Y Phuong, Luong Dinh are often deep and quiet with a philosophical tone; meanwhile, some female authors tend to express a gentle nature such as Nong Thi Ngoc Hoa, Hoang Kim Dung, Ta Thu Huyen, Nong Thi To Huong... There is a poet who, although not yet able to form a consistent style, has a strange voice, that is Be Thanh Long. The homeland in the distance is skillfully described by Be Thanh Long with strokes that include both people, scenery and most of all, the feelings of a person far from home:

Surely this morning my hometown is covered in silver mist, On the shore the roofs are slightly raised...

Surely the afternoon is coming and the forest is rustling. The valley is dimly green, the indigo fields are green. The young grass is still swaying and not sleeping.

The buffalo steps waiting for the calf to wander.

( Shadow of Homeland - Be Thanh Long)

Duong Thuan is different, he is like a folk storyteller with countless stories to tell in a charming voice about the customs and life of his hometown: Bac Kan, the pine trees shade the streets/ The winding mountain roads/ The homeland of four...

The season of blooming flowers/ The house on stilts in the middle of the apricot forest… The contemplative tone is often found in some poets of the second and third generations; it most clearly shows human contemplation, especially the self-conscious monologue that stands out the most. In contrast to the gentle, confiding tone, there are some authors who express their emotions very boldly, exposing their egos to life. There we encounter many different “levels”, there is freedom, wildness, strength but also wit, mischief, humor as if to laugh and destroy, to renew life. It resembles the strong character and straightforward soul of the highland people, as Lo Ngan Sun said about the highland six-eight verse: Oh, the highland six-eight verse/ Winding slopes, roaring waterfalls/ Even and odd rhymes - building a suspension bridge/ The rhythm of going six-eight over Lung Pung pass...

Due to the development of the tone and way of speaking of everyday language, ethnic minority poetry in general and Tay ethnic poetry in particular often shows a very simple "reasoning" nature. When denouncing the invaders who destroyed his homeland, Nong Minh Chau wrote in a tone that was both indignant and sorrowful:

The hawks have come in droves, tearing apart the dear quiet sky.

Bombs fell down, tearing the afternoon carpet of leaves. The indigo fields, cotton fields, and corn hills

The familiar stilt house by the forest suddenly turned desolate.

( Through Lang Chanh fields )

Mai Lieu's poems always express nostalgia for her homeland, so her most constant, passionate tone is: Oh my homeland, my homeland/ Hidden by the clouds and mountains/ The stilt house's kitchen is still burning/ The way back is quiet with steps ( Vong Ngan ). Many poets try to renew their tone by prolonging the gaps and silences as an excuse for emotions to multiply:

Violin Violin Oh I Wish I Were With You

One

g…i…c

t...he...e...n...g!

(Y Phuong)

The Tay ethnic poets of the first and second generations often have a writing style influenced by folk sounds such as luon, then, phong slu, phuoi pac... Trieu An brings joy, each verse is like a joyful cry, sometimes praising the renewed life: The valley in spring, Cao Bang oh/ Revolutionary homeland, a sky/ Mountains and rivers are a big construction site/ This land is more joyful land ( The valley in spring ); sometimes recreating the atmosphere of the days when young men and women of the Tay ethnic group went to fight against the enemy: The boys of Ky village/ Sing again/ Songs to liberate the South/ Songs to give flintlock guns to the girls who work hard/ Songs to call the moon to rise with the scent of lotus and young rice/ Harmonizing with the sound of birds carved on the floor ( In the middle of the young rice season )...

Some Tay ethnic poets such as Y Phuong, Mai Lieu, Duong Thuan, Luong Dinh, Dinh Thi Mai Lan... show their efforts to harmonize and combine national and traditional elements with modern colors in their expressive tone, especially conscious of preserving the musicality of poetry. In Tay ethnic poetry from 1945 to the present, free verse in prose style is quite rich. It breaks the outer shell of form to reach the inner unity of emotions. The expansion of free verse contains many meanings: I leave the Sli verse/ I leave the Luon verse/ I leave my shirt/ I don't wash the gutter water/ I don't make sticky rice/ The "a oi" verse falls under the floor/ Scattered/ I go... ( Okay, I just go - Hoang Chien Thang).

It can be seen that the very early movements more than half a century ago have demonstrated the undeniable successes of Tay ethnic poetry with the richness of genres, from old styles to new experiments, from short poems to long genres such as epics; the diversity of language and tone: from the typical simplicity and rusticity to new innovations... Although sometimes it leaves a strong impression, sometimes it is just an unfinished experiment, but what needs to be affirmed is the uniqueness and prominence of Tay ethnic poetry compared to other ethnic minorities, partly due to the flexibility and innovative efforts of all four generations of authors in exploring the form of expression.

3.3. Some typical poetic symbols

3.3.1. Poetic symbols

National history begins with the formation of a culture, but not every culture has a strong national identity. French anthropologist

Claude Lévi Strauss said: “One cannot decide where to go if one does not first know where one comes from” [45, p.282]. The contribution of an artist is not to describe the national culture, the important thing is that they must stand from within their national culture to reach high, go far to new perceptions. The study of each culture needs to attach importance to the study of symbols because symbols are the “basic unit” of culture and culture is a set of systems of symbols.

There are many ways to define symbols, according to the Vietnamese Dictionary : Symbol is "a form of perception, higher than sensation, giving us an image of an object that remains in our mind after the impact of the object on the senses has ended" [70, p.67]. A symbol is a message-like object used to indicate something outside of it, according to a conventional relationship between the object in the message and the object outside. In other words, a symbol is something visible that carries a convention, a sign that leads us to something invisible; Doan Van Chuc believes that a symbol is "a medium that helps us perceive the imperceptible" [22, p.67]. According to the Dictionary of World Cultural Symbols , a symbol "reveals the mysteries of the unconscious, of action, opens up the mind about the unknown and the infinite" [19, p.VIII]. A symbol carries a specific meaning that is recognized by members of a culture. When mentioning that symbol, people will think of that nation, that land, that cultural region and vice versa. For example, when talking about Vietnamese culture, we cannot forget the One Pillar Pagoda, the Temple of Literature, the Ao Dai, the lotus flower, the betel box, the Chung cake... Symbols are always associated with the culture of the ethnic group and the land because the process of symbolization (the process of comparing and associating between the expression and the expressed) is influenced by the natural environment and social circumstances. The role of symbols in the spiritual life of each person is extremely important. Symbols "make children and people feel that they are not lonely and lost creatures in the large surrounding group" or "Symbols express a reality that meets many needs for awareness, love and peace" [19, p.587], because "resisting symbols is to cripple a part of oneself, impoverishing the whole of nature; and under the mechanism of realism, flee the most authentic call to a full life.

A world without symbols would suffocate: it would instantly kill the spiritual life of man” [29].

When examining a poetic work, understanding the meaning of symbols is an important task. It helps to better understand the message conveyed, to discover the hidden spiritual world inside, the cultural sediments... Unlike cultural symbols, according to Hegel, poetic symbols can possess all real phenomena, dissolve into the inner feelings and nature of things to create an indivisible whole. As Jean Chevalier said: "It is not enough to say that we live in a world of symbols, we must say that a world of symbols lives in us" [19, p.XIV]. However, poetic symbols do not coincide with cultural symbols but are reconstructed through artistic signals, which are words. At this time, in a linguistic text/poetic work, the cultural symbol will act as the "original model" to enrich the meanings of the poetic symbol - the characteristic meaning of the cultural symbol is preserved and the derivative meaning after being perceived.

We chose to examine symbols in modern Tay poetry with the aim of finding the connection between the meaning of cultural symbols that have existed in the Tay people's consciousness and the meaning of preservation/change in modern poetic works.

The Tay people have a deep religious culture since the early period, continuing to develop according to dynamic trends until the present. The symbolic system of the Tay culture is extremely rich. The origin of the Tay ethnic symbolic system is formed from the following four main causes: originating from ancient customs, practices, and folk beliefs ( Mother Hoa, Lady Hai, kitchen fire, Phac Phien flower ...); symbols originating from folk compositions as well as famous written works ( Tai Ngao, Nguu Lang - Chuc Nu, Tu Ma - Van Quan, Ba Nha - Tu Ky ...); symbols originating from spiritual and cultural life ( tinh lute, then singing, scarf, bridge ...); symbols originating from images associated with daily life ( stone, rice plant, horse, indigo shirt, lamp ...). Besides, there are symbols that are similar and have many similarities with other ethnic groups and the Kinh people such as mountains - rivers, banyan trees - ferry - communal house yard, fish - water, butterflies - flowers ...

The survey of Tay folk literature genres, which are quite diverse in genre and rich in number of works, shows a unique point that the symbols that have been associated with the Tay ethnic life all appear densely in folk works. There is no contradiction or negation of each other in terms of expressive meaning. Especially in Tay folk songs, a typical genre of folk works, symbols/pairs of symbols appear with high frequency. In such a massive and rich "treasure" of cultural symbols of the Tay ethnic group, we have selected some typical symbols: Mother Flower, rice, Tinh lute, horse . Surveying the development and transformation of those symbols in Tay poetry in the modern period to see how the culture is absorbed and inherited in the face of the "invasion" of modern civilization.

3.3.2. Symbolic system in Tay poetry from 1945 to present

We selected representative figures for each stage of development of Tay ethnic poetry to examine, but focused more on contemporary Tay poetry, with the aim of seeing more clearly the transformation of symbols in the current stage. Since the first collection of poems by Nong Quoc Chan was published in 1948, modern Tay poetry has developed for more than 60 years. That is a relatively long period of time for exploration and affirmation. The important thing that creates value for those works is that, in addition to the awareness of preserving national identity, there is also innovation, exploration, and renewal according to the requirements of modernization; thereby creating a unique appearance for Tay ethnic poetry.

Symbols belong to both content and form. When symbols express certain meanings, they belong to the expressed content; but the subjective intention of the poet when using symbols to express hidden meanings brings aesthetic effects to the work. Besides finding the layers of expressive meaning of symbols, we also focus on studying how to build symbols in the work. They are still symbols in the folk consciousness such as mother Hoa, lute, rice, horse , but the way each poet uses them in his work brings interesting interpretations.

3.3.2.1. Mother Flower Symbol

Mother Hoa (different names for Mother Hoa: me Va - me Bjooc - me Hoa - me Mu) in the Tay people's concept is the guardian deity, taking care of the spiritual world.

for humans. Mother Hoa has the power to bestow flowers to give birth to sons and daughters. When couples have been married for a long time but have not had children, they hold a ceremony to pray to Mother Hoa for children, called the flower praying ceremony. Each Tay family sets up an altar for Mother Hoa with many related rituals corresponding to each stage of life. After a long time, the custom of worshiping Mother Hoa is still maintained by the Tay people and Mother Hoa has become a symbol with sacred meanings in the spiritual life of the Tay people.

For the Tay people from the beginning until now, the custom of worshiping the Flower Mother has always been an important ritual. It originates from the tradition of respecting and honoring the mother of fertility. The Tay people believe that the Flower Mother in heaven is the biological mother, while the mother on earth is only the one who receives the Flower Mother's orders to give birth to children. On the Tay people's altar, the incense bowl to worship Me Bjoóc (the Flower Mother) is placed on the same level as the incense bowl to worship ancestors. Since ancient times, the Tay people have believed that "sons and daughters are the fruits of the Muong". Whether a family has many children or few children, people believe that it is because the Flower Mother in the Muong above (in heaven) has not known or has not yet blessed the family, or because the Flower Mother is angry and does not share her children with her. The inheritance of the Flower Mother is A garden of golden flowers giving birth to a son and a garden of silver flowers giving birth to a daughter . Every life and fate is decided by Mother Hoa: Me Bjoóc pan na me va pan hau (Mother Hoa gives birth, Mother Hoa puts it back).

In modern times, the worship of Mother Hoa still retains its own unique features, however, the intensity of the worship varies considerably depending on the place and family. According to our survey, Tay families in Cao Bang, Bac Kan, and Lang Son still preserve the worship of Mother Hoa, although the rituals are simpler than before. The place where this worship is most strongly preserved is Cao Bang. Most Tay families in Cao Bang still keep an altar for Mother Hoa in their home as a place to place their absolute faith and hope in the goddess who gives birth and governs all living things. Y Phuong once said, “For the Tay people, that sacred magic is the tears of the mother. Those tears make the children who unintentionally or intentionally commit crimes dig, scrape, pull, and tear their own intestines… Since ancient times, the Tay people have had the worship of mother. It originates from the tradition of respecting the person who gave birth to them. In some places, they built temples to worship the Moon Goddess, the symbolic image of the mother. The Tay people call whatever is most precious mother. Mother Water, Mother Rice, Mother Letters, Mother Flowers, Mother Moon... But money is never

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