The first verse is written when the campaign begins. And when the chapter changes, the campaign moves to a new phase. In the military, the commander's mistake in a battle can sometimes lead to the failure of the entire campaign. The poet's mistake when writing a chapter of a long poem can also lead to the failure of the entire long poem " [44, pp. 263-264]. Therefore, in any long poem, according to Nguyen Trong Tao, it requires the writer's strictness in structure, ability and writing power.
Because the capacity of each epic is quite large, Nguyen Trong Tao believes that if lyric poetry is the poet's one-way emotions, then in epic poetry, there needs to be: " diversity of soul, and its author must maintain emotions throughout the long journey to complete the work" [44, p. 264] . Thanks to that, epic authors will create in the space of their epic poems rich and diverse emotional veins. When emotions are silently compressed, when they are strongly surged into peaks in the human soul as well as in the entire work. Only then will the attraction and impression leave a mark in the hearts of readers.
While many epic poems written about the theme of war have had certain successes, Nguyen Trong Tao still noted: " The most important thing in an epic poem is not what it is about, but how it reflects the spirit of that thing " [44, p. 266]. Therefore, when writing an epic poem, the writer should not worry about whether the scope of the topic is broad or narrow, but should delve into the writing style and content reflected in the work.
Thus, based on the general characteristics of the epic genre, with his own interpretations, Nguyen Trong Tao has put forward conceptual opinions about a genre that has been flourishing on the journey of modern Vietnamese literature. Issues related to content and form as well as the talent of the writer are summarized and explained accurately by Nguyen Trong Tao, becoming important theoretical issues for those who compose and research epics.
Chapter 2
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AESTHETIC OBJECTS IN NGUYEN TRONG TAO'S LONG POEMS
With deep inspiration for the people, the country and contemplations about the great national war, Nguyen Trong Tao created in two epic poems, The Soldier's Love Song and The Road of the Stars, symbolic images of the reality of war, the fate of the nation and the belief in the country's victory. He devoted much effort to each image because according to the poet: " An epic poem must reflect historical events of great significance and illuminate the lives of the people in all their diversity" [44, p.262].
2.1. Image of the soldier
The soldier is a consistent image in Vietnamese literature during the resistance period. With that common inspiration, Nguyen Trong Tao built in the two long poems Tinh ca nguoi linh and Con duong cua nhung sao the image of a flesh-and-blood soldier, coming from poor hometowns, willing to voluntarily dedicate his youth to the country's long march.
2.1.1. Soldiers before the war of national defense
War is synonymous with pain, sacrifice and loss, something that literature rarely wrote about in the past. However, when the war has receded, that truth, that pain of the war still appears through obsession, through memory and the re-awareness of the appearance of the war that those who have experienced it cannot help but remember, cannot help but be shocked and hurt. Sharing the same inspiration, in the Long Song of the Division, Nguyen Duc Mau wrote: "Please do not deny the truth / We look at each other throughout our lives" (Long Song of the Division - Nguyen Duc Mau).
Nguyen Trong Tao composed two epic poems in the early 80s of the century, but the image of soldiers entering battle with pain and courage always comes alive in every page of the epic poem.
When the country is at war, the soldier has determined his life's mission. Entering the battle means entering the fierce place of death, the time of the war is endless: "I fought the enemy for three years / Seven years / Ten odd years" (Soldier's Love Song - No. 1).
War for three years, seven years, ten years or even longer. That is the reality that the soldier must go through, must determine to be determined and win. He can return when the battle ends, but the enemy is still not gone, so the soldier puts on his backpack and sets out again:
“You go with a gun in your hand again
…
you go again
Molded sandals with straps
The soldier ship was noisy with farewells.
(Soldier's Love Song - No. 3)
Facing war is facing pain, sacrifice and destruction because the enemy's guns are still watching the border day and night:
"The time bomb exploded, blackening the sky of Dong Loc.
burrow deep into the ground, death lurks in wait"
(The Way of the Stars)
On each march, soldiers must accept material shortages:
“With two bars of dry food a day
With the malaria of the rainy season, the forest returns”
(Soldier's Love Song - No. 2)
If Thu Bon describes the hardships of soldiers in the resistance war against America with many shortages: "The dry season battle
America/ Our army lacks food, lacks guns, and lacks people" (Thirsty Bazan - Thu Bon) , Huu Thinh depicts the image of a soldier in a malaria battle in the jungle : "The jungle cold twisted his lips purple " (The Road to the City - Huu Thinh), then the image of a soldier in Nguyen Trong Tao's epic poem appears realistic with many hardships, shortages and the rampage of diseases in the wild jungle and poisonous water:
"Many soldiers leaned against the trees when they had a fever, the forest shook, receiving the fever back to the forest"
(The Way of the Stars)
Long poems about war in general and Nguyen Trong Tao's long poems in particular do not avoid sacrifices. Especially, when writing about the image of soldiers with countless hardships when entering the war, the sacrifice of blood and bones is something that they all determined in advance, death is not a surprise to them:
"The soldier who returns could be you.
Could be another soldier How many could in war You could sacrifice
Maybe he's still alive...”
(Soldier's Love Song - No. 2)
On the fierce and fierce battlefield, soldiers are close to death, death to them is " light as a feather ":
“ But my dear, how many comrades
Lying with the country like rocks and trees in the forest When lying down, they believe in the day of victory
I believe the person I love is getting married!...”
(Soldier's Love Song - No. 1)
They lay down on the battlefield with their comrades, their teammates, lay down with the country, transformed into the shape of the country. When they lay down, they were steadfast.
believing in a day of victory, the country will be liberated. And perhaps, deep in their hearts, the soldiers remember their loved ones, the ones waiting for them in the rear.
War in its true sense, with its hardships, pain and immeasurable losses that soldiers must face, must be considered a very gentle and serene thing.
2.1.2. The soldier in battle
The resistance war against the American imperialists was a great obsession for any Vietnamese people. More than anyone else, the soldiers, the young men and women, could not stand by and watch the country sink into pain, sacrifice and loss. Thu Bon once portrayed that mentality of the young generation of Vietnam during the years of resistance against the American imperialists:
“ Oh enemy! A pack of barbarians, Don't you dare subdue me!
You intend to burn me into a kneeling coal
In the pink firelight we see a wreath of flowers.
(Song of the Chơrao bird - Thu Bon)
As an insider, someone who directly took up arms and engaged in the nation's resistance, delving into the stream of thoughts with very ordinary, simple but powerful thoughts, Nguyen Trong Tao's epic poems had a great evocative power when letting the soldier stand before the war, facing the war and the fate of the nation. Those were the very real emotions of the soldier that seemed unable to be restrained:
“Oh! Our Fatherland wants to cry forever After the fierce storm of war Blue sea hair embraces the shoulders of fertile land”
(The Way of the Stars)
From deep within the soldier's soul, the image of the Fatherland always urges and becomes a belief for them to be aware of their individual role and of the country's foundation.
people's independence
In the epic poem "Soldier's Love Song" , Nguyen Trong Tao felt about a country where war seemed to never end, as if it had stopped forever, as if it were the point of death for every person, every village, everywhere, every place:
“But war, war cannot stop War cannot stop
The liaison stations do not have enough trees to hang hammocks.
……..
The roads are filled with people and guns
……..
War seems to never stop
Like the rainy season that never knows when it will dry up"
(Soldier's Love Song No. 1)
The recurring refrain: “ But war, war can never stop” is like a painful obsession of the soldier about the country. The images of war appear clearly as a measure of the end of the unjust war: the liaison station, the two-story hammock, the three-story hammock… as a reality, as the numbers counting the level and eternity of the war. When will the pouring rain stop, when will the soldier not have to sleep standing up, when will the B.52 not sweep across the sky of the nation. Those are the feelings, the thoughts expressed in words of the soldier.
The Soldier's Love Song was written by Nguyen Trong Tao in 1983, a period when the resistance war against American imperialism had ended nearly 10 years ago, but the bitter, painful and chilling feelings deep in the soldier's soul were still intact:
"War
I feel cold sometimes
...Oh war! War I wanted to cry out
War-burned love letters
...You are so far away
The war is so long…”
(Soldier's Love Song - No. 1)
The country’s war path seemed endless. Countless love letters were burned on the front lines, countless soldiers felt their souls shiver, and the feeling of “ the road is very long ” became a constant obsession in both love and promises, and in every step on the arduous and fierce journeys.
Every inch of land, every patch of forest, every drop of blood and every step seemed to awaken the painful obsession of war. The soldier felt like he was lost in a forest that seemed to have no exit, no day and no night:
"You seem to call out in the middle of the vast dark sea. War is filled with the sound of falling bombs."
(Soldier's Love Song - No. 1)
The feeling of being lost in the vast darkness of the war sky and sea, of the screaming bombs, made the soldiers ask themselves: When will the war end? Will the march of decades never reach its destination? Those questions penetrated deep into their hearts, in every step, and left behind a painful obsession.
2.1.3. Ideals and journey to victory
The country is in pain, the soldiers are ready to go into dangerous places to protect every inch of land, every blade of grass of their homeland. A question arises, with so many hardships and sacrifices in war, what strength has become the fulcrum to urge the soldiers to move forward to destroy the enemy? Is that what the poet Tran Manh Hao wanted to say in the long poem Time ?
we love each other
“ Between you and me is something higher than death, Higher than life, we are the life of our species.”
(When We Loved Each Other - Tran Manh Hao)
When writing the two epic poems, Nguyen Trong Tao did not go into recounting events or feats, but the poet went deep into explaining the sacred things formed in the souls of soldiers. That is the revolutionary ideal, the beauty of the courage " to die for the Fatherland, to live ". In each epic poem, the strength and beauty of revolutionary heroism were exploited by the poet as an indispensable element when talking about the appearance of war and the beauty of the image of the soldier on the arduous march, the beauty of "Vietnam's posture carved into the century" (Le Anh Xuan).
Faced with the situation of the country being trampled by the enemy, gunfire resounded throughout the three regions:
" War like a fierce wind blew across the parallel
Northern blood has stained the Northern land"
(The Way of the Stars)
As young men and women full of vitality, soldiers cannot stand by and watch their country engulfed in fire and bullets:
“The days you carry with you
The whole body is full of energy…”
(Soldier's Love Song - No. 1)
If in Soldier's Love Song , the girls were good wives in the rear, then in The Road of the Stars , they became young volunteers who day and night cleared bombs and cleared the way for vehicles to the front line:
“The girl in brown shirt, round shoulders, wind blowing, full breasts, excited by the moonlight