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Prompt: Analyze the image of the sandy beach and the person walking on it to understand Cao Bá Quát's ambivalent mood
Essay:
Sample 1:
The author Cao Bá Quát is a renowned poet with talent and charisma, one of his most representative works being Sa hành đoản ca (A short poem walking on the sandy beach). This is a poem with many profound symbolic meanings, reflecting the poet's disgust towards the contemporary situation.
Cao Bá Quát (1809-1855), whose real name is Chu Thần, pen name Cúc Đường Mẫn Hiên, was born in Phú Thị village, Gia Lâm district, Bắc Ninh province, into a family with a scholarly tradition. As a child, Cao Bá Quát was famous for his intelligence and participated in the imperial examinations at an early age, but faced setbacks. He only passed the bachelor's degree exam at the age of 23, and for the next 9 years, he persistently pursued the provincial exams but did not pass. At the age of 34, he was appointed to some minor official positions. However, due to his liberal nature, he suffered many serious consequences. Cao Bá Quát's character can be summed up in two words: talent and charisma, due to his extensive knowledge, beautiful handwriting, free-spirited nature, and a personality always seeking to change the backward and outdated society. He produced a huge number of works, but most of them were destroyed. The content of his works consistently criticized the stagnant and conservative feudal regime, reflecting innovative ideas with a spontaneous nature.
The poem Sa hành đoản ca is the clearest evidence of the two aforementioned contents, composed during one of Cao Bá Quát's journeys through the central provinces to Huế for the imperial examinations. The poem is written in the style of free verse, without the constraints of rhyme, with a specific number of lines and characters.
The poem begins with the image of a long sandy beach, as depicted in the opening line:
'A long sandy beach stretches endlessly'
The author has employed various artistic techniques, including the repetition of the phrase 'sandy beach' combined with the adjective 'long,' creating an impression of the vast, endless expanse of the beach. The use of the word 'again' evokes a sense of continuity, repetition. This suggests to the reader an image of a sandy beach resembling a dry, barren desert stretching far away, with no stopping point. That long sandy beach is also the end of the road, as shown in the two lines near the end of the poem:
'To the north, Mount North with countless peaks
To the south, Mount South with endless waves'
The vast sandy beach is surrounded by 'countless mountains' and 'endless waves', ultimately becoming a dead end for those walking on it. This imagery of the long sandy beach and this dead-end road serves both as a realistic depiction of the path the author took to the imperial capital of Hue to participate in the Examination, and as a symbol of the arduous path of life, a path of career full of deadlock, and also the path of progress without an exit for contemporary intellectuals, including the author.
In addition to the image of the sandy beach, the poem focuses mainly on the image of the traveler and Cao Bá Quát's frustration. This is clearly shown in the opening lines:
'A long sandy beach stretches endlessly,
One step forward is like one step back.
The sun has set, but cannot stop,
The traveler on the road sheds tears.
Unable to learn the elders' sleeping secret,
Climbing mountains, crossing streams, anger not yet diminished!'
The journey on the sandy beach is indeed very difficult, wherever you step, the sand sinks under your feet, heavy, difficult, even though you are stepping forward but it seems like you are going backward. Furthermore, when the sun sets, everything in the mountains has rested, only the traveler on the sandy beach still has to continue to advance without stopping, because this road is too difficult, they have to make the most of their time to quickly escape from the seemingly hopeless and exhausting scenery, which makes people feel discouraged. Because of the exhaustion in that difficult journey, the traveler has expressed their feelings, first of all, in the image of 'tears falling bitterly', showing the extreme bitterness and misery of the traveler on the extremely arduous and remote path. The phrase 'when will we end our resentment' is a question emphasizing the anger, frustration, and weariness when having to endure on the long and seemingly endless path, which never seems to end.
In the following lines, the author continues to express his perception of the pursuit of fame and fortune:
'Throughout history, pursuing fame and fortune,
All along life's journey.
The wind carries the fragrance of wine to the tavern,
Countless are drunk, how many are sober?'
Cao Bá Quát realizes that, fame and fortune are the same, and those who pursue fame and fortune are the 'phường danh lợi', the author's attitude here is one of mockery and disdain. Furthermore, fame and fortune are also like wine, with a tempting and intoxicating taste, so the author refers to those who pursue fame and fortune as being intoxicated by the wine, not sober, not aware of what they are doing, showing a critical attitude towards those who pursue fame and fortune. Cao Bá Quát expressed a critical attitude, disdainful of the meaningless path of pursuing fame and fortune, while also criticizing himself as one of those deluded people.
After all these realizations, Cao Bá Quát comes to a conclusion for himself:
'Oh long sandy beach,
How do you calculate? The road is blurry,
There are many terrifying roads, not a few?
Listen to me sing the song of the 'dead-end road',
To the north the mountain Bac, mountains upon mountains,
To the south the mountain Nam, waves surging.
Why do you stand idle on the sandy beach?'
'How do you calculate?' is the author's self-awakening question, to make a decisive choice, then the final question in the poem is the author's answer 'Why do you still stand idle on the sandy beach?', where fame and fortune are full of troubles, blurry, is the final road of the righteous, is it still worth pursuing, the author has urged himself to leave that place, to escape from the deadlock, the hardships like that endless sandy beach.
The poem Sa hành đoản ca expresses disgust for the blurry, deadlock road of contemporary society, while expressing the desire to change life, to step out of that tedious circle. The form of free verse has excellently demonstrated Cao Bá Quát's open-mindedness, personality, and love for freedom in understanding his own path of fame and fortune full of hardship, for himself and for contemporary righteous people.
Sample Poem 2:
Cao Bá Quát is a renowned poet in Vietnamese literature, known for his talent and charisma. He has composed many poems and writings in both Chinese and Nom scripts. However, most of his works have been lost over the years, with only a few remaining. Among them, the poem Sa hành đoản ca stands out as a work that showcases his talent and charisma. It conveys a deep symbolic meaning, reflecting the poet's disillusionment with the complexities and rigid structures of ancient feudal society.
The poem features two main images: the image of the sandy beach and the image of a person walking on the sandy beach. It begins with the image of the sandy beach as follows:
'Oh long sandy beach,
How do you calculate? The road is blurry,
There are many terrifying roads, not a few?
Listen to me sing the song of the 'dead-end road',
To the north the mountain Bac, mountains upon mountains,
To the south the mountain Nam, waves surging.
Why do you stand idle on the sandy beach?'
One can imagine an endless expanse of golden sand, stretching from one end to the other, seemingly without a stopping point. Standing on it, one cannot see the starting point, nor the end, giving the impression of a desert, dry and barren, instilling a sense of helplessness and constant disillusionment. Particularly striking is the image of footsteps on the sand 'Going one step forward, like going one step back', clearly indicating that while the feet are steadily moving forward, the author feels as if they are stepping back, with each step becoming heavier, the sandy beach becoming longer, and the distance to escape from the sandy beach becoming more distant.
Not only the endless sandy beach, but also the surrounding scenery contributes significantly to making the already long and desolate sandy beach become a dead-end road in the eyes of the traveler. This is reflected in the closing lines of the poem:
'Listen to me sing the song of the 'dead-end road',
To the north the mountain Bac, mountains upon mountains,
To the south the mountain Nam, waves surging.'
In Cao Bá Quát's description, the sandy beach seems to be surrounded by 'mountains upon mountains' on one side and the sea with 'waves surging' on the other. These two scenes sandwich the traveler in the middle of a vast expanse of golden sand, with no stopping point, forcing the traveler to continue, as there is no way out here. But what do we see when we move forward? Only endless sandy beaches, just like the 'dead-end road' in Cao Bá Quát's song. These images partly depict the real scene of the road to Hue to participate in the Hội exam, taking Cao Bá Quát's fame, when he had to pass through the central provinces, with white sand touching his soul. But more profound than that is the symbolic meaning that the poet sends into the sandy beach, which is the path of fame full of hardships, deadlocks, and obscurities of the contemporaries, but they still have to walk on the advancing road that seems to be retreating.
The image of the sandy beach is like that, but the image of the person walking on the sandy beach gives us even deeper symbolic insights.
'The long sandy beach, once more the long sandy beach,
One step forward, it seems like one step back.
The sun has set, yet not able to stop,
The traveler on the road sheds tears.
Unable to learn the ancient art of sleeping,
Climbing mountains, crossing streams, anger unceasing!'
Reading the poem, we see that after the endless image of the sandy beach, there is the image of the person walking on the sandy beach. Each step sinks into the sand, appearing to advance like a retreat, extremely difficult and painful. Although it is extremely difficult and exhausting, the traveler dare not stop even though the sun has set, when humans and nature begin to rest. Ultimately, on such a vast, desolate stretch of sand, people feel lonely accompanied by fear, fear of the misty space not knowing the way out. Therefore, no matter how difficult and painful it is, they must try their best to escape from that endless expanse of white sand, to escape from the sense of confusion surrounding them. The hardship of walking on the sand can only be understood by those who walk on it, and through the line 'The traveler on the road sheds tears,' we feel that even more deeply. How difficult must it be, that one sheds tears, perhaps even mixing with sweat. Those are bitter tears, even the poet's indignation. Cao Bá Quát is resentful of having to walk such a difficult path, yet he also does not learn how to walk and sleep at the same time to lessen the hardship, he has to strain himself to experience the suffering of walking on sand. Angry, very angry! Where can he vent all his anger!
Going through the verses about walking on the sand, we encounter verses about the poet's perception of the path to fame in this backward and clumsy society.
'Throughout history, the pursuit of fame and gain,
Everything in life's journey.
The wind's head is slightly fragrant with the tavern's wine,
Countless people are intoxicated, how many are sober?'
Cao Bá Quát has a very clever implied comparison, the poet believes that those who pursue fame and fortune are nothing more than 'phường danh lợi', meaning they take the imperial exams ultimately just for a bit of fame, a bit of ordinary profit, no different from various types of street vendors or singers, all the same. The contempt is clearly evident in the characters. For Cao Bá Quát, fame is a strong wine, smelling seemingly delicious, intoxicating many people, they are busy chasing after it, to enjoy it for a moment. Then the consequence is that people keep busy sipping that 'fame' wine, some cannot wake up, some do not want to wake up, and others, like Cao Bá Quát, eventually wake up after being drunk for a long time. He criticizes those who are obsessed with fame and fortune without realizing the consequences of their actions, whether it is worth it or not, and also self-criticizes himself. Cao Bá Quát also once obsessed with the so-called 'fame', he also kept passing the white sand 9 times to go to Huế for the exams. Finally, standing amidst a desert of sand, the poet woke up from his stupor, to ask a deeply poignant question.
'Why do you still stand on the sandy beach?'
It is a question full of confusion, directionless, and also a questioning of one's own obsession. The poet is urging himself to step out of that vague, difficult place, a place that is no longer worth the pursuit of noble knights like him.
The poem Sa hành đoản ca is a great poem with many symbolic meanings. Firstly, it is Cao Bá Quát's insightful view of the path to fame that many knights have been pursuing for so long. It is an endless, arduous, and bitter path, the result of which is only mundane fame, not worth pursuing further. The poem also expresses the desire to change life, to step out of that tedious path, to walk a new, better path.
The poem Short Poem Walking on the Sand Dune is a famous work by Cao Bá Quát. In addition to the essay Analyzing the Image of the Sand Dune and the Person Walking on the Sand Dune to see the conflicted feelings of Cao Bá Quát, students and teachers can refer to other sample essays such as Appreciating Short Poem Walking on the Sand Dune, About the True Personality of Confucian Scholars in Short Poem Walking on the Sand Dune, Analyzing the poem Short Poem Walking on the Sand Dune, Analyzing the Image of the Sand Dune and the Person Walking on the Sand Dune to see the conflicted feelings of Cao Bá Quát, or even the part Composing Short Poem Walking on the Sand Dune.
