Analyzing the romantic self in the Trang River poem

Assignment: Based on the Trang River work studied and your understanding of the work, please analyze the romantic self in the Trang River poem.

Analyzing the romantic self in the Trang River poem
 

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I. Outline Analyzing the romantic self in the Trang River poem

1. Introduction

Before the revolution, Huy Can's poetry encapsulates the profound sadness and vastness of a romantic self lost and adrift amidst tumultuous times. The melancholic romantic self, filled with haunting echoes of that space, vividly emerges in the poem Trang River.

2. Introduction

* Author, work:

Huy Can (1919-2005), born as Cu Huy Can, was not only a seasoned politician with years of involvement in the state machinery but also an outstanding poet of the New Poetry movement. Some notable works reflecting Huy Can's poetic soul include the volumes Sacred Fire, Ode to the Universe, and Every Day the Sky Shines Anew. Trang River, excerpted from Sacred Fire, draws inspiration from the vast waves of the Red River combined with a profoundly sorrowful, emotionally rich romantic self, blending the classical essence of Tang Dynasty poetry with the modernity of French literature...(Continued)

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II. Exemplary Essay Analysis of the romantic self in the poem Trang River

Within the modern poetry movement and in Vietnamese contemporary literature, both Xuân Diệu and Huy Cận stand as prominent poets, leading figures who have made significant contributions to the country's literary scene. These two poets were close friends, to the extent of deep understanding and camaraderie, yet each harbored their own obsessions, their own contemplations about life. While Xuân Diệu's lifetime of poetry carried a preoccupation with time, earnestly embracing a fervent love for a vibrant, passionate life, Huy Cận in the years before the revolution often carried an obsession with space, with a soul that was multifaceted, emotionally rich. His poetry always contains the profound sadness and vastness of a romantic self lost and adrift amidst tumultuous times. And this romantic self, filled with melancholy, haunted by space, becomes distinctly apparent in the poem Trang River, a poem that propelled Huy Cận's name into the limelight as one of the exemplary faces of the new poetry movement from 1932 to 1941.

Huy Cận (1919-2005), born Cù Huy Cận, was not only a seasoned politician with years of involvement in the state machinery but also an outstanding poet of the New Poetry movement. Before the Revolution, his poetry, though beautiful, often carried the indeterminate, poignant sorrows of a romantic self filled with existential anguish amidst the vastness of the world, sorrows for human life, for existence, sorrows for the chaotic, complex scenes of the country, the poet's helplessness. After the revolution, his poetry seemed to undergo a rejuvenation, becoming cheerful, optimistic, praising the beauty of the homeland, the country, its people, and still focusing more on the vast, expansive beauty of nature. Some notable works reflecting Huy Cận's poetic soul include the volumes Sacred Fire, Ode to the Universe, and Every Day the Sky Shines Anew.

Trang River, excerpted from the volume Sacred Fire, draws inspiration from the vast waves of the Red River combined with a deeply sorrowful, emotionally rich romantic self, blending the classical essence of Tang Dynasty poetry with the modernity of French literature, marking the poet's style amidst a forest of contemporary poets. It also reveals the poet's hidden feelings about life, about being solitary and lost amidst the tumultuous flow of life, thus expressing a silent, profound love for the homeland, the country, deeply.

Without delving deeply into understanding the poem, we can easily perceive that the romantic self in the work is a self full of lonely loneliness, the soul of a small person, a young man but with much sorrow, much emotion when faced with the vastness of nature, facing the Red River's vast waves, the expansive sky, but the scenery is too sparse. The title 'Trang River' with the echoing tone of the phoneme 'ang', extending and expanding into the vast space of the river, the vast universe, and the cold, desolate in the author's soul. Moreover, the romantic self of the author is also expressed in the use of words, the title 'Trang River' is a Sino-Vietnamese word, carrying a classical tone, emphasizing the poet's sorrow, solitude, reminiscing about the past with the depth of thousands of years of glorious history, easily evoking the contemporary intellectual's melancholy about the times. Huy Can not only names the Red River as the source of inspiration, but simply calls it 'Trang River', seemingly encompassing all the rivers flowing on the S-shaped land. Similarly, the author's sentiments and thoughts are also the common sentiments of the youth generation of Vietnam at that time, that is the mood of those who live amidst the beloved homeland, but always feel lost, lonely, because of a helpless pain before the times, before the pain of a lost country.

The prelude phrase 'In the vast sky, I miss the long river' combined with the title has already hinted at the content and dominant emotions of the poem, writing about a vast space with the scope of the universe, the width of the sky, the endless length of the river, and the distant gap between heaven and water. From there, the individual self in that space becomes clear, arousing vague emotions, indefinite memories of a lonely poet's soul, lost amidst the vast, boundless earth, before the coldness that rivers and water bring.

'Waves ripple, Trang River mourns deeply,
The boat sails along the water's surface.
Returning to the water, sorrow in a hundred directions;
A dry branch drifts along a few currents.'

The sorrow within the poet's heart is not confined solely to the soul but, in the eyes of the author, has spread throughout every scene like verses penned by Nguyễn Du for his ill-fated Kiều, stating, 'No joy can be found in such a sad plight.' Huy Cận, too, with his melancholic and solitary gaze upon the vast river, tinges the river with a hue of melancholy akin to the poet's own soul. It's not a crisis of sorrow, but rather a silent, light sorrow akin to the ripples on the surface of Trang River, a sorrow that is cyclical, entangled without escape. The presence of the boat, the flowing water, paints a classical hue that often appears in ancient poetry, yet readers seem to glimpse a new vitality amidst the vast river. For so long, the boat and water have always been a harmonious pair, water pushing the boat, the boat following the water 'in parallel', quite harmoniously. But the image of the boat, water in Huy Cận's poetry is no longer as tranquil, instead it carries a sense of separation; the boat and water still move 'in parallel', but they are two entities moving in opposite directions, difficult to reunite. The boat is lonely, the water is solitary, on the vast river, the water's vastness becomes a 'sorrow in a hundred directions'. The image of 'A single dry branch drifting along a few currents', different from the classical imagery of boat - water, carries within it new, modern elements, symbolizing the author's romantic self full of empathetic separation, loneliness. It also represents the fate of individuals in a situation of isolation, lost amidst the flow of life, where the boat and water each take their own paths, without harmony, without a hint of warmth or hope. The dry branch of Huy Cận floats aimlessly on the water's surface, devoid of any weight in life, gradually revealing the helpless pain before the times, the frustration of a life surrendered to the ebb and flow of worldly affairs, yet unable to find a way to resist the romantic self full of contemplation, sorrow.

Unable to find warmth from the river scenery, feeling only more lost and lonely, Huy Cận decides to seek that warmth in another, distant, broader scene.

'Lonely little islets, wind sighs,
Where distant villages echo through the evening market
Sun descends, sky rises steeply;
Long river, wide sky, desolate shores.'

But perhaps the poet's soul, disappointed greatly, finds no warmth at all, but rather brings about more desolation, as it is another space, even more desolate, even more deserted. From the phrase 'lonely little' comes a sense of extreme emptiness, uncertainty, and remoteness of the small, fleeting islets on the wide river, then a few gusts of wind 'sigh' only further increase the haunting, cold feeling in the poet's soul. Huy Cận also accentuates the desolate, desolate scene with the line 'Where distant villages echo through the evening market', as if the sad eyes had found joy, but not, because in reality it is not easy to hear the faint sounds from afar. However, the poet can still hear the echo of the evening market of the distant village, doesn't that prove that the surrounding space of the author is in an extremely quiet, desolate state, bordering on haunting? It turns out that the entire verse is an art of using movement to create stillness, using the small noise to evoke the extreme tranquility of space. And compared to the noise, the hustle and bustle of the distant village, during the evening market, the author himself feels even more lonely, because in this river space only the poet himself is aware of the existence of those people, how many other people out there know the existence of the poet, a person who is too lonely by the riverbank. Following that, the two lines 'Sun descends, sky rises steeply / Long river, wide sky, desolate shores' once again accentuate the vast space, emphasizing the distance between sky and land, river and shore, through unique and fresh juxtapositions, as if all things in the universe have become distant from each other, they are also solitary like the poet's solitary soul.

'Where do the water-ferns drift, one row after another;
Endless, not a single ferry crosses.
No desire to evoke any intimacy,
Silently, the green shore meets the golden bank.'

By the third stanza, the loneliness and chill in the author's soul become even stronger and deeper. We continue to see a classical motif appearing, that is the image of 'water-ferns', yet the water-ferns in his poetry are not just the fleeting, unstable lives of humans, but here they are similar to the image of dry branches, also carrying a light, drifting fate, floating regardless of the rushing water, unable to determine the final destination of life, just like the solitary, lost soul of the poet before the turbulent flow of life. Casting his eyes across the waves of the river, Huy Cận only hopes to see the shadow of a 'ferry crossing', but none appear, the entire stretch of river is vast, yet only the author is solitary, amplifying the sense of desolation. The natural scenery remains cold, devoid of warmth, without a hint of intimacy, only a vast space spreading endlessly, pulling along the author's soul full of worry, quietly gazing at the 'green shore meeting the golden bank', utterly devoid of any other scenery, extremely dreary, incredibly dull sadness.

'Layers of clouds high, embracing silver mountains,
Birds tilt their wings small: shadows of the evening fall.
The countryside flutters with the stream,
Even without the sunset smoke, it remembers home.'

By the final stanza, the vastness of the universe continues to expand with the image of clouds and mountains, once again a grand, majestic natural scene, with layers of clouds piled up embracing the tall, silver mountains, forming a magnificent panorama of 'high clouds embracing silver mountains'. And amidst such a beautiful, vast scene, suddenly appears a small, lonely bird, tilting its wings against the 'shadows of the evening fall' engraved in the backdrop of the sky, the vast mountains. The bird is also a very familiar classical motif, a lonely, solitary little bird flapping its wings in the vast expanse of the universe, but still unable to find a small branch to perch on, perhaps the bird is tired, perhaps this bird has been lonely to the extreme. And at the extreme of the poet's loneliness, the romantic self gradually turns towards the deep longing for the homeland, 'The countryside flutters with the stream / Even without the sunset smoke, it remembers home', the deep, earnest longing does not need the 'sunset smoke' to overflow in Huy Cận's poetry. Pondering deeply, the poet standing on the homeland soil yet bears the sorrow, the nostalgia for the homeland, from which we realize that deep within lies the shared sorrow of an entire generation, the sorrow of a lost country, the thought of a homeland of thousands of years of heroic civilization now becoming a slave country, in turmoil. The poet reflects and feels more and more painful, despondent, feeling like giving up in helplessness before the era.