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Poet Anh Ngọc's contemplation on the poem Tây Tiến reads: 'So beautifully written that even we wonder if it's modern enough?'
Sample essay by Poet Anh Ngọc on the poem Tây Tiến: 'So beautifully written that even we wonder if it's modern enough?'
Assignment
1. The Role of Tây Tiến in Resistance Poetry and Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry
1.1. The Genesis of 'Tây Tiến'
- In the initial years of the resistance, there were numerous challenges, hardships, and many novel and unfamiliar aspects.
- Emerging poets joining the resistance are either in the process of adaptation or have just stepped onto the path of struggle. They produce poetry, but in small quantities, their emotions yet to align with the thoughts of poets like Xuân Diệu, Huy Cận, Chế Lan Viên...
- Young poets who grew up amidst the resistance are still few in number. While their emotions surge with novelty, their artistic prowess remains fledgling. Thus, the poetry of the early resistance years is scarce, mostly imbued with propagandistic tones.
1.2. The Case of Quang Dũng
- Despite engaging in poetry before 1945, he wasn't considered a new poet.
- Quang Dũng: a cultured youth from Hanoi, elegant, and romantic.
- Quang Dũng swiftly and fervently integrated into revolutionary life and resistance: participating in the revolution since August 1945, joining the military, volunteering for the Tây Tiến battalion...
Quang Dũng isn't an exceptional case, but he wasn't the most prolific in terms of talent during those years.
1.3. The poem 'Tây Tiến'
Firstly, it's the sentimental singing of an individual - a persona, yet that individual merges with the crowd on the paths of resistance. Thus, the poem carries the unique essence of an individual mood, both a lament and a sentiment - of those individuals in a new situation.
All these shared and personal circumstances have bestowed upon Tây Tiến a distinct, irreplaceable position in Vietnamese poetry.
The irreplaceable nature of Tây Tiến is focused on two values (classic, modern) as highlighted by poet Anh Ngọc.
2. Tây Tiến - the 'classic' poem
2.1. Understanding the Term 'Classic'
- Classic refers to works typically authored by saints or historical records. It also commonly denotes religious texts or documents serving as a model for a theory or ideology.
- Here, it's understood as exemplary works, possessing timeless values and having absorbed the artistic elements of national poetry.
2.2. The Classic Nature of Tây Tiến Manifests in the Following Aspects:
- Exemplary in portraying the portrait of the Tây Tiến soldiers. Alongside the image of the warrior in ancient literature (from Trần Quốc Tuấn, Phạm Ngũ Lão, Nguyễn Trãi, Đặng Trần Côn... to Thâm Tâm, Trần Huyền Trân...), the Tây Tiến soldiers emerge magnificently, exuding the grandeur of a bygone era.
- Exemplary in expressing inner feelings: relentless longing, profound agony, and heartfelt praises.
- Exemplary in employing classical artistic techniques: depicting scenes, emotions, and characters with more depth, akin to poetry with music and painting.
- Exemplary in the use of classical artistic forms of medieval poetry: lamentation, symbolism, exhortation; poetic forms; rhythm.
3. Tây Tiến - A Modern Poem
3.1. Understanding 'modern' - What does 'modern' mean?
In Anh Ngọc's usage, 'modern' refers to the new values of today.
3.2. Tây Tiến - The Melody of Human Sentiment in the New Era:
- Individuals: Quang Dũng refers to the most representative individuals of that time: the soldiers (Tây Tiến battalion with shaved heads).
- Era: fighting to defend the Motherland (The battlefield spares no green life).
- Emotions: Soldiers' emotions vary with many shades, many sorrows, but most importantly, the willingness to sacrifice for the Motherland.
3.3. The Freshness of Old Artistic Standards
- Tây Tiến embodies the richness of epic poetry, yet it is not an epic poem.
- Tây Tiến employs many classical artistic techniques, yet it is not ancient poetry.
In other words, it modernizes values with classical essence.
4. Conclusion
- Tây Tiến is a modern poem with classical values.
- Tây Tiến represents the sentiment of Quang Dũng and the soulful melody of an entire generation during the most heroic years of history.
The combination of these elements has made Tây Tiến a magnificent poem, as admired and enthralled by poet Anh Ngọc.
Besides, Poet Anh Ngọc once wrote about the poem Tây Tiến: 'So well-written that we... modern enough even for us?' students should further explore other contents such as Interpreting the following excerpt: 'Tây Tiến battalion with shaven heads... Dreaming of Hanoi's elegant figure in the night' or Appreciating the beauty of the following excerpt in the poem Tây Tiến: 'The camp... sways gently' to reinforce their knowledge.
