Romantic Inspiration and Heroic Spirit in the Poem Tay Tien

2 Sample Essays on Romantic Inspiration and Heroic Spirit in the Poem Tay Tien

1. Romantic Inspiration and Heroic Spirit in the Poem Tay Tien, Sample 1:

Romantic inspiration manifests the emotional and imaginative self, vividly portrayed in Quang Dung's Tay Tien. It bursts forth at the beginning of the poem, intense and passionate in a strange 'nostalgia,' a clear stream throughout the poem. This self is present everywhere, lingering in each place, from the treacherous battlefield to the peaceful and poetic scenery, to a feast of colorful flowers in a distant land; from the longing for a Mai Chau village with rising smoke to a 'dreamy night of elegant fragrance in Hanoi.' The poet highlights the extraordinary, leaving a strong impression of grandeur, intensity, and dreamy beauty by employing contrasting techniques (for example, in two lines: A thousand fathoms high, a thousand fathoms down / whose Pha Luong house in the distant rain). Imagination soars, depicting a 'night breath,' feeling the majesty of the Mountain God, sensing the 'soul of the reed at the riverbank,' and hearing the sound of the 'Ma River roaring on its solitary journey.'

Gallant spirit is revealed in confronting adversity, often referencing death, but not as a tragic death, rather as a heroic, majestic death of soldiers entering the realm of immortality. The poem mentions death three times, and each death is beautiful, but the most beautiful is this elegant death:

Robes replacing the shroud guide him to the land
The Ma River roars in the solitary journey

Elegance arises from being wrapped in battle armor, reunited with the homeland, and most notably, orchestrated by nature into a fierce and majestic melody to bid farewell to the souls of the soldiers. Here, the intensified technique has elevated the heroic essence to its wondrous pinnacle.

The heroic essence defines the poetic beauty, present throughout the work, but most prominently evident in the third passage as Quang Dung depicts the portraits of Tay Tien soldiers, his comrades, in contrasting images: amidst a humble appearance with a 'ferocious tiger's demeanor,' between 'wide-open eyes sending dreams across the border' and a 'dreamy night in fragrant Hanoi,' and especially between the image of death scattered along the borderland graves with the strange idealism of soldiers 'on the battlefield, unregretful of their green lives!' With a departure like that, what does death mean to them?

2. Romantic Inspiration and Heroic Spirit in the Poem Tay Tien, Sample 2:

Poet Tran Le Van, a close friend who lived for many years and co-authored poems with Quang Dung, wrote about the circumstances of Quang Dung composing the poem: 'The Tay Tien army, after operating in Laos, returned to establish Battalion 52. Captain Quang Dung was there until the end of 1948, then transferred to another unit. Not long after leaving the old unit, sitting in Phu Luu Chanh (a village in the former Ha Dong province), he wrote the poem 'Tay Tien.''

To grasp the essence of the poem Tay Tien, one must first acquire knowledge about the Tay Tien army and its operational areas.

In the late spring of 1947, Quang Dung joined the Tay Tien army, a unit established in early 1947. Its mission was to coordinate with the Lao forces to protect the Laos-Vietnam border, engage and exhaust the enemy in Upper Laos to support resistance efforts in other regions of Laos. The operational area of the Tay Tien army was extensive, covering the mountainous regions of Northwest Vietnam and Upper Laos: from Chau Mai, Chau Moc, extending to Sam Nua, then circling back through western Thanh Hoa. These areas were still wild and treacherous at that time, with high mountains, deep rivers, dense forests, and numerous wild animals.

The majority of Tay Tien soldiers were young people from Hanoi, representing various social classes, including students (such as Quang Dung). Their lives were extremely challenging, with illnesses and no medicine, deaths from malaria outnumbering battle casualties. Nevertheless, they remained optimistic and fought bravely. Rising above the harsh challenges of war and extreme living conditions, they retained a noble and elegant demeanor, maintaining a love for life and a touch of romance.

The poem 'Tay Tien' possesses two prominent features: romantic inspiration and gallant spirit.

Romantic inspiration is portrayed in the emotional and expressive 'self' of the poet. It reaches the pinnacle of imagination, employing extensive exaggeration and contrast techniques to emphasize the extraordinary, creating a powerful impression of grandeur and exquisite beauty.

The Northwestern nature through Quang Dung's romantic pen is perceived as a blend of diversity and uniqueness, both majestic and poetic, wild yet warm. Images of Northwest girls and people intensify the mystical, dreamy quality of the mountains and forests. Romanticism is primarily expressed in the inspiration towards lofty ideals, a willingness to sacrifice, and selflessness for the common ideals of the community and the entire nation.

'Tay Tien' doesn't conceal the hardship. But it's hardship without devastation. Hardship is expressed through a tone, melody, and vibrant colors, heroic and magnificent. Romanticism harmonizes with the essence of hardship, creating a unique beauty in the poem. The dominant emotion throughout the poem is a poignant nostalgia, enveloping both space and time:

'The Ma River is far, oh Tay Tien!
Remembering the mountains and valleys, remembering playfulness
Sai Khao covered by mist, the tired army
Muong Lat flowers return in the night breeze.'

A simple yet overwhelming longing surges, impossible to contain, as the poet utters a calling. The two words 'playful nostalgia' vividly depict the specific state of longing, personifying it and evoking the imagery of high mountains, deep rivers, abysses, dense forests, etc., repeatedly appearing in the following lines:

'Slope upwards, so deep and profound
sniffing the sky in a thin mist of gunpowder
A thousand feet up, a thousand feet down
Whose Pha Luong, rain drifting far away'

This verse is evidence of 'poetry within poetry.' With just four lines, Quang Dung paints a grandiose picture expressing the extreme difficulty and fierceness, the desolation and eerie beauty of the Northwestern mountains and forests, the operational area of the Tay Tien army. The first two lines, with valuable shaping words like 'slope,' 'profound,' 'mist,' 'sniffing the sky,' vividly describe the formidable, echoing heights of the Northwest mountain passes. The phrase 'sniffing the sky' is used very naturally and boldly, both playful and mischievously embodying the spirit of the soldiers. The high mountains seem to touch the clouds, and the clouds turn into 'sniffable' mist. The soldiers climb these high peaks as if walking on clouds, the gun muzzles reaching the sky's summit. The third line, like a split, describes the mountain slope rising steeply and almost vertically, looking up high and looking down deeply. If the third line looks up and looks down, the fourth line looks horizontally. One can imagine the scene of soldiers pausing by a mountain slope, gazing horizontally through a misty space of rainforest and low mountains, faintly seeing houses floating amidst the sea. These four lines collaborate, creating a unique atmosphere. After three lines drawn with bold strokes, the fourth line is drawn with a very delicate stroke (the entire fourth line is a gentle tone). This pattern is similar to using cool colors to soothe amid warm colors in painting: amidst warm colors, the author uses a cold color to soften, as if refreshing the entire verse.

The wild and fierce appearance, filled with ominous secrets of the Northwestern mountains and forests, is further explored by the poet. It is not only revealed spatially but also uncovered across time, always a dreadful threat to humanity.

'Evening by evening, the majestic waterfall roars
Nightly, Mường Hịch's tiger teases the people'

Thus, the pristine and treacherous scene of the Northwestern mountains and forests, through Quang Dung's pen, appears with everything—high mountains, deep valleys, steep slopes, rainforest, mountain mist, roaring waterfalls, wild tigers, etc. The exotic names like Sài Khao, Mường Lát, Pha Luông, Mường Hịch, valuable shaping imagery, and the laborious and challenging verses, softened by verses with numerous end rhymes at the end of each stanza, collaborate harmoniously. They vividly depict the extraordinary and diverse world of the Northwestern mountains and forests. The verse abruptly concludes with two lines:

'Oh Tây Tiến, the smoke rises from rice cookers
Mai Châu's season perfumes the sticky rice'

The scene is truly heartwarming. After enduring hardships through forests, crossing streams, and traversing mountain passes, the soldiers pause, taking a rest in a village, gathering around pots of steaming rice. The smoke from the rice permeates, and the fragrance of fresh rice in the season disperses the fatigue on the faces of the soldiers, making them refreshingly awake. These two lines create a gentle, warm feeling, preparing the reader's mindset for the second part of the poem.

The second verse unveils a different realm of Northwestern Vietnam. The rugged, treacherous, and intense mountainous scenery gradually recedes, unexpectedly revealing the enchanting, poetic, and graceful beauty of this land. The bold, robust strokes from the first stanza are replaced by soft, graceful, and refined lines in this section. Quang Dung's exceptional penmanship is most evident here. His romantic soul is captivated by the mysterious hues of the people and landscapes in distant and exotic lands. This scene, those people, are vividly portrayed, highlighting its most radiant and mystical aspects: a night of vibrant bonfires and an evening covered in mist along the meandering river. The festive night of cultural performances by the Tây Tiến soldiers, joined by local comrades, is described with both realistic and dreamlike details:

'The campsite bursts into a festival of torches
Local girls appear in their gowns
The flute plays a sad, tender melody
Music echoes Viên Chăn, building the soul of poetry'

The campsite is 'brightened up,' exuberant and lively as the cultural night begins. In the sparkling light of the bonfire accompanied by the resounding sound of the flute, both the scenery and the people seem to sway, intoxicated, ecstatic. The phrase 'kià em' expresses a gaze of astonishment, surprise, joy, and enchantment. The central character, the soul of the cultural night, is the girls from the Northwestern mountains who suddenly appear in their dazzling yet modest gowns, both shy and affectionate, in a dance rich with the colors of an exotic land. This captivates the hearts of the Tây Tiến boys. If the scene of a festive night brings a mesmerizing and exhilarating atmosphere to the reader, the scene of the rivers and waters of Northwestern Vietnam evokes a dreamy and ethereal feeling:

'Those going to Châu Mộc in that misty evening
Did they see the soul drifting by the riverbank?
Do they remember the figure on the solitary tomb?
Flowing water carries the flood of swinging flowers'

The river space in an afternoon is veiled in a misty hue. The river, silent banks, wild and primitive like prehistoric times. On the fairy-tale colored river, that legend stands out in the graceful figure of a Thai girl on a wooden boat. In harmony with the people, the wildflowers also 'sway' gracefully on the floodwaters. Quang Dung's gifted pen doesn't describe but evokes, and the natural landscape of the land seems to have a faint soul in the wind, in the trees. He not only brings forth the beauty of nature but also invokes the sacred essence of the scenery. Reading this verse, one feels lost in the world of beauty, the world of dreams, the world of music. The first four lines resonate like a song, like music rising from the souls enraptured by the Tây Tiến soldiers. Above all, in this verse, poetry and music intertwine to an inseparable extent. Against the majestic, treacherous backdrop of the Northwestern mountains and the dreamy, beautiful scenery of Tây Bắc, in the third stanza, the collective image of the Tây Tiến soldiers appears with a beauty full of heroic qualities:

'Tây Tiến battalion with no hair on their heads
Green army, the color of leaves, fierce and wild
Eyes staring, sending dreams across the border
Dreaming of Hanoi in a fragrant and graceful figure at night'

Quang Dũng has carefully selected the most representative features of the Tây Tiến soldiers to sculpt a group monument to capture the common face of the entire battalion. The bi and the heroic are the two main materials of the monument, blending, infiltrating, supporting each other, creating a magnificent and heroic beauty - the common spirit of the entire monument. The wartime poetry usually speaks of soldiers, often mentioning the dangerous and poor malaria. Huu in the poem 'Comrade' directly describes that disease:

'You and I know every chilling shiver
Fever runs through, forehead sweating in cold sweat'

Tố Hữu, when depicting the portrait of the national defense force in the poem 'Fish in Water' with vivid and specific imagery:

'Drops of sweat fall
On his golden artistic face'

is also not immune to the influence of that dreadful disease. Quang Dũng in Tây Tiến doesn't hide the hardship, difficulties, the dangerous diseases, and the great sacrifice of the soldiers. However, all of these, through his pen, are not described bluntly but through a romantically tinted perspective. The bald heads of the Tây Tiến soldiers are not bizarre, shocking images created by the poet's imagination without holding a mirror to harsh reality. Some soldiers shave their heads for convenience in combat with the enemy, while others lose their hair due to malaria. The pale appearance due to hunger and thirst, due to malaria of the soldiers, through Quang Dũng's lens, still exudes the majestic aura of the tigers in the sacred forest. Their majestic and imposing appearance is also expressed through the angry eyes, 'staring eyes sending dreams.' Tây Tiến soldiers, through Quang Dũng's pen, are not giants without hearts. The multi-dimensional view of Quang Dũng has helped him see through their majestic and imposing appearance, revealing the souls, the hearts, passionate and longing for love (Dreaming of Hanoi in a fragrant and graceful figure). Thus, in this poem, Quang Dũng has sculpted a collective monument of the Tây Tiến soldiers not only through the lines depicting their external appearance but also by revealing the inner world full of dreams. Quang Dũng's pen, when creating the collective image of the Tây Tiến soldiers, does not immerse the reader in pity or sorrow. His inspiration, whenever submerged in the misery, is supported by the wings of ideals, the wings of romantic spirit. Therefore, the sorrow is called upon through the image of the scattered graves of the soldiers scattered in the cold, distant, desolate border forest. On one hand, it has been significantly alleviated thanks to many ancient, dignified, and solemn Sino-Vietnamese words: 'Scattered along the border, graves in the distant land.' On the other hand, that sorrow is also blurred in front of the ideal of self-forgetfulness, sacrificing for the homeland of the Tây Tiến soldiers (The battlefield goes without regret, the green of life). The Tây Tiến soldiers, though ragged, worn-out, still radiate the ideal beauty, embodying the figure of the ancient heroes, dismissing death like a hair. The bitter truth: the Tây Tiến soldiers falling by the roadside do not have even a shroud to cover their bodies. Through Quang Dũng's perspective, they are enveloped in luxurious robes. That sorrow diminishes through the euphemistic expression 'he returns to the land,' and then completely overshadowed by the fierce roar of the Mã River:

'Robes replace shrouds, he returns to the land
The Mã River roars in a solo journey'

Amidst the intense and majestic influence of nature, death, and the sacrifice of the Tây Tiến soldiers permeate without lament but are steeped in a spirit of heroism. The dominant tone of this third stanza is elegant, expressing boundless compassion and the poet's reverence for the sacrifice of comrades. The poem concludes with four verses, once again, emphasizing the shared atmosphere of the Tây Tiến era, the collective spirit of the Tây Tiến soldiers. The slow rhythm, mournful tone, yet the soul of the poem still exudes a heroic spirit:

'Tây Tiến men leave without promises
The road upwards profoundly splits apart
Who ascends Tây Tiến in that spring
Soul returns to Sầm Nưa, never to descend'

The spirit of 'the past undefeated' permeates the thoughts and emotions of the entire Tây Tiến army. The souls and emotions of the Tây Tiến soldiers are still intimately connected with the days of Tây Tiến, the places that Tây Tiến has gone through. 'Tây Tiến in that spring' has become a moment of no return. The history of the nation never repeats such a dreamy, romantic, and heroic era in such difficult, harsh, and severe circumstances.

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