Top 10 Famous Poems by Poet Xuân Quỳnh

Poem 'Singing to Myself', written in 1984, included in the collection with the same name, is considered one of the excellent works with a distinct feminine style, typical of Xuân Quỳnh. It reveals a multi-faceted poetic soul, passionate, fervent, and ready to burn in the depths of dedication. Crafted in the joyful state of a woman in love and being loved, the title 'Singing to Myself' is not a coincidence. Perhaps it echoes the heart, the ecstatic condition of someone immersed in love, creating a melodious tune about complete love.

No need for gold, my wish is not foolish

My heart, you've known it all

You, who belittle material wealth

If necessary, sell it right away.

I don't wish it to be like the sun

For it will fade when shadows fall

Leaving you alone in the silent night

While your heart drifts away from mine.

I return to the true meaning of the heart

Reviving the dead roses

Reclaiming what was lost

Reducing the distance of love and trust.

I return to the true meaning of my heart

Longing for what you dream of

Moved by many realizations

Loving you and knowing you love me.

This autumn, storms are fierce

Ship windows remain open

The deserted field and the dark mountain

I'm lost in the depth of your jungle.

I worry about the distant path ahead

The heart beats what cannot be said

The heart beats scratching the hunger

Which flame murmurs in loneliness.

I return to the true meaning of my heart

It's flesh and blood, everyone has it

It stops beating when life ends

But it knows how to love you even in death.

The poem 'Boat and Sea' by poet Xuân Quỳnh, published in the collection 'Blue Sprouts' in 1963, later set to music by composer Phan Huỳnh Điểu in 1981. With its 5-character verses, a melody that oscillates between tranquility and a rich emotional cadence depicting the vitality of the vast sea, the poem truly became a declaration of love for any couple in love during that era.

Boat and sea become an indispensable pair in the journey across the vast ocean. Indeed, only the boat determines how many nautical miles separate the shore, and only the sea changes along with the boat's voyages on the vast waves. The image of the intertwined waves throughout the poem symbolizes the boat and the sea, representing the young man and the young woman in love, portrayed with sincerity and depth. The love between the boat and the sea, like the love between him and her, remains unchanged, loyal, vivid in color, whether in storms or calm, in sorrow or happiness. Despite the pain after days of separation, they are always willing to stay firmly bonded together, creating a multi-colored, intense, and profound love story.

I will tell you

The story of the boat and the sea'

Since who knows when

The boat listens to the words of the sea

Seagulls, azure waves

Guide the boat everywhere.

The boat's heart has many aspirations

And the love of the vast sea

The boat sails tirelessly

The sea is still far... so far.

On peaceful moonlit nights

The sea is like a young girl

Secretly conveying thoughts

Surrounding the boat with lapping waves.

Sometimes without reason

The sea violently rushes at the boat

Because eternal love

Will it ever stand still?

Only the boat truly understands

How vast and profound the sea is

Only the sea knows

Where the boat goes, where it returns.

On days without meeting

The silver-haired sea yearns

On days without meeting

The boat's heart aches - fractures.

If the boat bids farewell

The sea only has waves and winds'

If separated from you, my love

I'm left with only a storm.

The poem 'Wave', written in 1967, published in the collection 'Blooming Flowers on the Battlefield' in 1968 by the author. The poem captures the emotions during a real trip to the Diem Dien sea (Thai Binh), when Xuân Quỳnh was only 25 years old, youthful and full of zest for life. It's a beautiful poem about love that many readers have embraced, epitomizing Xuân Quỳnh's poetic style with the soulful beauty of a woman in love, expressed through the image of the wave. It portrays an intense, passionate, and ambitious love, iron-willed, faithful, transcending all limits of human life. Each word of the poem is like notes in the music of a soul resonating harmoniously with the rhythm of the sea waves, vibrant, tumultuous, and longing to the point of heartache. The entire poem is waves of emotions within the heart of a young woman in love standing before the boundless sea.

Fierce and gentle

Noisy and silent

The river doesn't understand itself

The wave finds its way to the abyss.

Oh, waves of the past

And days after are still the same

The yearning for love

Resounds in the young chest.

Before the myriad waves of the sea

I think of you, I do

I think of the vast sea

Where do the waves emerge?

Waves start from the wind

Where does the wind begin?

I no longer know

When we fell in love.

The waves beneath the deep

The waves on the surface

Oh, waves miss the shore

Nights and days without sleep

My heart remembers you

Even in dreams, it stays awake.

Whether flowing northward

Or against the southward tide

Wherever I am thinking

It's towards you – one direction.

Out there in the ocean

Hundreds of thousand waves

Each one reaches the shore

Despite the myriad obstacles.

Though life is lengthy

Years still pass by

Like that vast sea

Clouds keep flying far away.

How can it disperse

Into a hundred tiny waves?

Amidst the vast sea of love

So it continues to ripple for a thousand years.

The poem 'Love Poem at the End of Autumn' is part of the collection 'Singing to Myself' by poet Xuân Quỳnh, first published in 1984. The poem is like a melodious, gentle piece of music that gradually seeps into the reader's heart. It not only describes the land and sky in autumn in a simple way, but also emphasizes the sacred feelings of human beings, that is, love. Love is woven into the unique, romantic, and extremely fresh landscape at the end of autumn.

The verses are simple, pure, without seeking ornate beauty; the four-line poems are gentle, rhythmic, as if expressing the poet's own feelings, the heartbeat of love brimming with the desire to be loved and live wholeheartedly with that love. Reading the poem, one feels as if immersed in it, overflowing with a poignant longing for the beloved. Autumn, although tinged with a faint melancholy, is gentle, yet it represents the spectrum of love. Musician Phan Huỳnh Điều composed music for this poem, and it has been loved by many people.

The sky is covered in white clouds

The leaves are sparsely yellow

Perhaps the leaves return to the forest

Autumn goes hand in hand with the leaves

Autumn goes to the open sea

Following the vast flowing water

Autumn and chrysanthemums

Only you and me remain

Only you and me remain

Belonging to the old autumn

Suddenly, a cool breeze

Stirs everything up

The familiar path suddenly becomes strange

Grass flips in the direction of the clouds.

As night falls, dew wets the cheeks

A slight chill through the hands

Our love, like rows of trees

Through many stormy seasons

Our love, like a river

Now calm after the flood.

Time is like the wind

Autumn goes along with the months and years

Age follows the seasons and goes on forever
Only you and me remain.

Only you and me remain

With our love staying...

See how many new lovers

Pass by with the autumn breeze.

'Your Mother' is the most beloved daughter-in-law's poem dedicated to her mother-in-law in contemporary Vietnamese poetry. The poem is cherished for its sincere, simple verses, rich poetic essence, profound and far-reaching sentiments, reflecting the beautiful relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, a relationship often considered complex, unfamiliar, and challenging to reconcile.

The poem 'Your Mother' by poet Xuân Quỳnh has brought tears and joy to many Vietnamese mothers-in-law, thanks to the daughter-in-law's understanding and affection for her husband's mother. The work was composed before Xuân Quỳnh became the daughter-in-law of Mrs. Vũ Thị Khánh (mother of the late poet Lưu Quang Vũ) in 1973. The entire poem is like a whispered confession, a lullaby, with the dominant melody being praise, pride, and gratitude towards the mother.

Indeed, your mother and mine

Your mother is ours, that's all

Although not by birth or nurture

I am grateful to your mother throughout my life.

In the past, your mother was also rosy

By my side, she stayed awake, tending to every pain

Now her hair has turned pale white

Leaving the hair on my head dark.

Where is the familiar slope under the sun

Faraway market, your mother carried burdens countless times

She loved me, loved every step

Similar to your mother's footsteps in the distant past.

Your mother's lullabies from long ago

Stories she told mixed into my poems

Whether it's pomelo blossoms or lime flowers

Or folk songs in the village with ancient banyan trees.

Please don't mimic poetic verses

Go on pretending to love each other

Your mother does not reject me

Loving you, I've become a daughter-in-law in this home.

Let me continue the song

Lullabies after your arduous worries

Singing our love

Tender amidst an endless azure sky.

Amidst a thousand mountain flowers and river grass

In the vast, boundless expanse of maternal love

Nurtured from the days of old

Your mother gave birth to you for me.

From the poetry collection of the same name published in 1989, the poem 'Petals of May' by poet Xuân Quỳnh has gained much love from readers. Just by reading the title, one can envision a beautiful and pristine natural setting - a stream of inspiration that never runs dry in the poetic flow of Vietnamese poets. However, for Xuân Quỳnh, the author breathes a unique life into her work.

With seven-word verses, a poetic rhythm of 2/2/3, the poet seems to paint before the reader's eyes a vast, silent space transitioning through seasons, leaving one entranced, nostalgic for memories of past autumns. Petals of May, a wildflower, unassuming, without fragrance, simple, and resilient. Whenever the wind blows, these petals will travel anywhere. Thus, it symbolizes a simple love, the happiness of everyday life, and the longing for intense affection.

Empty sand, a river full, trees lost in thought

The space sways, transitioning to the season

My name echoes beneath the leaves' arch

The old path, now returned, has embraced autumn.

White clouds drifting with the wind

The heart, like the original sky, pure

Bitterness leaves behind many past seasons

Verses written, following the distant wind.

Every path adorned with petals of May

Your dress lightly tucks them away

Words of love as delicate as smoke

Who knows if my heart has changed?

The poem 'Your Hands', composed in 1976, is part of the collection 'Self-Singing' by poet Xuân Quỳnh. It is a particularly special work centered around the theme of love. The beauty of the woman vividly emerges through her gentleness, steadfastness, agility, rich selfless sacrifice, diligence, love for her spouse and children, and the desire to be loved in return. All of these are perfectly expressed through the image of a pair of hands. The woman portrayed here, could she be the author herself, or perhaps Vietnamese women in general—those who are diligently building their homes every day? Truly adorable, deserving of admiration and respect.

Your treasure is only in your hands

You've given them to me since that day

Through the years together, all I've seen

Is a long past where your hair was black.

Joy, sorrow in your speech, your smile

Through your face, I understand the worry

Through your eyes, I understand the longing

What does it make me think, looking at your hands?

Your hands, fingers not slender

Old scars, green veins tell of hardship

You playfully knitted when you were young

Picked vegetables, cooked soup.

Practiced sewing, styled your own hair
Then rested your face on your hands and wept for mother

Curving paths, space like an endless sea

I waited for you to weave your hands.

In my hands, yours are here

Knowing how to silently nurture and preserve

Cold rain, your hands close the door

You air blankets, mend clothes for me.

Hands arrange flowers, hands hang paintings

Hands light the lamp for my nightly reading

Years pass through a head enduring hardship

Your hands stop on a worried forehead.

You gently soothe away the pain

And gather joy from every corner

When I'm absent, your hands remember

Using time to knit the awaited garment.

Using time, you write these lines of verse

To see that there's no way for us to part...

Your hands, a small and precious treasure

You've given me along with your life.

Love is an age-old emotion, existing since humans evolved from the animal kingdom. Humans, driven by survival instincts, need food, water, and air to breathe. Many can live without love, but what if there's no love? Two strangers meet, sharing joys and sorrows, feeling happiness together—even in the mere thought of each other. That is love.

However, reading the poem speaking with you, one might sense an indifference. 'You know it's an old story / Love, how important is it, really.' This feeling could be explained by Sigmund Freud, attributing it to emotional traumas forming repressed memories, making someone who has once failed become insecure.

You still know it's an old story

Love, how important is it, really:

The connection between two strangers

Sharing joys and sorrows together.

I dare not think it's eternal

Today in love, tomorrow could be far

The pain seems endless

Suddenly replaced by a new joy.

What we say today, tomorrow

Others express love from the past

Life isn't extremely vast, you know

And verses won't last forever.

Nothing is that important

Like air, like the green color of grass

So much that it seems nonexistent

Before life's vast and expansive scenery.

But now, you're with me

The joy within us is real

Like a shirt on the wall, like a book

Like a bunch of flowers opening before the house.

You understand that every time you leave

Your love for me is a homeland

It's the shade on a sunlit path

Fragrant fruits on dry, barren land.

That's love, I want to speak with you

The origin of countless aspirations

Good-heartedness to sustain life

For humanity to truly be humane.

Xuân Quỳnh is a romantic poet renowned for her famous poems. However, not everyone knows that Xuân Quỳnh is also a poet who creates delightful and light-hearted verses for children. 'Fairy Tale of Humankind' is one such poem.

The poem is part of the collection 'Lullabies on Earth' published in 1978 by the poet and is excerpted as a reading exercise in the current fourth-grade textbook. It is a mythical story about the early days of creation, narrated through the lens of receiving folktales. The author turns children into central characters, revealing everything with lines of seven words, like a heartfelt, whispering storyteller. The creativity about the heavens, the earth, and humanity is expressed not only through the meaning of words but also through the sound structure of the poem.

Heaven was born first

Only full of children

On the earth, bare and naked

No shapes of trees or grass

The sun is yet to be

Only shadows of the night

The air is just black

No other colors yet

Children's eyes shine brightly

But haven't seen anything yet!

The sun rises high now

For children to see clearly

Green starts with the grass

Green begins with the trees

Trees as tall as finger

Grass leaves like strands of hair

Flowers made from button-like buds

Red creates the flowers

Birds then come to life

For children to hear singing

Songs sounding like water

Songs high as the clouds

Childish breezes gently blow

Spreading sounds everywhere

Wanting children to bathe

Rivers start to form rivers

Rivers need to be vast

The sea is there from then

The sea thinks thoughts

The sea gives birth to fish

The sea creates sails

For children to explore

Clouds provide shade

Sun and clouds play hide and seek

When children learn to walk

Roads are there from that day

But children still need

Love and lullabies

So, mothers are born

To cradle and care

Moms bring the gift of song

From a baby to a child

From fragrant flowers

From white storks in flight

From spicy ginger taste

From a wet patch that's not dry

From the source of pouring rain

From a deserted riverbank...

Knowing children thirst for

Stories of days gone by, days to come

Not understanding where from

But she goes back there

Telling tales of old folklore

Stories of frogs, fairies

The story of Tam, the gentle girl

The tale of Ly Thong, the mischievous one...
Her hair is silver

Her eyes are joyful

She tells for a lifetime

Yet stories never run out

Wishing children to understand

So, fathers are born

Fathers say be good

Fathers teach to think

Wide is the surface of the sea

Long is the journey

Mountains are green and far

A circle is the Earth...

Writing starts before

Then comes chairs and tables

Then comes classes and schools

And a teacher is born...

The board equals the screen

A chalk comes from the stone

The teacher writes big words

“Fairy Tale of Humankind” first of all.

The poem “Noon Rooster”, written by poet Xuan Quynh in 1968 during the resistance against the US imperialists, captures a poignant moment. It was a time when layers of Vietnamese youth bid farewell to family, hometown, and the familiar memories of childhood to embark on a journey to the battlefield. Those years held immense significance, directly impacting the birth and emotional essence of this poem. Through luminous, profound verses, Xuan Quynh interweaves memories of rustic childhood, the emotions of generations, and the inspiration for an era into the fabric of war.

On the long march

Pausing by a small village

The rooster crows:

“Cuckoo... our little triumph.”

Hearing the midday sun's stir

Feeling the feet relieved

Hearing the call back to childhood

Noon rooster

Straw nests and their eggs

This dreaming hen

Spotted all over with white flowers

This golden-feathered hen

Feathers shimmering like sunlight.

Noon rooster

Grandma's scolding voice:

- Look at the egg-laying hen

Later in life, be cautious!

Come back and use a mirror

Childhood's innocent worries.

Noon rooster

Grandma's hand inspecting eggs

Cautiously collecting each one

For the brooding mother hen.

Every year, every year

When winter winds blow

Grandma tends to her flock of hens

Praying for no salty dew

So at year-end, selling the hens

Provides new clothes for the child.

Oh, those wide-legged trousers

Long, sweeping the ground

That shirt with wide wings

Passing by, a rustling sound.

Noon rooster

Carrying so much happiness

As the child dreams at night

Of sleep tinted with the color of eggs.

Today, the child fights

For the love of the Motherland

For the familiar village

Dear grandma, also for you

For the rooster's triumphant cry

The nest of childhood's pink eggs.