Once during a drinking party, I dared to say to Nguyen Thuy Kha, you should be half-westerly wet...
In 2022, Nguyen Thuy Kha published 20 poems (as he called them). I am not a shady statisticsman, but I see that the rain in his poetry has a "special position". When he had passed the "Coming to the city of youth" (Hai Phong), he exclaimed in grief: "When it rained, I needed to cry, so I needed to laugh.../ The gray afternoon like a person escaping from prison/ The rain gave us a full cup of ferment...".
For Nguyen Thuy Kha, the soldiers, even though they have sacrificed, are always in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being in the act of being. The poem won second prize in the poetry contest of the Arts Newspaper (1981 - 1982) and officially brought Nguyen Thuy Kha into the literary world as "The accompanying rains" with impressive sentences, to later make it a "comprehensive" version of his creative life: "I don't understand when I'm mixed in the rain/ I don't think it's raining so I/ The soldier goes/ Going through the city/ A series of horizons waiting for me/ In the journey that won't stop/ The rain and you are my companions...".
It can be said that Nguyen Thuy Kha has quite a "house". He was first of all a poet and writer (with 12 works that he called portrait novels, not to mention the last novel he wrote about soldiers on two front lines, Huong published in 2022), he was a musician, had some noteworthy songs, composed Hop Suong, and even the musical works he called Poeme Symphonie. He is a living classic of Vietnamese musicians (one time he spoke, and knew Vietnamese songs well until the 1990s). Nguyen Thuy Kha has many awards for theory and research from the Vietnam Musicians Association and the State Award for Culture, Sports and Tourism (2003) in this field...
He was a card-winning journalist and for the past few decades, he has written mainly about literature and music. Nguyen Thuy Kha writes quickly, likes to write on paper on one side (the habit of saving from difficult times), the meaning is sincere, clear and the original is almost never sua doi...
I was lucky to meet and play with Nguyen Thuy Kha since around mid 1980. Then in 1990, when Lao Dong Newspaper published the first 4-color printed Lao Dong Sunday in the Vietnamese press village, Nguyen Thuy Kha and I were taken by journalist Bui Viet Phong and journalist Hoang Hung to work as special collaborators (which at that time had a subsidy of nearly double my monthly salary).
After I officially joined Lao Dong Newspaper in early 1995, I had the opportunity to get closer to Nguyen Thuy Kha (at that time, musician Hong Dang - Vice President of the Musicians Association and Editor-in-Chief of Music Magazine was brought in to be the editor). He is still a close collaborator, so much so that every Monday morning, he has gone to the publishing office at 51 Hang Bo (Hanoi) to meet as an official member of the Newspaper.
I was joking, with Nguyen Thuy Kha, the greatest invention of the 20th century was the photocopy machine. Why should you store them, to "enrich them" in small newspapers, local newspapers... but perhaps for him, Lao Dong Newspaper is the place where he is most attached to, until May 2017 when he stopped working as a special collaborator.
During those unforgettable years, we often met at many late afternoons at 51 Tran Hung Dao - Vietnam Women's Union, 51 Trang Thi, not to mention going further twice... Nguyen Thuy Kha once sent and discussed with me very personal stories, hidden corners of her life. That is the difference from his strong, sometimes very noisy, sudden appearance.
His friends call him Kha giay, it seems that artist Trinh Tu also nicknamed him Kha Le - Duong (Legion) because of his "warlike" qualities, but what I feel about him is that he is respectful, acceptable, ready to listen with a very gentle smile and in many cases shows weakness, "heartbrokenness"...
I often think of him, even though there are many years apart due to circumstances. For me, Nguyen Thuy Kha is a strong person with a terrible workforce. Although, like the poem he wrote: "... What is the difference between a gun and a snake"... Among so many tears of grit, there are still..." (The snake seller at the Temple of Literature). He also has to make a living because he has "worked a part" since 1990, so many books, documentary scripts and then wrote newspapers and songs based on "orders", so there are also many people who do not sympathize with him. How do you know when you once thought: "...The dust grains are now so old and fragile/ Love is not over yet, sweet dreams are not over yet..." (to Hai Phong).
Nguyen Thuy Kha has been fighting the disease since August last year. And in the first months, he did not know and was confident that he would soon return to Hang Bong, where he said "it was the most inspiring place to write...". I went to see him for the last time at noon on March 11 at the 108 Military Medical Institute - after Thanh Nhan Hospital and the University of Medicine, as he was destined to return to the soldiers' hospital.
He was fascinated, but I felt he was still trying to breathe, breathing very hard through the oxygen tank. I was alone in that room... And I knew that the moment of separation had arrived... Early in the morning of March 13, Phuong An, his daughter, said he could not get through this morning... The whole morning was filled with humid Hanoi weather and light rains accompanying Nguyen Thuy Kha on her last trip...
I also just prepared songs to say goodbye to Nguyen Thuy Kha, the last song I chose was " Tango of chia xa" through Quynh Hoa's voice, filmed at Hai Phong station, where he will return to the city of his youth, his age of forever... "The train is agitating/ Now the moment to let go...". Nguyen Thuy Kha is still hungry and hopeful even though "The ship is gradually going far/ Don't forget the month of the year/ Your arms wave to us...".
