"Hanoi street" loves Saigon
I once wrote an interview with the portrait of writer Phan Vu and called him "Hanoi Street and the 82-year-old". It's called a stranger. Because he still rides a motorbike on the highway and dresses dusty and beautifully like young models. Although he said "I have been ... thrown away honey" and was over 80 years old.
Phan Vu said: "People have ... matches of even age like 40-50... But at the age of 60, I can still do weight training. The 70th joint is a bit ...weak in time, so I lower the working level to the 50th joint." That is how Phan Vu's vitality and youthful work are seen. He has just gone to Hue to "work for several poetry exchanges".
I went to his private room in District 9, and saw it in disarray because of the many large, beautiful oil paintings he was painting. He said he still had to live positively: "Forget about something, life will come to you with that".
Especially unlike many elderly people who dream of a peaceful life in the suburbs, Phan Vu does not have the dream of " dreaming of a garden" and even in the suburbs, he still "goes to the city every day" to go there, meet friends and is not afraid of ... " worries".
I like that concern of Saigon people, I love ... the cuteness in the countryside. Do not hide your potential bad. More than that, I love people.
He traveled a lot, met, and "sitting around chatting with motorbike taxi drivers" even though he admitted to being lonely but not alone.
It is impossible not to talk about Hanoi even though the poet said he loved Ho Chi Minh City no less:
"Hanoi City - we still have the scent of the royal poinciana, we still have the scent of milk flowers - your Hanoi is so beautiful with the sound of the duong vat and the bells after the church festival ... Now how do you return to Hanoi?"
Phan Vu said: " His love for Hanoi cannot be explained, he often spends every day wandering the streets. "Hanoi flowers have a stronger aroma than Da Lat flowers. I still came to give my ex-girlfriend a yellow rose.
He loves Hanoi and loves Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City "When he returned from a plane landing in Tan Son Nhat, seeing the girl in a yellow shirt driving on the street, his heart was at peace".
From the days of a soldier in the Southern army - who marched wearing a golden backpacking armband of a mobilization unit - to the days of a person who lived and loved the regions of the country - Love brought the vitality of Phan Vu's poems, plays and paintings to literature.
Nguyen Quang Sang and Wild Fields
Readers remember him from "The Wind-Winter", "The Wild Fields" ... and many works with a strong Southern character - but the day I interviewed him, he was writing the script for a film with many episodes about Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet. I admitted "I don't know how to drink, but Nguyen Quang Sang is a wine profiteer" and asked if "Mr. Sang" played and released many works.
He went a lot. Especially in the South. Please ask "the wild field" is still the same? Now people still judge it as a lyrical epic encapsulation of the national philosophy ... The resilient life of the water field. The resilient life keeps the contact line. Stuffing the small child into nylon pressing into the water to flee the island helicopter in the sky. It used to make the world choked. ”
Nguyen Quang Sang was surprised by the present: "What? The wild beauty remains the same. Where is the immense water of Muoi Tower? There are only weeds, now the trains run all the time".
"How much has been urbanized and why be so regretful? Only urban lifestyles are flooded. The river of the ancient water has a beautiful boat passing through the handsome young men and women. Now no one sings on the machines anymore... It's a pity, but life has to be updated and modern."
I turned to talk about composition. "The whole world is rumored to have played Mr. Sang but still has books out?"
He laughed: “I wrote very quickly. The wild field - cherished from 1966 to 1978 because I knew that the South had the right country to go back to the South ... Writing the machine without inspiration. The white paper was real. Okay: Writing to live.
He said he "still owes a lot. He had to write two separate accounts, both of which were on foot from the South to the North during the war. That was 1966 when he went to the South to fight and then 1971 when he got sick and passed away. You know so many things. But I have to write to someone else to get it.
When I went out to the gate, Mr. Sang waved me not to go in a hurry: "Let me take a photo of you sitting in a motorbike taxi "going plowing". It's a pity that I can't keep that precious photo anymore.
Nguyen Khai with the "creative profession"
That was 2008. I followed him when he was at Thong Nhat Hospital. Usually I come early to discuss right at the time the writer has breakfast. When the doctor entered, the family had to leave. He told me: "You take out the stone chair and wait in the yard."
After the examination, the writer came to me to continue talking.
That day, almost all of his huge compositions were published. The collection Nguyen Khai has released, in the form of literary memories, there is also "The emperor laughs", the summary of the handwriting is "Flowing with nature".
He said that he often writes to find a type of person familiar with his/her thinking area. And we have to find it. So if you can go, where do you like to go next?
Nguyen Khai said, "That's right. My organs were sitting in one place and I couldn't write. When I went, it hit me and pulled me out. Science and art and creative professions cannot be preserved. My poem no longer depicts scenes. If I have the strength, I will look for a political character with power, proactive freedom, and overcoming the future.
I asked: The Northern Delta is your literary hometown. But most of his major works were written in Saigon. What is the significance of the Southern land?".
Nguyen Khai said: I love the Northern Delta countryside, but writing issues of philosophical and ideological significance must be where the world focuses on culture and politics, must be urban. Wanting to write deeply, it is impossible not to bring them back to Hanoi. But the same is true of half of my career in the South. I want to enter the intellectual world. Intelligence knows how to feel sad about other people's sadness. The character of a big city is the people of intellectuals....
With many ambitions, writer Nguyen Khai promised me: "For you to have heart surgery and everything be happy, I will answer you carefully to write a portrait as you wish".
Then there was no such happy day - because the writer died right after undergoing heart surgery.
Many years have passed. The writers I met and heard them chat - now all three of them have passed away. However, they still managed to leave many valuable works from life in Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City. They did not see the time today when the 50th anniversary of the country's reunification was celebrated and there were many new people, new stories, and times on the rise of the country. I wish they were still here today. Nguyen Khai - a writer who is sensitive to the hot moments of change.
There are so many questions to think about, so many stories to tell, so many materials for valuable literary works... waiting for the Writers - "Scrits of the Times". continue the way the writers have gone after the long journey.
