The poem has a sublime evocative quality. There is no need to go into commenting on the words, images, rhetorical methods… of the poem, just read through the reader’s intuitive feeling, the stream of hot memories of a student time welling up in a strong nostalgia. levels that make me suffocate. Those memories of school age are very personal to each person and have the opportunity to rise up and spread in the depth of the poem and brighten up the sky of memories of youth.
The flow of the poem is the lyrics. The love story of a young soldier who just left school on his way to war with his girlfriend, his classmate. Thus, starting from the quatrain the first leaf – the almond leaf of the first date between two people, the poem seems to be mainly written about the couple’s love and their nostalgia (and that’s a real thing) suddenly exploded in another aspect: full of memories of his student years and his beloved school.
This explains why this poem was originally written The author named it Hello Truong. Perhaps a young soldier’s nostalgia for that love that was still strong in friendship could not go beyond the control of his deep nostalgia for school and student memories.
Indeed, right at the beginning of the poem with a rhetorical question, Hoang Nhuan Cam surprised us: he turned back to talk to his lover but did not talk about the memories of their love. but only evokes a surprisingly wistful regret about a childhood that is gone and will not return. The school age with all its sacred memories suddenly felt so far away that it made the author consider that leaving as a surprising and lovely act of arrogance.
After a moment of shock, all the memories of school age suddenly came rushing back hotly in the next lines of poetry, but not in any neat and orderly arrangement, but according to the apparent frequency of the flow of memories. along with images that are so close and heart-wrenching. The colors and sounds of student life are two aspects that Hoang Nhuan Cam is interested in describing in this poem.
Almost all the colors of flowers, leaves, and trees of the school associated with the school age has been described and evoked by the author, but not on the basis of pure listing operations but on the basis of the ability to associate and connect the memory stream. If the purple water lily is because the bottom of a student’s eyes has begun to sparkle with the passion of love, then the pink poinciana flower is because the trembling beloved hand dropped it. in the initial moment of hesitation and confusion.
If the image of silver hair on the teacher’s forehead appeared in the students’ desire for eternal youth, While mourning for his beloved teacher, the image of sleeping white pigtails appeared in the nostalgia of his school days with so many memorable sad and happy stories of his peers.
The first sound about school age described by the author in the poem is the sound of cicadas. For Hoang Nhuan Cam’s poetry, it seems that the sound of cicadas has become an artistic obsession and also created a unique artistic brand.
In modern Vietnamese poetry There is probably no other poet in Vietnam who has written as much and as well about the sounds of schoolchildren as Hoang Nhuan Cam. Cicadas deepen the sound of cicadas in childhood; Became the thread that connected us in our childhood days (Autumn Letter); Dear dry season, dear dry season; Even though the marble rolls all the way around in childhood; But who says there isn’t one in those backpacks? One, two, three voices singing the cicadas? (Entering the front when the cicadas are chirping)…
In this poem, when directly writing about the school and student life, the sound of cicadas Of course it is given top priority and it resonates very uniquely. The sound of summer cicadas with their sad melody and rhythm suddenly becomes strangely fresh – clear and strong to the point of being sweet: The clear sound of cicadas tears the lake in half. Why does this feeling that can be considered irregular appear?
All is explained: The prophetic cicada has no intention of foreshadowing; Perhaps one also begins to love. The initial moment of love for a high school student made every scene strange – new, unusual, attractive and passionate like a prophet.
Another interesting sound that resonates in the poem is the laughter of schoolchildren: Oh, those pure laughter. At that age, laughter never seems to be alone, but must be the innocent laughter of countless friends every day. In the atmosphere of school age, it seems to be absent. Online session of loneliness. All rushed away in pure joy and pure laughter chords.
There are two adjacent lines of poetry whose sound color is completely vaguely symbolic but extremely haunting. deeply moved by the overflowing stream of memories of the sacred image of a student’s childhood:
A wistful blue classroom
Night school yard – Falling eagle at night
The repetition technique is one of the techniques used by Hoang Nhuan Cam Used frequently and prominently in his poetry. Here, too, the whole poem is made up of grammatically structured words and phrases… repeated over and over – on the one hand, creating a deep impression of the sacred memories of school age, and on the other hand, creating a feeling of emotion. When I think about my student years, my emotions overflow, causing the words to jostle each other with overlapping accents. The following stanza is a typical example of that artistic use:
My first nostalgia is for you
My heart’s nostalgia I remember going back to my mother
Nostalgia never remembers like that
Do you remember school, remember class, remember my name?
And the repetitive expression: How much do you want to say, how much do you want to cry or What happened last year, what happened last year… seems to be a typical way of speaking of school age: carefree and carefree but the information content is extremely dense and multi-dimensional.
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The last stanza is dense and typical of the above mentioned special emotions of young soldier: even when realizing: I loved you and you were far away; The dating almond tree waved its hand forever in the same mood: I miss you so much! But just looking back he did not realize right away that the school yard was sparkling with memories of love through the symbolic image of the first leaf, but it seemed like all the nostalgia and love That love has been deeply imbued with immense nostalgia and love for school and school age.
There is no love at school age that does not come from friendship. So the memories and nostalgia of love there are full of colorful images, sounds… of the school and student years. First love at school is beautiful, close, innocent yet pure and holy. It is forever like an almond leaf located on the first date of two people but still green and hidden somewhere on a high branch, it is not easy to look up and immediately recognize it.
Poem is a beautiful melody about school age performed on guitar in flamenco style, starting with a soft major chord and ending with a sad, sad minor scale.
Finally I would like to boldly propose: upcoming educational reformers should select and respectfully include the poem The First Leaf by Hoang Nhuan Cam in the Literature program at the high school level because all both its fun and relevance. Not allowing students to learn the country’s authentic literary works and the rare good literature of school age makes them search to read and self-glorify the educators who have been abused. >unfortunately overtaken?
Thai Sac
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