Wistful end of year

Normally, people go shopping for Tet for themselves or their family, that is a common thing. But here, poet Huu Thinh has a strange poetic idea: Shopping for Tet for someone who is far away. What should someone who is far away buy and how should they send it? The role of goods in the market here has a new connotation. It is not about specific Tet gifts but about the emotional level of geographical distance and the longing that increases when Tet comes. When talking about Tet shopping, people usually think of buying Tet flowers first as an elegant pleasure to add more color to the spring space. But at this Tet market, the poet suddenly hesitates: "A sky of flowers opens and closes/ Which flower is for us", peach blossom, apricot blossom or rose. The contrast of the scenery with the lonely mood pushed the poet's emotions into a feeling of bewilderment and insecurity before: "The market is near, the market is far away/ Buying and selling all over the world/ The market has different prices every day/ What price is there for division?" Here, the word "price" is a qualitative rather than quantitative term. From the single emotional state of a person, the poet saw the unstable marketplace of life when prices were about to creep into the human state of mind. The price of division was pushed to another level: "What to buy to keep warm/ What to sell to ease loneliness". I really like the two intuitive words "to support" and "to ease" that retain the warmth, tolerance and kindness of a "zen" character that has calmed down before many changes. With this metaphorical and symbolic way of speaking, Huu Thinh's poetry succeeds in writing about shortages, using specific details of life to virtualize and transform into another emotional state while still maintaining a free-spirited rhythm. yes, subtle and sympathetic. Just a few open verses talking about one person but talking about many people, talking about one situation but sharing with many situations. The last verse has flashed the very unique features of Tet: "Birds flutter their wings in the backyard/ The day is packed on the calendar". The sudden coming, the sudden going is still hope. The gradually thinning compression of time on the train - calendar - car begins to return to the starting point to prepare for a new year, the beginning of a new aspiration. The two verses are written with great talent and shine brightly despite having to struggle fragilely. It turns out that shopping for Tet is just an excuse for the poet to express his feelings. The rhythm "What to buy for Tet/ For someone far away" is repeated three times with different frequencies of emotions spreading and then returning to oneself. Starting from Tet flowers to ending with the Tet calendar are the quantifications of aesthetic sense like the sketches of a distant Tet painting on a piece of paper with the pure smell of glue - the flavor of life, of love. Talking about Tet, talking about joy to relive the sadness completely. "Tet Shopping" is a beautiful poem about sadness.

NGUYEN NGOC PHU