The cold is gentle but profound

Cold of Ban - one of the love poems of poet Te Hanh has been loved by readers over the years. With a gentle and delicate writing style, the poet exploits the poetic idea from an ancient story. The story goes: Ban knitted a shirt for her husband for three months to reach the wrist. Loving her son, the Jade Emperor let her get cold again. Folklore calls it Cold of Ban. Reading Cold of Ban, we feel more deeply and interestingly when love is warmed.

At the beginning of the poem, the poet writes simply and plainly: "When I knit a warm coat for you, / The wind still blows through my cold hands". And the poetic idea is pushed up, affectionately: "Birds find each other to cover their wings / The sky is full of clouds, the fragile sunlight falls". Surely, with love between couples, that feeling must be multiplied in the love of wanting to protect and share the cold "the wind still blows through my cold hands" to knit a warm coat for her husband: "I hurriedly weave time through the red thread" - the thread of steadfast, faithful love. The red thread here means the red thread of love, the warmth in love.

But then the sweater was knitted, the cold season was over in the knitter's mood: "The fine wool compared to the tangled heart". And the husband's sympathy and sharing: "The life of a cadre has few free hours". So the knitting and sending of the sweater for her husband to wear in the cold season had passed. The sender of the sweater was worried: "I sent the sweater, worried that you would be angry". But the husband received the sweater, understanding the delay with sympathy: "Because the common work sometimes lightens the personal feelings". What a gentle and profound meaning, a sympathy from the heartbeat.

In March, the weather warms up, then turns cold again. Remembering the old story, the poet tells: "Miss Ban cries, the earth and sky shed tears of pity/ Letting the cold return in response to the wait". At this point, the poem ends with happy lines: "I wear your shirt and feel/ The lover's hand is twice as warm" and time is a loyal friend that binds couples: "Time understands our hearts so well/ Because of human love, there is cold Miss Ban".

Reading "Ret nang Ban" we can feel more clearly the gentle, meaningful and profound style and writing style of Te Hanh. Te Hanh is delicate in observation, seeing even what ordinary people cannot see. Critic Hoai Thanh commented in "Thi nhan Viet Nam" published in 1942: "The listener can even see things that are not exactly colorful, not loud...", "The wind still blows through cold hands", "Faint sunlight falls", "Fine wool threads compare to tangled hearts" are also part of that delicacy. Or describing the scene of late spring to early summer is also very skillful: "Flowers begin to thin out at the end of the spring road" like a lacquer painting depicting the scene of late spring.

The poem is tightly structured to serve the theme of the cold of Miss Ban, with openness in space and time. It has been the warm and sunny month of March, but suddenly winter has returned so that I can wear the sweater she knitted. Because of human love, the sky - a metaphysical being - also let the cold return "in response to the expectation.

Fifty or sixty years ago in the last century, the image of a woman diligently knitting a sweater for her husband was still deeply imprinted in the memory of everyone, especially the elderly. Nowadays, the fashion of winter coats is very luxurious and stylish... but the image of knitting old sweaters cannot be erased. Therefore, the whole poem "Cold Lady Ban" engraved in the reader's mind the indelible images of a couple living simply, loving each other through the scene of knitting sweaters.

The love poem is gentle but sticks in the reader's heart every time the cold of Ban returns, making the heart flutter, longing to be loved and shared.
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(*) The folk tale tells: Ban was the daughter of the Jade Emperor, slow and somewhat clumsy. The Jade Emperor and the Queen loved their daughter, and discussed getting her married so that she would know more about housework. Ban's husband was also a person from the heavenly world. She loved her husband very much. Seeing that the cold season had come, she immediately sewed a cold-proof shirt for her husband. She sewed for a long time but she was not discouraged, only sad and sorrowful. Seeing that, the Jade Emperor took pity on his son and let the weather turn cold again so that her husband could wear the shirt. Since then, it has become a custom that every year around March, the weather is hot but then turns cold for a few days.

VU HOANG