Nostalgic village, song

I don’t know why, but every time I read the poem “Remembering Mother and Quan Ho Village”, I want to cry. Is it because the poet’s feelings burst forth with tears right from the first sentence? Because of the nostalgia and longing that haunts throughout the poem?

Living and growing up in Saigon, but the poetic space Truong Nam Huong mentions most is her mother's hometown - Bac Ninh. Kinh Bac land is rich in cultural traditions and imbued with affection for Quan Ho folk songs. That alone evokes so many emotions, let alone with a sensitive poetic soul combined with the feeling of great distance. I remember Truong Nam Huong once had some impressive general verses about her hometown: In me there is a bit of depth / Of Kinh Bac with the profoundness of the ancient capital.

In the poem, the homeland and the image of the mother appear clearly even though they have been hidden deep in the mind. That homeland is the quan ho village with the winding pagoda roof, the fairy tales imbued with love with the fairies and the Buddha; with the graceful, elegant features of bamboo; with the full moon... a poetic and grateful Northern countryside. On that land and space, talented people with noble souls were born, of which the mother is the most vivid and closest proof. Although she is just a rural mother "whose clothes are torn all her life". She does not have much to leave to her children and grandchildren except for a floral scarf and smooth quan ho verses, but it is a rich legacy that only later, when she has been struggling on the dusty road of life, does the child far from home realize: How many rains and sunshines have I not experienced yet / Now I am heartbroken for my mother and my village.

What a mother leaves behind for her child is her cultural capital, her soul, her character, her tolerant and generous heart... things that have naturally seeped into her blood and heart from her life: But my mother still wears torn clothes all her life/Trying to keep the Quan Ho songs intact/...I remember that my mother's life was poor/Still fragrant with the scent of star fruit.

From the melodious and sentimental Quan Ho melodies: With the oath of the moonlit slope/The graceful and elegant beauty of bamboo with the message "my love, my love".

The sentiments in each song have become the luggage for the child who "leaves the homeland". Even though "Quan ho forgets... falls along the days", there are things that will never be lost. Because the further away you go, the more you experience the hustle and bustle and uncertainties of life, the more you yearn to return to lasting, rooted, sacred values. Like returning to a peaceful, familiar, tolerant harbor. That is the constant feeling but must wait until there is a reason - even unintentionally - to burst into tears. It is the source of "listening to Quan ho on the full moon night, I burst into tears". Those meandering and precarious lyrics suddenly awaken many deep and painful things in my heart: Holding on to the song, I return to my roots/ Suddenly I feel guilty towards my old village.

Feeling guilty, perhaps because before, the son had not seen the values, the beauty of the homeland culture, the rustic, hard-working features of his mother. Only now, with enough experience, did his awareness break out, suddenly "he felt sorry for his mother and missed his village". Only, realizing it was too late, "mother was no longer there and his eyes were stinging".

The verses evoke both a poignant and haunting self-questioning that seems to cut into the reader's heart. Both beautiful and sad; both awakening and heart-wrenching.

But in that endless stream of nostalgia, the present feeling is still clear: Tonight, I sit and listen to you sing on behalf of my mother/The moon is full, I shyly cover my head with a hat/Waiting for you to sing until "my love, my love/My heart must have spread its roots like a Bodhi tree".

The younger sister’s lyrics continue the tradition, prolonging the culture of her homeland. “I sing instead of my mother” but I hope my life is less difficult than my mother’s. Only the love and loyalty of Quan Ho singers, never lose them, you hear me!

There are many modern poems about Kinh Bac countryside, but few poems leave such a deep and profound feeling as "Remembering mother and quan ho village". That is because of the passionate and genuine feelings from the sublime stream of nostalgia. The blend of nostalgia, obsession and the feeling of the homeland, mother and life weaves into a poem full of evocative and pervasive power. The free verse form with a smooth and rushing flow, sparkling with folk flavor leaves behind impressive verses: Mother gave the dowry as a song/...The hair falls like leaves in the quiet garden.

Truong Nam Huong makes people who were not born in Kinh Bac suddenly feel "missing their mother and quan ho village" deeply!

THE ONE STICK OF FRAGRANCE