See you in Saigon with confidence in victory

Nguyen Dinh Thi is talented: he writes poetry, prose, composes music, sculpts... He is an author who has made great contributions to modern Vietnamese literature, especially in the field of poetry. Nguyen Dinh Thi's poetry is profound, rich in creativity and innovation in free verse, of which "Red Leaves" is considered a typical poem. "Red Leaves" expresses the emotions before the reunion and then separation in the belief of meeting again between a soldier and his sister on the front line on the Truong Son road filled with smoke and fire when our nation's resistance war against America to save the country was in its final stage.

With only eight verses, the author focuses on describing three images from three different perspectives but sharing the same viewpoint in a proud posture and belief in victory. That is the image of the red leaf forest, the young girl at the front and the army on the legendary Truong Son road. From there, the poet generalizes the beauty of the country and the Vietnamese people during the years of resistance against the US, full of sacrifice, hardship but also very heroic.

The meeting between the soldier and the character called "you" - the girl at the frontline takes place in the majestic Truong Son space, on the windy high hills and the forests with "rustling red leaves". The space is high, wide, and open, evoking the mastery of our nation in the resistance war. If in the poem "Country" written from 1948 - 1954 during the resistance war against France, Nguyen Dinh Thi proudly said: "The blue sky here is ours/ The mountains and forests here are ours..." then here, the Truong Son space is even more windy with the times. The image of the red-leafed forest is like warm rays of light, spreading joy and hope for the nation's long-term resistance war that is about to come to victory. Therefore, the space in "Red Leaves" both carries the beauty of the battlefield reality and symbolizes the brilliance of the country's future: "Meeting you on the windy high hills/ The strange forest with rustling red leaves".

In the midst of the majestic Truong Son space, the reunion with the sister on the front line appeared so beautiful and pure. It was a meeting and then a parting that happened quickly but promised so many good things for tomorrow. The sister on the front line appeared as evidence of the oath of loyalty and steadfastness to the homeland and country: "You stand by the road like the homeland/ With a silver shirt and a rifle on your shoulder".

Here, Nguyen Dinh Thi uses a very unique art of comparison. The young girl on the front line stands by the roadside like the familiar image of her homeland. Not the beautiful flower, the gentle stream, the pure flower branch that are familiarly compared in poetry, the lyrical character "you" appears simple, rustic but sacred, so noble. You are the homeland, the country in hardship but with a heroic, indomitable beauty. Perhaps there is no better, more poetic and more correct comparison. You carry the face of a homeland that is hard-working and steadfast in the long march to fight the enemy. It is the simple faded shirt and the "rifle-slung" posture that is the double beauty of the image of the homeland, the Fatherland of Vietnam during the years when the whole country went to fight the Americans. And here, we suddenly realize the similarity in the emotions of Le Anh Xuan's poetry: "You are a guerrilla, you are a liaison/ You are our homeland/ Eleven years have passed, I miss you, I love you" (Returning to my paternal home).

After the beauty of the young girl on the front line, the image of the army in the poem "Red Leaves" is also a special highlight that the poet paid attention to depicting. The army continued its arduous and sacrificial journey to save the country. That "lightning-fast, even faster" attack did not allow the soldiers to stop and rest, but continuously crossed the mountains and forests to advance to Saigon - the enemy's last stronghold. Although with only two condensed and refined verses, Nguyen Dinh Thi reflected the heroic spirit and great determination of the soldiers in the middle of Truong Son that year. "Truong Son dust blurred the fiery sky" beautifully expressed the fierceness and hardship of the nation's resistance war against the US. The Truong Son road - a bloody, dusty road with troops rushing into battle - described the heroic and beautiful posture of our nation. It can be said that Nguyen Dinh Thi's ability to choose images and details is truly talented and unique. The two verses with twelve short words are short but have an epic stature, evoking the heroic spirit of "cutting through Truong Son to save the country" in a glorious time: "The army still marches in a hurry/ The dust of Truong Son blurs the fiery sky".

The poem ends with two unique and concise lines, which are both capable of summarizing the content of the poem's ideology and opening up hope, belief in victory filled with optimism and revolutionary heroism. "Hello, my dear" and "See you in Saigon" express an unshakable determination. That is the belief of the entire nation that "even if we have to burn down the Truong Son mountain range, we must be determined to gain independence" (Ho Chi Minh): "Hello, my dear sister at the front/ See you in Saigon...".

The poem titled "Red Leaves" is very meaningful. Yes, it is the red color of hope for a beautiful, bright tomorrow. That red color not only "rushes" in the majestic Truong Son forest but also lights up and shines brilliantly in the middle of Saigon - the city named after Uncle Ho in the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign. With only eight lines of poetry but with great generalization, the poem has the stature of an epic at the time when the entire Vietnamese nation was determined to unify the North and South. That spirit was once again affirmed when this poem was composed into a song of the same name by musician Hoang Hiep.

AN DUC