Warm spring sunshine

“

Thinking about the Party

The Party is the ripe rice crop
The countryside is soaring with the storks of folk songs
The Party is the light of the highlands
Red tiled roof, square pond around the house
The Party is a tree with flowers all year round.
The colors and fragrances are all cultivated by our hands.
The Party is the warm sunshine of the east
Blue sky, birds circle leisurely
The party is yours and mine
Clear character, bright reputation.

TA HUU YEN

Poet Ta Huu Yen wrote poems about the Party, Uncle Ho and the country as a natural consequence of the sincere feelings of a soldier who fought under the Party's flag all his life. Hundreds of poems were set to music and sung on major national holidays such as: Uncle Ho's sandals, October emotions, Country… is the dream of many people working in literature and art.Thinking about the Partyis a simple and rustic poem through images and language but deep in feelings and full of emotions, truly a good poem written about the Party over the past decades. That is the poet's sincere heart offering to the Party every spring.

The poem has only 10 lines, divided into 5 simple and familiar pairs of six-eight verses. Each pair of verses is a comparative idea about the Party's contributions to the country and the people. The poetic images change flexibly, brightly and are full of color. The structure of the poem goes from simple, ordinary daily contemplations to a grand generalization of qualities to complete a quatrain praising the Party's great contributions. Therefore, looking at the whole, the poem is beautifully done, not splendidly grand but enough to make the reader bow in gratitude, be moved and thereby direct their love towards the Party.

We all know that Vietnam is an agricultural country, the lives of the people are mostly attached to rice grains and potatoes that nourish their daily lives. Thinking about the Party, the poet does not think about anything too lofty or grandiose, but only about what is close and familiar. The images of "ripe rice in full season" and "folk singing storks" appearing in the first two verses indicate a unique artistic signal and create a consistent structure throughout the entire poem. The previous verse calls the next, thus creating a coherent, natural quatrain that can awaken the reader's soul. The whole poem is like a definition of the Party without being dry, on the contrary, it is very smooth and easily creates an emotional effect. That is the talent and remarkable success of this poem:The Party is the ripe rice crop/The countryside is filled with folk songs.

Having a Party means that the people are the masters of their country, have a peaceful life on the fields as far as the eye can see, have electricity to light up civilization from the plains to the highlands. The image of a red-tiled school roof for children to study and a square pond around the house appears simple but easily creates great emotions in the reader's soul. Reading this, I suddenly remember the verses To Huu wrote during the anti-French period:“Children, have you studied yet? We will build a new school for you. They will no longer hope to set fire to you. Your school stands in the middle of a deserted hill. Your voices echo throughout the village.”(I go to).

After the specific things about the people's prosperous and changing life since the Party was established, poet Ta Huu Yen used images of beauty symbolizing the desire for freedom and happiness of people. Having the Party means four seasons of green flowers and leaves, full of colors and fragrances; having the Party means having the light of dawn warming every home and thousands of birds leisurely flying in the endless blue sky. Indeed, the Party not only brings people a prosperous and happy life, the Party is also the aspiration, belief, and reason for living of everyone. The poet praises the role and strength of the Party with natural, simple, gentle verses like each breath and the gentle love that the people have for the Party..

To close and elevate the poem to a new dimension, the two concluding verses by poet Ta Huu Yen bring the image of the Party back to its familiar, intimate beauty in everyday life. The Party is not strange, the Party is what is familiar and simple like the flesh and blood of each of us. More beautifully, the Party is the bright, pure soul that each person aspires to:The party is yours and mine/Clear character, bright reputation.

Thinking about the Partyis a poem imbued with national character through the familiar, close-knit six-eight rhythm. It is concise in expression but has the ability to summarize greatly what the Party has brought to our people and our Fatherland for nearly a century since the Party was founded. Reading the poem, the soul of every Vietnamese citizen loves the Party even more, silently remembering the Party's contributions, especially during Tet.