Authors – Works

Dear manuscript like poet Anh Ngoc

Writer SUONG NGUYET MINH December 23, 2024 14:09

Even though the work has been printed, the original manuscript is still very valuable because it is the crystallization of the sweat, tears, emotions, and intelligence of the creator.

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Poet Anh Ngoc

It is not an exaggeration to say that a work is the writer's brainchild.

That brainchild exists in two forms: The soul form is the content and art of the work that cannot be seen but only felt, judged good or bad and stored in the reader's mind. The material form is the handwritten manuscript, typed manuscript, computer, printed product, or posted online, how the writer stores it are endless stories. Even though the work has been printed, the original manuscript is still very precious. Precious because it is the crystallization of the sweat, tears, emotions, and intelligence of the creator, it is the first visible form.

I have heard many stories about writers and poets keeping their manuscripts, but the one who has kept his manuscripts for a long time, carefully, and almost intact that I know is poet Anh Ngoc. Recently, he published the novel “Ngôn gió” in series on his personal Facebook, which surprised and delighted his literary friends and readers. He wrote the novel “Ngôn gió” at the age of 16 under the pen name Giang Phong. The handwriting is simple, the posture is slightly tilted on student paper, from 1959, 65 years ago, equal to a lifetime.

I talked to him: “At the age of 16, you already knew how to write novels with plots, plots, layers, unique dialogues, vivid language, and a sincere heart, so rich in emotion. At that age, I was still playing around, not knowing how to write anything. But after two-thirds of a century, you still kept the manuscript, it's so precious.”

He laughed happily and said: “I have a suitcase at home. All my school diaries, poems, and writings are put in there, locked and hung in a corner of the house. Later, when I go to college, go on a business trip, join the army, whatever I write, I bring back and keep in that backpack.”

Poet Anh Ngoc took a photo of a leather suitcase, stacked with more than 30 manuscripts and diaries he had written since he was 14 years old, and sent it to me. I was truly surprised by the souvenirs and manuscripts that he treasured and cherished so much. Many manuscripts and pages had turned yellow with time, but the ink seemed to be intact, and the words were still clear and easy to read.

His manuscripts all have very elaborate first pages. For example, on the first page of the manuscript “Peach Blossom Destiny”, he drew an open hand with lines, next to it is a peach blossom branch, below is the printed line: MUST WRITE FOR SUCCESS!

Youth of all times was as passionate as that. He also cut out poems printed in newspapers, cut out the date, month, and year of publication to the size of a stamp, then cut out a piece of cement paper or illustrated newspaper to use as a “support” to stick the poem on to “go with the years”.

He composed “Poem to Mother” on August 16, 1965 and wrote (For Mother Suot, the brave ferryman) with the first stanza:“I wrote a poem by the Ma River/ It's the rainy season and the water is flowing endlessly/ I suddenly miss my mother on the Nhat Le River/ The singing voice of the girl Bao Ninh echoes in my mind.”, then the memoir "Written in the battlefield" Quang Tri night March 12, 1972, or the poetry manuscripts, memoirs he wrote in the K battlefield (Cambodia) were all carefully kept by him in the bottom of his backpack, and when someone went to the North, he carefully packed them and sent them home for his parents to keep.

He said that the Writers' Association Museum wanted to ask for his suitcase and manuscripts as artifacts, but he could not bear to part with them. He wanted to keep them for himself, because the suitcase and manuscripts had accompanied him throughout his life, they were like an inseparable part of his flesh and blood.

Writer SUONG NGUYET MINH
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Dear manuscript like poet Anh Ngoc