Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 10
To Huu is one of the typical poets of modern Vietnamese literature. Coming to his poetry, we come across poems full of faith and revolutionary ideals. His collection of poems “From that” represents that passionate and passionate poetic soul, and the poem “Remembering Dong” is one of the best poems in the collection.
The poem was written in the context of To Huu being imprisoned in a dungeon. The poem is the voice of the author’s earnest and inconsolable nostalgia for his homeland. The beginning of the poem is nostalgia, a poem like a love song, expressing the loneliness and longing deep in the heart of the revolutionary soldier:
“Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout”
The author’s unique comparative style evokes emotional nostalgia. There is nothing more painful and sad than the afternoon days of missing home. The more lonely you remember, the more extensive the nostalgia, the more overwhelming loneliness becomes, “lonely” as much. A song of love for the country is raised with passion and nostalgia, or it is the voice of the lonely, cold, lonely heart of the poet in a painful prison. That longing longing, waiting, many images of the homeland gradually appear in the mind. The more I remember, the more I love and the more sad I feel:
“Where the wind is fragrant, the earth is smelling
Where is the cool bamboo stream in a peaceful time?
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields?
Where are the ways I walk for eternity?
The low cottage hamlet sleeps quietly
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on”
That loving home place has so many beauties, so many unforgettable imprints. That is the most beautiful thing that can only be found in our homeland, nowhere can be replaced. It is the scent of light breeze mixed with the smell of fresh earth, green bamboo streams that give shade in the summer afternoon.
That homeland is also the fields with verdant umbrellas where the people plow one sun, two mists, two fogs, sincere and honest. And there are also sweet cassava fields, warm and idyllic thatched roofs, though poor, but their hearts are vast, filled with people’s love for each other. Emotions follow nostalgia welling up in the heart, poetry carries so many emotions in the depths of the soul.
The word “Where” stands at the beginning of the sentence both as a rhetorical question and as if searching for something familiar from the old days at home, when there was no war, loss, or pain. Where are the scenes of the past, now why feel so empty but so disappointed.
Not only the scenery of the homeland, that nostalgia is also directed to the people of the countryside. Industrious and patient workers, through many hardships, are still resilient to fight, still enthusiastic about their work. The poet refers to them with love and respect
Where are the misty afternoons covering the fields?
The rice is soft and rotten by the riverside
Echoing in the sound of water carts
A voice that brings the pit of the brain.”
Despite the hardships and difficulties, the farmers still maintain their faith and optimism in difficult times. Still singing earnestly to dispel the gloom and depression. Many memories are still the same, still there, still kept forever in the memory of the poet. When the nostalgia gets bigger and bigger, the memories also follow the flow of emotions rushing into the mind. Nostalgia how can anyone stop. Once again, the poet must choke out:
“There’s nothing like nostalgic afternoons
Lonely by the river, a shout”
So many old beauties appear to make people’s hearts restless and miss. But no one can live with the past forever, the present is always something that makes people wonder and struggle:
“Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh dear miss, oh dear miss
Oh, my mother is far away now!”
Why is it so harsh, only the poet is here alone. How far away gradually seeps into the sadness of the lonely, the shadow, the familiar things, the old mother’s shadow is also far away, only the nostalgia remains forever tormented. The exclamations “Wow”, “Oh” sounded pitiful but so sad. I feel like I can feel the sadness and bitterness mixed in each word of compassion.
To Huu – a poet – a revolutionary soldier loves his homeland with an earnest and complete heart. The soul is always directed to the origin, to the beloved nation and country, attached to the people, to the working people. Even in the dangerous prison, difficulties are still directed to the life out there with the pain of the nation. Not only the people, but also the countryside, To Huu also finds himself in the old days through nostalgia:
“Where are the old days I miss me
Confused to find a reason to love life
Wandering around and around
Want to escape, alas, step not to leave.”
Everyone has a past and so does To Huu, the poet remembers the arduous days when searching for a reason to live, finding a reason to love life, but still going around in circles, unable to find a way out for him. life itself. But then, everything also passed and became better when I encountered the shining revolutionary ideal:
“Then one day, I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk compatriots love to sing
On nine floors high in the sky”
My heart is full of excitement and lightness when I find my own love in my choice. Excitement, enthusiasm, pride and longing for life are played like a joyful note in the middle of life. What could be more fun than being with yourself, having lightness in your heart and being yourself? The image comparing the “lightness” with the bird’s wings is unique and impressive, is this not only a personal joy but also a common joy with nature, heaven and earth.
“Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Oh, the countryside, my homeland!”
The poem ends with repeated verse filled with an unrelenting sadness and anxiety. Perhaps, nostalgia is still boiling, rolling in the hearts of patriots.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 9
That word is considered as the first sweet fruit that To Huu has reaped to give to life. Coming to the collection of poems, we not only encounter a young man who loves the revolution, passionate about his ideals, but also sees the image of a revolutionary soldier living and fighting. Therefore, from that word, there are not only poems full of ideal passion, but also poems that record the arduous journeys of prison and war, among which must be mentioned the poem Remember Dong.
The poem was written by To Huu in July 7, four months after the poet was captured and imprisoned by secret police. The whole poem is earnest nostalgia. The poem opens with a comparison that the poet raises as a way to determine his own loneliness:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!
The poet seems to question his own heart and then affirm his own mood. Exile is the feeling of loneliness, loneliness and longing for nostalgia. The poem is like a sad sigh to the skin. We suddenly remembered the image of the communist soldier who was first thrown into prison in the article “Thoughts in Prison”:
But coming here, we not only feel lonely but also feel numb sadness, cold loneliness, and nostalgia like tearing our guts. After the first two verses open like a confession, the poet, in turn, clearly shows the nostalgia in the soul of the revolutionary:
Where the wind still smells like the earth smells
Where is the cool bamboo stream in a peaceful time?
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields?
Where are the ways I walk forever
The low-lying cottage village sleeps quietly
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on…
The space of the poem seems to be expanded. That is the space of the beloved homeland where the smell of the earth is so familiar, where there are cool bamboo shadows, lush green plots, where sweet potato fields, cassava fields and idyllic low thatched roofs are located. The spread of space is also the spread of nostalgia in the heart of the poet.
It is worth noting that before each such familiar scene is the word used to ask. However, here the poet is not merely searching, asking about the position, but asking himself, retrieving in his memory what has been lost and lost. Which evokes in us the loss of emptiness.
The word Tu is repeated by To Huu five times in a row, making the nostalgia seem to multiply rapidly, making the emptiness, loss and disappointment in the poet’s heart multiply. Therefore, it can be said that this has become a reminiscent of painful feelings. And that lonely nostalgia seems to be stretched by:
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on…
It can be said that the two stanzas above have profoundly generalized the nostalgia for the countryside. The pot of memory rose and uttered with a choked voice:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Oh dear, dear countryside!
Still a comparative way of expressing loneliness. Oh and miss appearing in the same verse makes nostalgia for the countryside become more intense than ever.
Remembering the poet’s hometown, and at the same time directing his nostalgia to people. These are close working people who are arching their backs into the furrows, scattering seeds in the sky. But it’s all just subconscious, just nostalgia. And now the scenery and people appear as sad as the poet’s own mood:
Where are the misty afternoons covering the fields?
When the body is soft, the body is lying on the riverside
Echoing in the sound of water carts
A voice that brought up the heartbreak.
All human images appear in the poet’s mind, making the nostalgia for life more intense. All is far away, facing the poet at this moment is only a memory, the torn memories can only be dreamed of, but cannot be reached. And once again the poet had to exclaim:
There’s nothing better than nostalgic afternoons
Loneliness inside a shout.
The repeated verse makes nostalgia and loneliness in the poet’s heart increase. And all the memories seem to disappear, the poet returns to the harsh reality and realizes:
Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh my love, my love
Oh, my mother is far away from me now!
Perhaps it is a call of nostalgia, a mournful voice for the situation of captivity. The revolutionary soldier suddenly realized why the distance was so far away. Because of that, the nostalgia rages more. In just one verse, you can remember the message twice. The word chao makes that nostalgia even more poignant.
Through nostalgia for our homeland, we humans not only see the image of a lonely revolutionary soldier in prison, but also show us the love of the homeland, the soldier’s attachment to the masses. working people, always towards the outside life. Those are also very basic and familiar features of the image of the imprisoned communist soldier in To Huu’s poetry.
After moments of nostalgia, the poet suddenly looked and remembered himself. The last stanzas of the poem will clearly show that realization.
First of all, remember yourself:
Where are the old days I miss me
Confused to find a reason to love life
Wandering around and around
Want to escape, alas, steps do not leave.
It’s still a search in the memory, but there is a very clear perception of the old days. The poet recalls the days of stagnation, the days of wondering and searching for a reason to live. Those were the days when the poet had not yet encountered the communist ideal. Words such as: wondering, wondering, around have accurately described the stalemate in the poet’s person at this time.
Three hours I remember badly. resounded like a poignant awareness, sad for life going around forever, want to escape but can’t walk. The next stanza shifts to a completely different tone of euphoria:
Then one day, I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk compatriots are happy to sing
On nine floors high in the sky
The poet recalls the day when I saw me, that is, the day when I looked into my heart, I saw myself as an adult, and found the truth in life. This is when the poet feels happy. That happiness is compared by the author to the image of a lark gently flying in the sky.
This is a very unique comparison image. That joy and happiness is subtly expressed by To’ Huu with the words drunkenness, singing joy, immense heaven. Especially with a verse as gentle as a lark, To Huu used up to six equal bars, thus expressing the fluttering in the poet’s soul — an ideal passionate soul. Returning to reality, the poet is full of mood:
Until here, until here
How many days I dreamed through the examination door.
I collect it all in silence
Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds.
The verse opens the above stanza as a lament. This is the regret of the past, the sorrow in the present pain. Now it is repeated twice, emphasizing the pity. And now all the soldier’s soul is directed to the outside life: I dream through the door for many days.
However, leaving the whole stanza is the sadness of being shackled in bondage, squeezing in silence. And if before, the image of a bird’s wings was compared to describe ideal ecstasy, now it is associated with sadness. Thereby we can see the freedom aspiration of the revolutionary soldier. At the end of the poem, the chorus is sounded for the second time in the poem:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Oh, the countryside, the homeland, remember!
This chorus gives the poem a special structure: it opens with loneliness, nostalgia, and so does the ending. Therefore, it can be said that memorization is the main feature covering 44 lines of the poem.
Missing Dong – the name of the poem opened with nostalgia. But the poem is not only about lame memory, remembering people who are passionate about ideals, longing for freedom. That is also the beauty in the quality of the revolutionary soldier in To Huu’s poetry in particular and the Vietnamese revolutionary soldiers in general.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 1
To Huu (1920 – 2002) whose real name is Nguyen Kim Thanh, came from a poor Confucian family in Phu Lai village, Quang Tho commune, Quang Dien district, Thua Thien – Hue province. At the age of sixteen, he gained revolutionary enlightenment and joined the Communist Youth League. At the age of eighteen, he was admitted to the Communist Party of Indochina.
To Huu’s life is associated with the cause of national liberation struggle. To Huu witnessed, attended and contributed to that long process as a resilient revolutionary soldier and a poet carrying the poetic soul of the times. To Huu poetry gathers and crystallizes the humanistic tradition and spiritual strength of the indomitable Lac Hong lineage. He deserves to be the flagship of Vietnamese revolutionary poetry.
Since then (1937 – 1946) was To Huu’s first collection of poems, marking a very important moment in the poet’s life: being enlightened to the communist ideal and decisively choosing for himself the only right path. revolutionary path to liberate the nation from the yoke of colonial and feudal slavery. The poem Nho was co-written in the context that the author was detained by the French colonialists in Thua Phu prison (Hue) in July 7 for “crime” of propagating youth and students against the French.
If the song Mindfulness in prison was inspired by the familiar sounds of life outside, when the song When you tu how was formed from the sound of the bird, howling, in the song Remembering the dong, the poem’s inspiration was restored. evoked from the familiar singing of the homeland, stirring the poet’s soul.
To Huu is a son of Hue. Since childhood, the poet’s soul has been nourished by the pure and sweet source of famous songs and songs such as Nam ai, Nam Binh, second roof, push roof… Therefore, the song has many meanings. meaning for a young prisoner with a poet’s heart. The singing voice aroused in the poet’s mind many images of loving life in the beloved homeland.
The poem “Remembering” reflects the lonely and sad mood of a young prisoner who is separated from the vibrant working environment, and has to be far away from his beloved compatriots and compatriots. In Tam Tam in prison, that mood is expressed in a vibrant and strong way; while in Me Dong, it is deep and painful.
Remembering copper is a way to concretize the object of nostalgia. Although in the nostalgia there are familiar images of fields and villages, but by extension it is nostalgia for the homeland, for loved ones, for the days of living in love and warmth.
The poem can be divided into four sections. The first three paragraphs are the three nostalgia expressed after the repeated rhetorical question: What is deeper than… The last paragraph consists of four stanzas and two sentences that summarize the poet’s feelings in the present.
Nostalgia stretching throughout the poem is expressed by the author in many different artistic methods. First of all, rhetorical questions are used as the chorus: What is as deep as midday nostalgia, What is as deep as lonely afternoons. These are verses with modern artistic nuances of New Poetry that have shown the longing, longing and extreme loneliness of the young man in the middle of the imperial prison.
The opening verse of each stanza is repeated several times emphasizing the intensity of the nostalgia. There is nothing deeper than a structure that asserts nothing deeper, more powerful; The nostalgic days are the days when the poet has to live in solitary confinement.
The interrogative word What combined with the deep adjective makes the verse like a question that stings the heart. The evocative agent is the familiar chant of the homeland of Hue; like the sound of walking clogs in the song Tu Tu in Prison. Those are the sounds of everyday life that always echo in the poet’s memory.
During the days of being confined in prison, the poet’s soul always turned to the outside life with all his nostalgia and love. The long chanting on the river, echoing near and far, revived many images of loving life in the poet’s mind. Most of the time, the image of the land with the umbilical cord cut and buried together with the villagers working hard in the fields:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!
Where is the smell of the wind and the smell of the earth
Where is the cool and peaceful bamboo field
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields of cassava?
Where are the ways I walk for eternity?
The low cottage hamlet sleeps quietly
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on…
This is a picture of nature and daily life of the poet’s motherland, a small village with lush green hills and fruit trees, with An Cuu bridge quietly reflecting on the floating Huong Giang river. The scenery is so beautiful and the people are so warm! But now, the beloved homeland is only a distance from the prison wall, but why is it so far away?! The agonizing questions that are repeated over and over reflect the inconsolable nostalgia, anxiety, and longing:
Where is the fragrant alcohol wind…,
Where is the cool bamboo field…,
Where is each cell…,
Where are the potato fields…,
Where are the roads…,
Where is the low cottage… ?
Everything that is close and familiar in life is respectfully described by To Huu in poetry. The author tries to capture the images and sounds of everyday life but how sexy it is to himself in prison. Now, the poet can only see, hear, and feel the hometown scene in his imagination with his heart filled with nostalgia.
The poetic tone, sobbing, expresses the endless nostalgia that is swirling and overflowing in the poet’s heart. The outbursts of emotions uttered in heartfelt, moving poetry:
Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons,
Oh dear, dear countryside!
The farmers are as gentle as the land, year round with sunshine and dew, and hard work early in the afternoon are mentioned by the poet with great affection. The hard life cannot lose the healthy and lovely beauty in their body and soul. The lovely, idyllic figures with the look of hard work appear one after another in the poet’s nostalgia:
Where are the backs bent down the furrows
But the mud of hope is fragrant
And where are all those hands?
Like the sky in the early morning?
Where are the misty afternoons covering the fields?
Soft rice in the riverside
Echoing in the sound of rice carts
A voice that brought the pit of the brain.
The image of an old mother and deceased relatives also slowly appeared in the stream of memories, making the nostalgia even more intense and the heart sobbing infinitely and endlessly:
Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh dear miss, oh dear miss
Oh, lonely old mother!
Where are the old souls?
Those familiar with the wind and rain
The innocent souls are like the earth
Sweet potato cassava love is very honest!
The interrogative message Tu placed at the beginning of the sentence along with a series of exclamation words has naturally and honestly expressed the poet’s emotional attachment to the life and people of the homeland. It seems that the young communist soldier is immersed in nostalgia, in the endless stream of memories. Readers clearly feel the loneliness and suffering of the prisoner at this time.
After the inconsolable nostalgia, the poet remembers the first days of being enlightened to the revolutionary ideal. Emotional circuits develop very closely with psychological logic. Two stages in the search for truth have been summarized by the poet in two stanzas:
Where are the old days, I miss me
Confused to find a reason to love life
Wandering around and around
Wanting to escape, alas, steps do not leave.
Those were the days when young patriotic students were wondering about the many turns of life, wanting to escape from a cramped and stuffy life but could not find the way out because they had not been illuminated by the communist ideals. Remembering those dark days is to feel more clearly the great happiness when the Sun of truth shines through the heart.
Recalling the early days of enthusiastically walking on the revolutionary path with so much hope, optimism, and belief is to be more aware of our sad plight now. The poet seemed to suddenly awaken after long days of being immersed in longing nostalgia, returning with ideal passion, with a longing for freedom and action. The tone of the poem, which was sad, suddenly turned cheerful and elated:
Then one day, I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk compatriots are happy to sing
On nine sky-high floors…
The emotional circuit in the poem is developed from nostalgia, remembering familiar silhouettes of the homeland, family, remembering the elderly mother, remembering the deceased, remembering the past days and finally re-casting in the poem. from all have general meanings:
Until here, until here
How many days have I dreamed of going through the doctor’s door?
I collect it all in silence
Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds.
Comparative image: Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds, it shows the spirit of nostalgia for the country, in fact it is nostalgia for the homeland, compatriots and comrades, and at the same time, the fierce desire for freedom of the revolutionary soldier. is in prison.
The two closing sentences are the repetition of the first two lines, creating a circular structure. The poem closes, but the poetic emotion continues to expand like many concentric waves, each time spreading far and wide, spreading without limit;
Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons
Oh dear, dear countryside!
The poem Remembering Dong has successfully described the mood of communist prisoners. The repeated nostalgia shows the burning desire for freedom and the deep love of the homeland of the patriotic young man who is boiling with enthusiasm. That is also the driving force that motivates soldiers and poets to commit themselves to the revolutionary cause of liberating the homeland.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 8
To Huu is known and remembered in Vietnamese poetry as a poet with a lyrical soul. And more importantly, his poetry is associated with the cause of national liberation struggle. Perhaps To Huu witnessed, attended and contributed to that long process as a resilient revolutionary fighter and a poet carrying the poetic soul of the times.
To Huu poetry seems to have gathered and crystallized the humanistic tradition and spiritual strength of the indomitable Lac Hong breed. He deserves to be “The flagship of Vietnamese revolutionary poetry”. To Huu has many outstanding and unique poems and one of them must be mentioned the work “Remembering Dong”.
We already know that the song “Thoughts in prison” is inspired by the familiar sounds of life outside, the song “When you tu how” is formed from the sound of a bird tu Howling, signaling the arrival of summer, in the song “Remembering” bronze’, it can be said that poetic inspiration is evoked from the familiar singing of the homeland, stirring the poet’s soul.
As a child of Hue dreaming. So since childhood, the poet’s soul seems to have been nourished by the pure and sweet source of famous songs and chants such as Nam ai, Nam Binh, second roof, push roof… Maybe that’s why The chant means a lot to the young prisoner with a poet’s heart. The singing voice seemed to inspire, aroused in the poet’s mind many images of loving life in the beloved homeland.
The poem “Remembering the Dong” reflected the lonely and sad mood of a young prisoner who was separated from the vibrant working environment and had to be far away from his compatriots and dear comrades. If the reader finds it very easy in “The mind in prison”, that mood is expressed in a vibrant and strong way.
The opposite seems to be the case, but in Me Dong, it is deep and painful. Remembering copper is a way to concretize the object of nostalgia. Although in the nostalgia there are familiar images of fields and villages, but by extension it is nostalgia for the homeland, for loved ones, for the days of living in love and warmth.
The poem “Remembering Dong” can be divided into four paragraphs. Divided into the first three paragraphs are three nostalgia expressed after the repeated rhetorical question: What is as deep as… The last paragraph consists of four stanzas and two sentences that summarize the poet’s confidant in the present.
Nostalgia seems to stretch throughout the poem expressed by the author in many different artistic methods. First of all, rhetorical questions are used as the chorus: What is as deep as midday nostalgia, What is as deep as lonely afternoons. These are verses with modern artistic nuances of New Poetry that have shown the longing, longing and extreme loneliness of the young man in the middle of the imperial prison.
The opening lines of each stanza are repeated many times emphasizing the intensity and pain of nostalgia. “Nothing is as deep as” is the structure that affirms nothing deeper, more powerful; The nostalgic days are the days when the poet has to live in solitary confinement.
The interrogative word What combined with the deep adjective makes the verse like a question that stings the heart. The evocative agent is the familiar chant of the homeland of Hue; like the sound of walking clogs in the song Tu Tu in Prison. Those are the sounds of everyday life that always echo in the poet’s memory.
During the days of being confined in prison, the poet’s soul always turned to the outside life with all his nostalgia and love. The long chanting on the river, echoing near and far, revived many images of loving life in the poet’s mind. Most of the time, the image of the land with the umbilical cord cut and buried together with the villagers working hard in the fields:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!
Where is the smell of the wind and the smell of the earth
Where is the cool and peaceful bamboo field
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields of cassava?
Where are the ways I walk for eternity?
The low cottage hamlet sleeps quietly
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on…
This is a picture of nature and daily life of the poet’s motherland, a small village with lush green hills and fruit trees, with An Cuu bridge quietly reflecting on the floating Huong Giang river. The scenery is so beautiful and the people are so warm! But now, the beloved homeland is only a distance from the prison wall, but why is it so far away?! The agonizing questions that are repeated over and over reflect the inconsolable nostalgia, anxiety, and longing:
Where are the fragrant dunes…, Where are the cool bamboo fields…, Where are the rice fields…, Where are the sweet potato fields…, Where are the roads…, Where are the low cottages… ? Everything that is close and familiar in life is respectfully described by To Huu in poetry. The author tries to capture the images and sounds of everyday life but how sexy it is to himself in prison. Now, the poet can only see, hear, and feel the hometown scene in his imagination with his heart filled with nostalgia.
It can be said that the opening poetic tone in the song is like a bitter, sobbing expression, expressing the endless nostalgia that is swirling and overflowing in the poet’s heart. The overflowing emotions uttered in heartfelt, moving poetry:
Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons,
Oh dear, dear countryside!
The farmers are as gentle as the earth, learning to work hard all year round, in the sun and in the morning dew, and are mentioned by the poet with great affection. Life in poverty and poverty still cannot lose the healthy and lovely beauty in their body and soul. The lovely, idyllic figures with the look of hard work appear one after another in the poet’s nostalgia:
Where are the backs bent down the furrows
But the mud of hope is fragrant
And where are all those hands?
Like the sky in the early morning?
Where are the misty afternoons covering the fields?
Soft rice in the riverside
Echoing in the sound of rice carts
A voice that brought the pit of the brain.
The images of the elderly mother and deceased relatives are words full of words, those images seem to slowly appear in the stream of memories, making the nostalgia even more intense and the heart sobbing infinitely and endlessly. :
Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh dear miss, oh dear miss
Oh, lonely old mother!
Where are the old souls?
Those familiar with the wind and rain
The innocent souls are like the earth
Sweet potato cassava love is very honest!
The interrogative message Tu placed at the beginning of the sentence along with a series of exclamation words has naturally and honestly expressed the poet’s emotional attachment to the life and people of the homeland. It seems that the young communist soldier is immersed in nostalgia, in the endless stream of memories. Readers clearly feel the loneliness and suffering of the prisoner at this time.
After the inconsolable nostalgia, it seems to keep cutting and cutting. To Huu always remembers the first days when he was enlightened to the revolutionary ideal. The emotional circuit in the above verse seems to have developed very well with psychological logic. The two stages in the search for truth are summarized by the poet in two stanzas:
Where are the old days, I miss me
Confused to find a reason to love life
Wandering around and around
Wanting to escape, alas, steps do not leave.
Those were the days when young patriotic students were wondering about the many turns of life, wanting to escape from a cramped and stuffy life but could not find the way out because they had not been illuminated by the communist ideals. Remembering those dark days is to feel more clearly the great happiness when the Sun of truth shines through the heart.
Recalling the early days of enthusiastically walking on the revolutionary path with so much hope, optimism, and belief is to be more aware of our sad plight now. The poet seemed to suddenly awaken after long days of being immersed in longing nostalgia, returning with ideal passion, with a longing for freedom and action. The tone of the poem, which was sad, suddenly turned cheerful and elated:
Then one day, I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk compatriots are happy to sing
On nine sky-high floors…
The emotional circuit in the poem is developed from nostalgia, remembering familiar silhouettes of the homeland, family, remembering the elderly mother, remembering the deceased, remembering the past days and finally re-casting in the poem. from all have general meanings:
Until here, until here
How many days have I dreamed of going through the doctor’s door?
I collect it all in silence
Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds.
The unique comparison image has the image of “Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds” as it shows the spirit of nostalgia. And in fact, it is the nostalgia for the homeland, compatriots, comrades, and at the same time the intense desire for freedom of the revolutionary soldier who is in prison.
The last two lines of the poem are also a repetition of the first two lines. It is this unique texture that creates the circular structure. The poem seems to close, but the poetic emotion continues to expand like many concentric waves, that wave is spreading farther and farther, spreading without limit;
Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons
Oh dear, dear countryside!
In the poem “Remembering the Dong”, To Huu successfully described the mood of the communist prisoner. The nostalgia burns so intensely and repeatedly, expressing the burning desire for freedom and the deep love of the homeland of the patriotic young man who is boiling with enthusiasm. That is also the driving force that motivates the soldier-poet to commit to the revolutionary cause of liberating the homeland of this country.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 3
To Huu is a great poet of modern Vietnamese poetry. With seven large volumes, his poetry is considered a poetic chronicle of the Vietnamese revolution. For To Huu, the path of poetry is also the path of revolution. His poetry parallels the revolutionary path and reflects the important revolutionary stages of the nation. The poem Remembering the Dong is the nostalgia for the countryside, the scenery of people and comrades of a young communist prisoner during his imprisonment in Thua Thien Hue prison.
In July 7, To Hu was arrested by the French colonialists and imprisoned in Thu Thien Hue prison. Although imprisoned in prison, he still wrote poetry. The poem “Memong Dong” was composed in that situation and is quoted in the poem: That word in the chain. This is a typical poem of the collection of poems.
“Loneliness is a scene of prison body / Open ears and fiery heart..” That was the most obvious feeling when To Huu was arrested, isolated from the outside life. Therefore, a sound, a sound outside reverberating in the poet’s heart also evokes an inconsolable nostalgia in the poet’s heart. It is not the anxious howling of a bird calling summer like in the poem When the child is howling, but a familiar song of the countryside:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!
The poem evoked from familiar chants became the chorus again and again: Nostalgia; solitude. By repeating 4 times the image of a chant, the poet expressed his sympathy with the lonely, cold feeling of the prisoner.
The song is like a reminiscent highlight, causing many familiar images of the countryside to appear:
Where is the smell of the wind and the smell of the earth
Where is the shelter to breathe peacefully
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields of cassava?
The sound of singing reminds me of my hometown.
The world outside is the countryside, the images of people, the scents, the colors, the sounds. Those are familiar, painful images of the homeland and the country. In the distance, the poet’s nostalgia seems to be more intense. In the distance, the images, smells, sounds, colors… of the homeland become even more intimate.
That nostalgia for the countryside is also the nostalgia for the working people – the industrious, simple countrymen, used to “wind and rain”, “gentle as the earth”, “very honest”:
Where are the backs bent down the furrows
But the mud of hope is fragrant
And where are all those hands?
Like the sky in the early morning?
Those are the people who plow all year round and sell their faces to the land and their backs to heaven. It was a farmer with a hard, arduous furrow, his back bent over the years. However, in them, there is a shining beauty of pure quality, even in the black mud but still fragrant. It is they, the people who work in the countryside, who are the ones who sow the rays of hope in the future.
The poet continues his nostalgia with images: dew, rice, the sound of a cart, and a singing voice. All are familiar images and sounds of the countryside. And the poet remembers those images fondly. From that nostalgia, thinking about his own imprisonment, a little heartbreak suddenly crept into the revolutionary poet’s mind:
Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh dear miss, oh dear miss
Oh, lonely old mother!
All that is most familiar, dearest, but now “no where”. A big question resounded without answer like a knife stabbing the prisoner’s heart, becoming painful and pitiful. Now, when in laos, everything is separate and more distant than ever. Oh dear, the chorus repeated twice in the verse has shown the poet’s inconsolable nostalgia. And in that nostalgia, shows the image of an old mother – the person the author remembers most in his nostalgia.
The poetic circuit continues with intense and overflowing nostalgia. When people remember, people love but can’t see, can’t see, can’t return to love, it makes people more tormented, more gut-wrenching. And after moments of sadness for his plight in prison, the soldier who loves life perseveres – struggles with moments of weakness to overcome.
He recalled his own image of the “old days”, from the time when he “wrote to find a reason to love life”, “followed around forever” to one day come to the revolution and meet the communist ideal. And so the prisoners longed for freedom, wanted to be released from prison to re-engage in the school to fight for the revolutionary cause.
Then one day, I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk and happy singing
On nine sky-high floors…
The image of the nightingale is a symbol of the desire to fly in the free sky, to return to activities in the hearts of the people, to return to a free human life. This is the happiest mood of the soldier in prison.
The author’s mood development in the poem is shown quite truthfully, completely and seamlessly. Nostalgia is awakened from a “court brings the pit of the brain”. The song evokes the countryside outside from the scenery to the familiar shapes. Then I remember the days when I was still free to work for the revolution, and finally returned to the painful reality of the prison scene and the desire to be free and dedicated.
The whole poem is imbued with nostalgia, unrelenting love; making readers admire the image of a revolutionary soldier – poet To Huu.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 7
The song “Mong Dong” was composed when the poet was being held in the prison of Thua Phu (Hue). The whole poem is the mind of the prisoner-soldier who is deeply attached to nature, life and people of his homeland.
In the “lonely noon” of the life without freedom behind the door, the nostalgia in the prisoner’s heart – the poet rose from a familiar sound – the chant – echoed into the prison. So many memories of the homeland at the same time appear in the mind. Chorus:
– Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!
– There’s nothing like a lonely afternoon
Oh dear, dear homeland!
is repeated many times emphasizing the poignant, painful, and anxious sadness in the human heart. Images of the countryside, villages, people, etc. gradually appeared in the memory of the soldier, who was deeply attached to his homeland.
The images, sounds, colors, and flavors of the rustic life in the countryside burst and appear: the fragrant wind of the house, the cool bamboo (bamboo groves), the lush green umbrellas, the sweet potato fields. , cottage villages, soft rice paddy, the sound of water carts, voices calling holes,… In prison, the poet is still attached to life.
In the nostalgia of love, the people and scenery of the homeland become more and more vivid, strangely close. The most painful nostalgia for the countryside is the nostalgia for the industrious peasants who are as gentle as the earth, very honest, used to the sun and rain. In the memory and soul of the poet, those lovely and precious rural people are the ones who own the land, make crops, create life – the silent, persistent but eternal hope of the community. Village:
Where are the backs bent down the furrows
But the mud of hope is fragrant
And where are all those hands?
Like the sky in the early morning?
The poem is like carving into heaven and earth a healthy statue – a portrait of a worker, creating a timeless beauty of labors that bring the value of life, hope for the future.
Where is the message from, where is it, dear, dear, … making the nostalgia deeper and more anxious. “Remembering copper” is remembering a lot of what makes life outside the prison, but now, the soldier is in a situation that has to be separated from all. Feeling nostalgic, heartbroken is a feeling, sadness is very real.
– The latter part of the poem creates a turning point in the author’s thought circuit. After a moment of deep nostalgia, the soldier recalled his own image of the old days, the time when he “followed in circles” to come to the revolution, with the Party as the awakening of reason that did not allow the poet. forever immersed in nostalgia.
And so the poet longs for freedom, longs to be released from prison to re-enter the school of struggle. The image of the songbird “Drunk countrymen, sunny and happy to sing – On nine high floors of the sky” is full of soaring romantic inspiration, it creates a high contrast between the dream and the grim reality of ” prison situation”.
The mind of the soldier in the prison is shown quite honestly and seamlessly: Nostalgia is awakened from “a cry that brings the pit of the brain”. The song evokes the country world from scenery to familiar figures – from people used to hard labor to lonely old mothers. Then remember the days of freedom; finally return to the reality of the “prison situation” to remind the heart to overcome the situation, persevere in life and believe in tomorrow.
Together with the other poems in the collection Tu That, Nho Dong gives Vietnamese poetry before 1945 a unique revolutionary lyrical “me”.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 4
“Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh dear miss, oh dear miss
Oh, lonely old mother!
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!…”
Poetry is sung in the prison, echoing the earnest anxiety of the 19-year-old To Huu young man towards a free life, all images and emotions blend to form a nostalgia that connects the poet with the outside world. Remember to write in the “Chain” section of the poem “From that” in the silence of midday space so that the author can hear the echo of his heart most clearly.
Engaged in prison at a very young age, To Huu opens the “Chain” section with Tu Tu in prison, clearly feeling the situation of loss of freedom, determining the iron will of the soldier, automatically members to overcome adversity, separate reason and emotions somewhat extreme and impulsive. But coming to Me Dong, we encounter a completely different To Huu, more mature after the first challenges.
If we do not understand this situation, we think that the poem carries the mood of a foreign visitor returning to the old country! It is easy to understand, when To Huu wrote poetry, it was also when Poetry Moi was dominating the literature, as a young person who loved poetry, the poet certainly easily felt the hearts of young people his age.
Is it a coincidence that when he was in prison, To Huu wrote a series of “Remembering people”, “Remembering Dong”… as a different interpretation from The Lu’s “Remembering the forest” – waterfall of the tiger in the scene. miss the glorious time! It is also remembering, but romantic poets let nostalgia arouse pride and sorrow for personal identity, promoting and affirming the position of the ego.
To Huu, through nostalgia, establishes connections with the outside world, penetrates both the beauty and sadness of life, conveys the love of life and also the awareness of the young revolutionary soldier. , both wistful and excited. There is an I – soldier and poet – more and more loving, full of optimism and belief in the ideal, in the spirit of “giving everything to worship theism”!
After the moment of feeling “there is nothing as deep as …” as a way to explain my heart, rushing back on the lines of Me Dong’s poems are many vivid images of the familiar countryside:
“Where the wind is fragrant and the earth is fragrant
Where are the cool bamboo trees to breathe peacefully
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields?”
The space behind the nostalgia is simple and familiar, with a feeling of searching, regretting, and appreciating the poet’s beauties. The village comes to mind with the scent of the land, the shade of the village’s bamboo, the green color of the rice and the sweet taste of cassava, evoking a feeling of peace, lovely and precious.
The look from the mood of a person who has lost his freedom is very poignant when “a shout” echoes in, revealing many images of life outside, which are more reminiscent and suggestive. And the poet also feels the “solitude” of the lives that surround the bondage, quietly drifting away in the sorrowful rhythm of life:
“Where are the ways I walk forever
The low cottage hamlet sleeps quietly
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on…”
Is it sad that not only the fate of wandering behind the bamboo ramparts of the village, the lives in the dark bring with them the stuffiness of the “murky” life, evoking the situation of the country immersed in slavery! The “loneliness” is not due to the impact of external space but originates from the awareness of the soldier who has committed himself on the path of revolution, realizing the tragedy of his nation, his compatriots!
The sympathy for the lives “constantly but drifting” like a constriction in the heart of the poet, like a pitiful sharing. The picture of life in “missing copper” is not only a beauty but also a haunting feeling of the lost people’s feelings, like a piece of Nam Ai from Hue…
Sadness echoes from the song, making an echo from the poet’s heart to the outside: “Nothing is as deep as the lonely noon – Oh dear countryside!” Is the poet raising the “call of the piano”, awakening the souls in tune? Appreciate how many poems feel about the beauty of people making life:
“Where are the backs bent down the furrows
But the mud of hope is fragrant
And where are all those hands?
Is it like the morning sky?”
The feeling of attachment to people comes from the awareness of the relationship between the soldier and the revolutionary masses. The stanza reveals the optimism, the poem evokes the verse in “The sowing season, the afternoon” by the French romantic poet V. Hugo:
“An old man is tossing
Sow the next season in the ground.
The shadow of the tall old man
Step on the deep plowed trench.
He must be very confident.
On a good day.”
(Translated by Xuan Dieu)
To Huu’s stanza is not a single silhouette of an old man, but rather an overview of the image of “backs bent down to the furrow” – the image of a simple but great people with a hard life that lights up hope for the future. future, “scattered like the morning sky”!
Is it a coincidence that the meeting in the symbolic image of the “hand” sowing seeds of the French romantic poet and the young soldier To Huu? You have to open your heart to life to fully express your love and faith in people so earnestly. Between the farmers in the field diligently and the soldier fighting for the beauty of life, there was the sympathy of the person who sowed the seeds for a good future!
The chorus “Nothing is as deep as the longing afternoons…” is played again, after the disturbing images of life: the afternoon dew covers the fields, the rice is soft, the rhythms echo the “sound of the water cart”. in harmony with “a song” like touching the heart, making nostalgia like deeper, more settled!
Perhaps it is only now that the poet really understands the feeling of a person confined within the four walls of a cell to understand how great a free life is! The following stanzas have emotional transitions, echoing personal feelings. The poet nostalgically remembers and inscribes the shadows of life into his sensitive heart, when reality is alone facing the lonely space of the prison:
“Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh dear miss, oh dear miss
Oh, lonely old mother!”
I suddenly discovered the weakest moment of the boy To Huu! But it is a perfectly reasonable state of mind, when people are surrounded by loneliness and silence, the more anxiously they remember their loved ones, especially the mother, as if they want to find a shelter, to be patted. about love.
More interestingly, in this stanza, we meet the feeling that was once expressed in New Poetry “Wow, oh longing, oh longing – A lost bird at the end of a thousand” (Che Lan Vien). Indeed, To Huu’s poetry “emerges from New Poetry” but the spirit is completely different. The nostalgia after the poet’s “wow…” lament is that the “old and lonely mother” is very specific, very ordinary and creates a feeling of closeness and intimacy, not a vanishing figure flying into nothingness. like their poem Che!
Mother here is also the homeland, the most sacred, deepest and most enduring thing in human life. The poem also makes us understand deeply about the communist soul. Then from his motherland, the poet remembers the “simple”, “honest” people who bring with them the soul of the country and the love of the country.
Those touching images no longer belong to the external world but have become flesh and blood, the soul of the poet. Then, it is these feelings that give the poet strength and joy. consciously looking back at himself, affirming a definitive and correct choice. The two stanzas speak of themselves as the contrast between the past and the present, filled with the happiness of being integrated with the working masses:
“Then one day I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk compatriots are happy to sing
On nine floors of sky-high…”
That is also the time when the poet fully reveals his ego. Not a sad, arrogant, lonely and weak ego like other romantic poets of the same age, but a self filled with love and faith in life.
The poetic image recreates the emotional and sacred moment when the poet stood on the fighting team: “From that moment in my heart the summer sun shines – The sun of truth shines through my heart…”. No longer the hesitation, “wandering”, “circling” of the time “Worried to find reasons to love life”, but actually the poet has grown up, firmly believed, ready to fight for the ideal.
Despite the reality, the poet has to suffer imprisonment, but still “dreams of going through the doctor’s door for many days”, directing his heart to a free life, although a little pensive “like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds”, but still shines. up a desire to spread wings, to fly in the free sky.
The poem Remembering Dong carries the sound of a sentimental chorus of loving people and life, creating various emotional states of the lyrical characters. The essence of “remembering copper” is remembering the close connections with life, the poet’s self-advocating reminder, in prison situations.
The poetic voice is restless, imbued with the deep affections of people who understand and love the country and people, and yearn for freedom. It was the simple life and simple people that gave the poet spiritual strength, optimism in the face of circuTaxances, and steadfastness in the first challenges of his life. The most precious thing is the youthful and fresh quality of the poetic soul full of revolutionary romantic inspiration, reason and emotion that blend to help us understand more the beauty of the poet’s soul, representing the spirit of the soldiers. young communist.
Such verses in the memory of dong in particular and the collection of poems from that word in general help us better understand and appreciate his father’s generation, which will forever resonate in the hearts of future generations.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 6
To Huu’s poem “Memong Dong” was inspired by a familiar chant of his homeland and that song became the emotional circuit of the poem.
– Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Lonely by the river a shout!
– Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons
Oh dear, dear countryside!
– Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Lonely by the river a shout!
– Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons
Oh dear, dear countryside!
In terms of lyrical circuTaxances, when listening to a lonely, lonely voice in the middle of the afternoon, the poet feels all the solitude, and suddenly feels nostalgic for the country, for the hard-working people in the country. It is the sympathy and harmony of many solitudes: the solitude of the desert space, the empty noon time, the sad, hard and lonely life right in the hearts of people who are imprisoned between four walls. stone, isolated from the outside life.
In terms of content, the two verses echo a lament. The cry confirms the deep loneliness we are experiencing. Also the cry of a philosophy about this incomparable, extreme loneliness! Thereby, one can see a desolate heart because of the isolation and lack of scenery of outside life. So explosion is the solitude of a person who earnestly loves life but is isolated from life.
The artistic effect of repetition is first of all associative. Repetition and alliteration is a way of linking different, even distant, pieces of content seamlessly. But more important is the expressive effect. This repetition always acts as a chorus, it emphasizes, emphasizes emotions, deepens ideas. Repeatedly, the words create a cyclical rhythm, constantly making a feeling become restless, even more and more heavy.
The countryside appears very boldly through the author’s nostalgia. Those are the scenery like fields with fragrant dunes, lush green umbrellas, sweet potato fields; The neighborhood is quiet, the road is tired over the years. All are familiar simple scenes that are very dear. They are the silhouettes of hard-working, hard-working people, and especially the silhouettes of a single old mother – human lives forever attached to the land.
They are as simple and resilient as the earth. In short, Missing Dong is remembering the whole outside life that has now become separate for the imprisoned soldier. Missing copper is a quite authentic and complete mood with natural and seamless happenings. Nostalgia began to rise when hearing the cheers. The chant evoked all that was in the country world outside.
First, remember the scenery, then remember the human figures: from the laborers in the fields to the dearest figure, the old and lonely mother. Then I remember myself in the days when I was not imprisoned, my hair was being spread in the sky of freedom. When finally returning to the reality of being imprisoned, the author’s heart is heavy with a constant nostalgia.
Nostalgia starts from the present, goes back to the past, and then finally returns to the present; from the reality of confinement back to the time of freedom and then back to the reality of confinement. It has not only nostalgia but also full of pity, not only sorrowful nostalgia for life but also burning desire for freedom. And more importantly, underneath that mood is a discontent, resentment with reality.
The poem is called Missing Dong, but emotions and images do not stop at nostalgia for copper, but also nostalgia for life, longing for freedom and dissatisfaction with reality.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 5
To Huu was active in the student movement in Hue, was imprisoned by the French in Thua Phu prison (Hue, 1939). In prison, To Huu composed many poems expressing the feelings of a young revolutionary, which were later collected in the Chains section of the collection of poems Tu. The poem “Remembering the field” is the passionate, earnest and clear thoughts of the young poet towards the fields, his homeland, his loved ones, and the memories of a time of exciting revolutionary activities.
The poem has the title “donation to Vinh” (Nguyen Chi Thanh), a fellow countryman, who was involved in revolutionary activities and was imprisoned together in Thua Phu prison. Perhaps the poem was directly inspired by Vinh’s singing voice in lonely prison afternoons:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout.
The singing voice of the prisoner evoked the image of the countryside, waking up in the heart of the poet who loves his homeland and villages:
Where is the smell of the wind and the smell of the earth
Where are the cool bamboo trees to breathe peacefully
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields of cassava?
The word “where”‘ creates an earnest melody, expressing the nostalgia welling up in the young poet’s heart. The poet’s senses are awakened to the countryside. The rich flavor of the wind, the land, and To Huu’s talent is just one word (alcohol) that evokes the image of Hue: “Where the wind is fragrant, the land is fragrant”. The author is also delicate in feeling, hearing the breath of “cool bamboo”, seeing each green gilded plot, and absorbing the taste of “sweet potato fields”.
In the poet’s nostalgia for the countryside, there are not only passionate feelings but also ideas, this is a new feature compared to contemporary romantic poets:
Where are the ways I walk for eternity?
Disputed neighbors sleep quietly
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on…
The familiar “roads” are too cramped, the cottages are so loving, why are they so poor! A stagnant country, “murky”, “unchanged”. Seeing the immutability of the countryside, but also of contemporary society, the thought of wanting to change and revolution has sprouted!
The “stirring” of that thought moved the whole chorus of the poem. From:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout.
Done:
Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons
Oh dear, dear countryside!
But the poet does not turn off his faith in life. The poet sends his hope to the people “with their backs bent into the furrow”, the hands that sow seeds “toss the sky in the morning”:
Where are the hunched backs in the furrows
But the mud of hope is fragrant
And where are all those hands?
Like the sky in the early morning?
The pompous images are reminiscent of Huygo’s poem “The sowing season, the afternoon”:
… Shadows swamp the field.
Describing clothes
The old man swings his fists like
Next season down the furrow
Tall and dark figure
Great in the deep fields
Surely people’s hearts believe
Where is the next month…
or is:
In the spreading night
Hear the whispers
The sower’s arm
Like reaching for the stars… (Translated by To Huu)
Prominent in the nostalgia is the image of familiar, close-knit people, recently close, but far away, separate:
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!
Where is the familiar image?
Why is the distance so far away?
The country people that the poet was familiar with “from the olden days”, and understood the nature, thoughts and feelings of life in those “windy and rainy” people:
The innocent souls are like the earth
Sweet potato cassava love is very honest!
And deep in the poet’s soul is the nostalgia for his old mother… The tender nostalgia rises up in the heart-pounding melody:
Wow, I miss you, I miss you
Oh, lonely old mother!
Then the poet remembered himself. The young man in the prison, looking for images of the “old” young man:
Where are the old days, I miss me
Wondering to find a reason to love life.
Indelible memories in the young revolutionary’s mind are moments of ideal encounter:
Then one day, I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk compatriots are happy to sing
On nine floors high in the sky.
The author reminisces in a very emotional way with appropriate comparative images (gentle as a lounging bird), with innocent pomp (on nine sky-high floors). With free birds, intoxicated with the countryside and wind, “happy singing” in the space of the high and wide countryside, the poet recalled the beautiful memory of the moment he encountered the revolutionary truth while acting. describe the longing of the free bird, now locked in a cage:
I collect it all in silence
Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds.
The poem Remembering Dong has sincerely and vividly expressed the mind of a young revolutionary who was imprisoned. The yearning for a free life, the feeling of nostalgia for the countryside, for the loved ones… are expressed by vivid and clear images and sounds.

Analysis of To Huu’s poem “Remembering Dong” No. 2
To Huu (1920 – 2002) came from a poor Confucian family in Phu Lai village, Quang Tho commune, Quang Dien district, Thua Thien – Hue province. To Huu’s life is associated with the cause of national liberation struggle. He contributed to Vietnamese literature, especially during the revolutionary period, his poetry as a resilient revolutionary soldier and a poet with the poetic soul of the times. To Huu’s works gather and crystallize humanistic traditions and national spiritual strength. He deserves to be the flagship of Vietnamese revolutionary poetry.
Remembering the bronze is one of the typical poems reflecting the lonely and sad mood of a young prisoner who was separated from the vibrant working environment, far from his compatriots and comrades These thoughts were expressed. in the poem Remembering Dong in a deep and painful way. Through the poem Remembering Dong, it has contributed to concretize the nostalgia for the homeland, the loved ones, the days of living in love and warmth.
The whole poem can be divided into four paragraphs, the first three are three deep nostalgia ending with a repeated rhetorical question: What is deeper than… The last paragraph consists of four stanzas and two sentences that summarize the poet’s confiding. in the present. With different unique artistic methods, that nostalgia stretches throughout the poem, starting with the use of rhetorical questions at the end of each stanza: What’s as deep as a sad afternoon? Remember, Nothing is as deep as a lonely afternoon.
Poems with modern artistic nuances of New Poetry contribute to expressing the longing, longing and extreme loneliness of the young man in the middle of a prison, looking forward to returning every day. equal is a structure that asserts that there is something, there is nothing, nothing is deeper, more powerful; Nostalgic noons are the days when the poet has to live in solitary confinement.
To Huu used rhetorical questions combined with strong adjectives to make the poem look like a question that hurt the heart. The familiar song of Hue is an excuse to call about nostalgia, it is like the sound of clogs in the song Tam Tu in prison.
Those sounds are deeply ingrained in the author’s own memory, just like the sound of Hue’s chant, the sound of the lunch chicken of Xuan Quynh’s poetry also sometimes pulls the lyrical character back to the nostalgia. so. The long chanting on the river, echoing near and far, revived many images of a simple and loving life in the poet’s mind.
Nothing is as deep as the nostalgic afternoon
Loneliness inside a shout!
Where is the smell of the wind and the smell of the earth
Where is the cool and peaceful bamboo field
Where are each green plated box?
Where are the sweet potato fields of cassava?
Where are the ways I walk for eternity?
The low cottage hamlet sleeps quietly
In the midst of those gloomy days
It doesn’t change, but it goes on and on…
The five words “where” appear in ten verses, like a regret of the author’s old years, now gone, just a reminder. Here the picture of nature and daily life of the poet’s motherland, a small village with green dunes and fruit trees, a bridge quietly reflecting down the indifferent Huong Giang river.
The scenery is so beautiful and the people are so warm. But the homeland now only lives in the author’s mind, when surrounded by four walls of prison. Worrying questions that are repeated over and over again reflect endless pain, longing and nostalgia:
Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons,
Oh dear, dear countryside!
The exclamation used, as a voice of the author’s heart, could not be kept in the heart forever, so he had to say: “Oh dear countryside!” . remembering the nostalgic afternoons, the countryside remembering familiar things, abundant love. The hard life of the poor farmers, but they can’t lose the healthy, lovely beauty in their body and soul. The familiar, idyllic figures with the look of hard work and labor reappeared in the poet’s nostalgia:
Where are the backs bent down the furrows
But the mud of hope is fragrant
And where are all those hands?
Like the sky in the early morning?
Where are the misty afternoons covering the fields?
Soft rice in the riverside
Echoing in the sound of rice carts
A voice that brought the pit of the brain.
The familiar silhouette appeared, the old mother loved her dearly, the rainy days were full of sunshine, the warm and intimate pieces of love, the poetic souls, like tightening the nostalgia with familiar images. But it’s all in the imagination:
Where is the familiar shape, where is it
Why is it so far away, so far away
Oh dear miss, oh dear miss
Oh my lonely old mother
Where are the old souls?
Those familiar with the wind and rain
The innocent souls are like the earth
Sweet potato cassava love is very honest!
It seems that the soldier is immersed in nostalgia, in the endless stream of memories. Making the reader feel very clearly the lonely and miserable mood of the prisoner at this moment, helpless with his mood, unable to get out. The important thing after all that nostalgia is when the author realizes the revolutionary ideal:
Where are the old days, I miss me
Confused to find a reason to love life
Wandering around and around
Wanting to escape, alas, steps do not leave.
Those were the days when the patriotic young man wondered about the many turns of life, wanted to escape from a cramped and stuffy life but could not find the way out because he had not been illuminated by the communist ideal. Recalling those dark days is to feel more clearly the great happiness when “the sun of truth shines through the heart”.
To Huu recalls the early days of enthusiastically walking on the revolutionary path with so many expectations and optimism, to be more aware of his current sad plight. The poet wakes up after long days immersed in longing nostalgia, returning with ideal passion, with a longing for freedom and action.
Then one day, I saw me
Gentle as a lark
Drunk compatriots are happy to sing
On nine sky-high floors…
The tone of the poem, which was sad, suddenly changed to cheerful and elated. Emotions changed from nostalgia for the homeland, remembering the familiar image and then she recast it into:
Until here, until here
How many days have I dreamed of going through the doctor’s door?
I collect it all in silence
Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds.
Immense nostalgia is compared to a comparative image: Like a sad bird that misses the wind and clouds, it shows the spirit of nostalgia, in fact, nostalgia for the homeland, compatriots and comrades, and at the same time, a strong desire for freedom. of the revolutionary soldier who was in prison. That bird, the bird of freedom, of love for the homeland, the bird soars to receive the beautiful ideal.
The two closing sentences are a repetition of the first two sentences, the author has used a ring structure, and the poem closes but the poetic emotion continues to expand and spread:
Nothing is as deep as lonely afternoons
Oh dear, dear countryside!
Remembering the bronze is a poem that successfully describes the feelings of communist prisoners, which are very real emotions, the repeated nostalgia expresses the burning desire for freedom along with the desire for freedom. The patriotic young man’s deep love for his homeland is boiling with enthusiasm. From those emotions, the author is determined to burn the will to overcome difficulties and challenges.
