Poetry
Gửi hương cho gió
Not translated into English
Xuân Diệu · 1945
Synopsis
Love poems in which the speaker wants to take everything at once, the mouth, the spring, the light, because he knows that nothing lasts. Ardour is inseparable there from the fear of time: scarcely has the season arrived than he sees it end, scarcely does he love than he counts the days. The language is direct, the images drawn from the body and the senses rather than from the old literary tradition, and the verse often says “I”.
Context
This is the second and last book of verse its author published before the revolution; the first, from 1938, had been prefaced by Thế Lữ and had opened to him the group that published it. Hoài Thanh and Hoài Chân had already included him among the poets of their anthology in 1942. Most of the pieces date from the years 1936 to 1944, and the mark of the French poets he read has been seen in them. After 1945, his work changes in substance, and it is these poems that continue to be recited.
Who it is for
Short, in Vietnamese. Love poems in a direct language, with no learned allusions; it is probably the most accessible book of modern Vietnamese poetry.
Prizes and reception
The nickname of king of love poetry came to its author from this book and from the one of 1938, and these poems remain the most recited in the country.