Poetry
Tiếng địch sông Ô
Not translated into English
Phạm Huy Thông · 1935
Synopsis
Surrounded at night on the bank of the Ô river, General Hạng Vũ hears rising from the enemy lines the tunes of his native land, played on the flute to demoralise his men. His soldiers recognise them one by one and leave. He remains alone with his companion Ngu Cơ before a river he could still cross, and the two bid each other farewell. The poem gives the floor to the defeated man without recounting his defeat.
Context
Its author was sixteen when he wrote it, drawing on the episode of the farewell of Hạng Vũ and Ngu Cơ in the romance of the Han and the Chu. The piece first appeared in a newspaper, in 1935, before being collected in a volume. It stands out from the short, languid pieces of his first books: Hoài Thanh and Hoài Chân, in the authoritative anthology of that generation, write that Vietnamese poetry had never had such heroic accents, and compare these verses to the epic poems of Victor Hugo.
Who it is for
A long poem in a single piece, in Vietnamese. It helps to know a little of the war between Chu and Han, which the text assumes is familiar.
Prizes and reception
The poem for which its author is remembered, and one of the few epic pieces produced by the New Poetry.