Topic: Analyzing the unique features of Nguyen Tuan’s artistic style expressed in the essay “Song Da ferryman”.
Lecture: River boat driver – Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Anh ( teacher)
“We are in the east of the river – Da Giang poisons the north”.
The beloved Da River today has given our people hydroelectricity, bringing light to all parts of the country. More than four decades ago, writer Nguyen Tuan wrote “Song Da”, in which there was an article “The boatman of the Da River” praising the majestic and magnificent scenery of the mountains and rivers and the bravery and talent. of the people of the North West. This essay is truly a “Flower Sheet”, a “Flower Page”, showing the unique features of the artistic style of Nguyen Tuan – a great artist, typical of modern Vietnamese prose: erudition. talented, unique.
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The essay has two characters – the image that leaves the reader with many aesthetic emotions, that is the image of the Da river and the boatman on Da Giang.
A few centuries ago, the way to the Northwest was mainly along the Da River, with a folk saying:
“How far is the way to Muong Le,
One hundred and seven waterfalls, one hundred and three rapids”.
Da River is majestic, both fierce and beautiful. Nguyen Tuan considers Da River to be a close friend, an “old man” with a lot of love and remembrance. Read a student to know more: Li Tien and Ba Bien Giang are two ancient names of Da Giang. And its length is 883 thousand meters, especially from the Vietnam – China border to the Trung Ha junction, it is 500 kilometers long with the number of dragons and snakes.
The fierce Da River has many waterfalls and rapids. Nguyen Tuan is like an adventurer – traveling far and knowing a lot, coming to the end of the world, telling us the names of many evil waterfalls, strange and strange names: En waterfall, John waterfall, Mo Tom, Mo Nang , Suoi Hoa, Hot Gio, Tieu waterfall, Bo waterfall, etc. The writer said that from Tieu waterfall down to Da river, it is quiet and peaceful; Thai people have a proverb: “Through Tieu waterfall, you can lie down on mats”.
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Upstream, the Da river bed has a constriction “like a pharynx”, the cliffs form “a deer, a tiger can leap from one bank to the other”. At the Hat Loong rapids, “water hits rocks, rocks push waves, waves push against wind, whirlwinds …” is several kilometers long! There are chasms with deep water intakes like concrete wells “the water breathes and gurgles like a choking manhole”, above which are lurking flocks of crows waiting for prey. The sound of the new waterfall is scary and strange like the roar of thousands of buffaloes that are nestling in the middle of the bamboo forest, and the burnt apricot forest. Nguyen Tuan made very “expensive” comparisons and associations that showed his observational and emotional way of thinking about Da Giang waterfalls and cliffs. At one point, he compared the fierce Da River with “appearance and heart” to the number one enemy of man. It is aggressive, sinister, cunning, cruel with many “lithic battles”, “bugs” with fierce stone generals, coldly standing guard the “door of death” and “door of birth” class with the enemies. sunken bunkers ambushed all over the river bed, ready to sink and break the passing boats. The Da River has a season again, and there is a charmingly beautiful passage: “In spring, the stream is jade green… In autumn, the face of the Da River turns red because of the wine…”. At the end of February and beginning of March, rice flowers bloomed in the mountains and forests of the Northwest “The Da River flows as long as a lyrical hair…”. The image of herds of deer eating grass, green cornfields, and blue-beamed fish scurrying across the river’s water “white belly like falling silver” evoke the wild and wild beauty of Da Giang.
Nguyen Tuan wrote wonderful and beautiful passages expressing the wild beauty of the Da River: ‘My boat floats on the Da River. The riverside scene here is quiet… The riverbank is as wild as a prehistoric bank. The river bank of the old soul.” Song Da became more and more poetic with “swallow-tail boats tied with classic ropes” in the middle region and “boats with their own blooms” in the downstream area. Song Da”, more than ever, we feel deeply the verse with the title: “So beautiful instead of singing on the river.” With the love of mountains and rivers of a talented person, Nguyen Tuan described the Da river as a song. The artistic space and aesthetic time are both real and dreamlike, which have aroused in the hearts of readers a dear love for Da Giang – a sacred piece of the soul of the Fatherland.
The image of the boatman on the Da River is depicted quite nicely. This person seems to lead us down the river, sometimes crossing waterfalls, sometimes riding rapids. He was a good businessman, well versed in the river trade. With a boat with six oars, he roamed up and down the river battlefield, “holding firmly the tactics of the river god and the rock god”. He took the boat through many gates of death to enter the gate of birth, down the river peacefully. For more than ten years, he carried the boat back and forth on the Da River, his voice “as loud as the sound of water in front of the rapids”. The hair is now gray, “the squishy head puts on a tall and neat body like horny, ebony substance”. His arms are “young” too; Looking at the seventy-year-old man, I thought I was standing in front of a muscular young man. His shoulder blades and chest emerged with “brown tubercles” traces of days of rowing over the waterfall. Nguyen Tuan called it the “Super Labor Medal”.
The writer goes in depth to describe him as a boatman driving a boat through three stone battles on a river battlefield. The scene of the rapids is extremely fierce and terrifying. Sometimes he described the waterfall through the sound of the water heard, at other times he described the visible tear as a close-up film. Inspiration was aroused, the writer unleashed a rich and rich vocabulary to describe the battle of the ferryman with the river god Rock. The spectacle of crossing rapids with so many shapes and shades, with so many faces and sounds, far and near hidden, many of the most dramatic and wacky situations depicted on a grand scale and scale, has made outstanding role as a brave and talented captain, conquering the cunning plots of the Song god, the Rock god. Courageous and decisive intentions make the boatman’s bravery strong. At times, the boat was like a bamboo arrow that “sprung” through the steam of microlithic bacteria. There were times when he “grasped the mane of the wave”, firmly grasped the stream of water, rushed through all the gates of death and rushed to the door of birth,… There were also cases where he was hit by the “unwilling” water current to the blow. The most dangerous thing is, the eyes explode with fireflies, but the ferryman is still awake to take the boat to escape!
Nguyen Tuan not only describes him as a ferryman while crossing the rapids, but also describes him after a day of fighting with the god Song Than Da, in order to highlight the calmness and relaxation of an experienced elder. , seasoned river water. When he stopped rowing, lit a fire in the cave, grilled rice tubes, the boatman only talked about “Anh Vu fish, blue beam fish”, the fish cellars in summer, the explosion was as loud as mines, explosive. As for the story of crossing the waterfall, there is nothing thrilling or memorable for him.
Nguyen Tuan is a master writer of languages. The sound of the waterfall was described by him as transformed and animated by a strangely rich vocabulary. On the surface of the rapids, “water hits rocks, rocks hit waves, waves push against wind”. The sound of the waterfall is heard from afar, very scary “like complaining … like begging…. like provoking… growling but mocking”, sometimes roaring like a herd of thousands of buffalos in a cage. In the middle of the burning forest!
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Nguyen Tuan used his extensive knowledge of geography, history, the military, sports, arts such as cinema, music, painting… even the slang of watercraft. to create beautiful and interesting passages. This is a negative attack, a counterattack, ambush, and a return attack. What is the microlithic battle, bunker, birth gate, death door, fortress… Which is the barn, armor, midfield, midfield defender, second line… The word used is expensive, the way to put it. The sentences are long and short, diverse, flexible, and interesting.
Onomatopoeia, synonym groups, associative comparisons, anthropomorphism… are very creative, new, interesting and interesting. Ho Xuan Huong wrote: “Smashing the clouds, kicking a few rocks” (“Self-love”) or “The green rock is green and spewing with moss (“Ba Doi Pass”). bravery with the lunar calendar – The country still frowns with mourning.” These are wonderful poems written in stone with meaningful meaning. Nguyen Tuan also has good verses written about rocks, about the stone battle in the Da River: ” Coordinated with rocks, the waterfall water cheered as a bar for the stone, majestic and majestic stones … “.
Nguyen Tuan is an erudite writer, talented in using his deep understanding of literature. A foreign verse, an ancient poem he used as a subject, few people know its origin? – And created a luxurious background for the autograph. He repeated the rhyme to talk about the legend of Son Tinh – Thuy Tinh competing for beauty, to love more Tan mountain and Da river:
“The mountains are high, the rivers are still long,
Five years of revenge, forever fighting with jealousy.”
The author borrows Tan Da’s verse to beautify the poetic beauty of Da Giang:
“The Da River is bubbling with water
So many scenes, so many love”.
The spring scene on the Da River is also a beautiful scene of flowers and smoke like the Truong Giang River more than a thousand years ago in the Tang Dynasty when the poet Ly Bach saw off his friend Manh Hao Nhien to Quang Lang: “Yen flowers in the three moons and open in Duong Chau”.
Talking about the heroic tradition of the Northwestern people, the writer did not forget to choose two verses of Nguyen Quang Bich – a staunch scholar against the French in the late 19th century – to include in his memoirs:
“Loyalty is not willing to leave Tay Chau,
Keep Thao Da upstream.”
Thanks to that, reading the autograph “Song Da ferryman”, we can understand many useful things about the Northwest’s natural scenery, geography, history, and revolutionary traditions of the peoples around the Da River. , about form, rapids, about the immense resources of the Fatherland, about beautiful verses – the quintessence of East-West ancient culture that Nguyen Tuan selected and included. The human soul seems to be lifted, wisdom is aroused, bright and rich. “Song Da ferryman” is truly a masterpiece that Nguyen Tuan has contributed to, beautifying the garden of Vietnamese art and flowers.
Anyone who has read “Golden Ball for a Time” must feel the sharpness, talent and elegance of writer Nguyen Tuan when he talks about drinking tea, enjoying flowers, planting ornamental plants, playing with words, typing poetry, releasing poetry, playing mid-autumn lights… of the Confucian houses in the past, elegant and luxurious entertainments, showing a beautiful lifestyle, affirming the identity of Vietnamese culture with a thickness of thousands of years history.
Reading “Song Da ferryman”, we know another erudite, talented and unique Nguyen Tuan. The description of the scene changes, in the four seasons, in all time and space, multi-tone and polyphony when talking about waterfalls, rapids… Poetic associations, with many colorful and angular thrills. with a rich vocabulary. Nguyen Tuan’s Van is truly the honey drops of the bee who loves flowers, is diligent and creative, bringing fragrant herbs to life. Talented prose sentence, sometimes echoing the sound of waterfalls and rapids, sometimes imbued with the aftertaste of mountain flowers.
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Reading “Song Da ferryman” we love more brave, hardworking and talented Vietnamese people; We are proud of the magnificent mountains and rivers of the Fatherland. Song Da is a gift of nature:
“Oh where do rivers get their water
And when I come back to my country, I start singing
People come to sing – when rowing boats, pulling boats over the falls
evoking hundreds of colors on hundreds of river shapes”
(“Country” – Nguyen Khoa Diem)
See more sample essays for grade 12 National high school exam preparation:
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