Spring of literary elder Ha Minh Duc

Professor, People's Teacher Ha Minh Duc is an exemplary model of perseverance in work, tireless efforts for the cause of educating people; a sharp literary and artistic theory pen and loyal to the cause of national culture; a writer who diligently researched and created, achieving many successes contributing to building a literature imbued with national identity.
He has held many important positions: Head of the Faculty of Journalism (now the Institute of Journalism and Communication), University of Social Sciences and Humanities; Director of the Institute of Literature (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, now the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences); Member of the Central Council for Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts; Member of the National Education Committee. In real life, he is a gentle, humble, sociable, benevolent, and optimistic person.

Elder of the literary village
Professor, People's Teacher, writer Ha Minh Duc was born on May 3, 1935 in Vinh An commune, Vinh Loc district, Thanh Hoa province. He was part of the first generation of lecturers at Hanoi University of Science, now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), when he was just 22 years old, and now he is over 90 years old. He has been awarded noble awards: Second-class Anti-American National Salvation Medal; First-class Labor Medal.
With more than 70 years of continuous teaching, research and composition, Professor Ha Minh Duc has contributed to the development and expansion of the country's culture and arts.
He was honored to receive the State Prize for Science & Technology in 2000; the State Prize for Literature and Arts in 2001; the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science & Technology in 2010. His name was honored to be listed in the list: "500 outstanding Asian figures of the early 21st century" (Author John Pellam - World Biography Forum, published in 2002) and the book: "2,000 famous scholars of the 21st century" (International Biography Center, published in 2005).
Ninety works are the literary legacy of Professor, People's Teacher, writer Ha Minh Duc published over the past 62 years (1961 - 2023), starting his career from "Nam Cao - an excellent realist writer" (Research, 1961) to "Selected Short Stories" (2023).
Previously, readers knew Professor Ha Minh Duc as a sharp and sophisticated researcher, theorist, and literary critic. From "Going through a Fall" (Poetry, 1999) to now, he has made his mark as a writer with respectable longevity when traveling between the two shores of literature and poetry (12 poetry collections, 10 memoir collections, 4 short story collections).
At the age of 90, the elder of the literary world still surprises readers and makes them admire his writing ability when he releases “Selected Short Stories” (71 stories). Seventy-one, this number may be random, but it may also be natural - I speculate - for a careful, meticulous and sophisticated person (terms used by teaching and writing colleagues) like writer Ha Minh Duc.
The author's implication is that 71, if read backwards, is 17, as the folk saying goes, "at the age of seventeen, one breaks a buffalo's horn" (?!). From the three collections of stories "Love at the Wind's Edge" (2018), "A Shared Love" (2020), "The Moon Still Shines in the Night Garden" (2022), the author "gathered" 71 stories in the collection "Selected Short Stories" (2023).
In terms of research, theory, and literary criticism, Professor Ha Minh Duc is a writer with a “literary charm” and “burns to the last drop”. Reading Professor Ha Minh Duc’s “Selected Short Stories”, I see that charm and burning are still full and passionate in the 90th work of a literary career.
Reading Professor Ha Minh Duc’s works, from the fields of research, theory, criticism to composition (poetry, memoirs, stories), we can see that the writer’s writing is distilled from his profound and extensive life and cultural experiences. It can be said that this is the fundamental foundation of a writer.
His memoir “In Search of Beauty” (Literature Publishing House, 2020) is further evidence that the author’s process of searching for and discovering beauty (“Beauty is life”) is associated with an increase and enrichment of creative emotions, but the foundation and root of the act of writing is culture.
Multi-faceted, multi-faceted, multi-love Reading Professor Ha Minh Duc’s short story, I suddenly had a sudden connection: Hanoi is one of the capitals in the world with many lakes, about 100 lakes (according to VnExpress). Lakes (natural and artificial) are like “lungs” that regulate the climate and weather, creating a green space for a sacred land of talented people called Thang Long - Dong Do - Hanoi.
The seventy-one short stories in Professor Ha Minh Duc's collection are like seventy-one clear, calm lakes. If there are any waves, they are just ripples.
Professor Ha Minh Duc's short stories, of course, are not like high mountains, long rivers, or wide seas; nor are they ready to erupt like volcanoes or as fierce as tsunamis or earthquakes.
It seems to be in the lyrical narrative vein (with many poetic qualities), extended and adapted from the achievements of Thach Lam, Ho Dzenh, Nguyen Thanh Long, Anh Duc, Nguyen Ban, Do Chu... It has the quality of the ability to reconcile contradictions, soothe pain, balance the state of mind due to loss, and compensate for the shortcomings of the life principle of "no one is perfect".
Love is a large magnet that creates a wide “magnetic field” in Professor Ha Minh Duc’s short stories. It is the type of “a shared love”, “love at the tip of the wind”, “the love story of a young soldier”, “exchanging scrap for love”, “confession”, “a defensive love”, “a twisted love”, “love in the straw”, “first love”, “when did love come from”… Even stories with titles that do not have the word love are still full of love such as “The rhythm of the hammock and buffalo cart”, “Tro irony”, “Who prays for wealth and children”, “The couple is a clatter”, “The suffering of a person with a peach blossom fate”, “Peach blossoms are not as good as peach fruit”, “The story of O Buoi in Na village”…
The author is an experienced, tactful, refined, and sophisticated person in life, but when writing about love, he is very simple, gentle, cherishing, and encouraging what is pure, innocent, and perfect.
I thought the author followed the romantic school, aiming for beauty, light, and “the highest purity”. There was also a joyful quality but not to the point of euphoria when writing about love. There was a hint of lust but not exposed it, turning the “animal” part upside down while still taking care of the “human” part.
Reading Professor Ha Minh Duc's short stories, one can clearly see the movement of literature on the process/road from favoring the "collective" to caring for the "individual" and exploring the "being". The people/characters in Professor Ha Minh Duc's short stories are like "fragments".
The entire collection of stories is like a spectrum of fragments of fragments. The people/characters in Professor Ha Minh Duc's short stories, regardless of their political stance, social status, education, economic conditions, or gender, all have a "concentric circle" - love.
In short stories, the author often writes about the unfinishedness of love, which can cause regret for the reader, like the verse of poet Ho Dzinh: "Love loses its joy when the oath is fulfilled/Life is only beautiful when it is unfinished..." (Hesitation).
The characters in Professor Ha Minh Duc's short stories are often multifaceted, multi-faceted, and multi-loving (perhaps that's why they are all the more lovable) like their "spiritual father".
Illuminating the truths of the soul
It must be said right away that the strength of Professor Ha Minh Duc's short stories does not lie in the plot (thrilling, thrilling, suspenseful, novel details/details; haunting endings or dramatic situations...).
Most of the stories are quiet, leisurely, hidden in their structure and style - a type of writing rich in rhythm. I think, in this case, not counting a few stories mixed with memoirs (biography), or having the appearance of essays, even like literary commentary.
The outstanding and attractive part of the short stories in the collection, according to many readers, is more in the writing than in the story. I also know that when writing short stories, Professor Ha Minh Duc often trusts his fellow writer Ma Van Khang and is willing to listen to his colleagues' comments.
If writer Ma Van Khang has a writing style like the “fierce and gentle” ocean waves, Professor Ha Minh Duc has a way of touching people’s hearts in a “whispering” way. Sometimes it seems like he is just telling “meddling stories” (like “The crab counter in the hole”, “Irony”, “One night on the Thong Nhat train”, “An unexpected story”...).
It seems that the author tends to recreate the "stillness" to talk about the "movement" of social life, especially the spiritual life of people and the human heart of the times.
The rhythmic writing style gives Professor Ha Minh Duc’s short stories a softness, depth, and subtlety when describing spiritual truths. The story “The Rhythm of the Buffalo-Cart Hammock” is a typical example.
A young university lecturer and a young female student hitchhiked on a buffalo cart back to their school, which was evacuated during the war. There were almost no major incidents, only a few normal events along the way. On the surface, everything was completely calm. But inside, the young teacher had some “troubles”.
He already had a family, a wife and children. But now (moment) next to a fresh, pure, holy beauty existing in a female student, "he" could not help but be moved, shaken by "her". In reality, life has moments of heart-fluttering, "outside of wife, outside of husband".
But the teacher character in the story does not exceed the permissible limits, does not go to the end of his emotions, because he knows how to restrain himself by the honor of a decent, honest man. The story of a night of hitching a ride on a buffalo cart between the teacher and his student is enhanced by a poetic, rhythmic writing style: “The closer to dawn, the colder the weather gets, the fog from the surrounding mountains spreads towards the village. Under the moonlight, the grass and trees seem both dark purple and white. He urges us to get on the cart again. The buffalo cart moves slowly, steadily following the rhythm of the hammock. Cold fog rushes into the cart. Lan nestles against me.”
The slow rhythm of the sentence seems to match the slow rhythm of the buffalo, which is already “old” and “thin”, and the cart is also “old”. The reader feels that the following sentence was written by a true romantic writer long ago: “It is this poor, shabby cart that helped us overcome the difficulties of the night and lulled me into a small dream to see more poetry and meaning in life”.
When saying "Literature is the art of language" is very true to the writing of Professor, People's Teacher, writer Ha Minh Duc.