A short story about a great teacher: Professor Le Dinh Ky

The teacher walked slowly, stopping every now and then to wait for a young woman behind him with two long braids. One of the class officers – the older ones who were more “savvy” than the kids – reached out to the teacher and shouted: “There’s teacher Le Dinh Ky. Teacher Le Dinh Ky and his wife!”. We looked. I silently compared: his wife was much younger than him. Later, after returning to Hanoi from the evacuation site, I had the opportunity to visit the teacher in a small room on the 3rd floor, building C1 – Me Tri dormitory, I learned that his wife’s name was Long, I called her Miss Long – and her two long braids were gone too…

I remember, the Teacher was short and stout, his face was thoughtful and quiet. He spoke softly as if he was talking and listening to himself. He rarely smiled, but when he did, it was very bright, his eyes were distant and sparkling... Following my friends, I sometimes visited the Teacher and quietly observed. Before, I did not know clearly, but since I knew the Teacher - both as a student and later as a lecturer - I saw that the "tours" around the Teacher were not beauty queens, pretty girls among female students, but a "group of poet monkeys" of the faculty with eccentric features from costumes, gestures to "speeches". The Teacher welcomed them openly, intimately, and they also spoke to him enthusiastically, passionately and "very democratically". They read poetry, sometimes with half-closed eyes, passionately, sometimes whispering, sometimes shouting, gesturing like actors playing a role on stage. The Teacher listened attentively and "tolerated" happily.

Professor Le Dinh Ky

I remember, it was not until the 4th year that we were able to study the topic: Truyen Kieu and Nguyen Du’s realism – a topic that was published in a book, very attractive, to put it simply, reading it over and over again without getting bored. That is the common feeling of many people, not only for “literary people”. Ms. Sinh – graduated from the University of Economics and Planning, wife of Mr. Le Chi Dung – at that time a young lecturer of the Literature Department in the same generation as Mr. Le Chi Que, Mr. Nguyen Thien Giap, Mr. Dinh Xuan Dung… was such a “fan”. Because Mr. Dung was the homeroom teacher, and also a fellow Quang Binh native, I sometimes went to his house to visit. Once I saw Sinh holding in her hand a copy of Nguyen Du's Tale of Kieu and Realism, while reading, she praised: "Thu, how can Mr. Ky write so well! I have read it many times, the more I read, the more I like it. There are parts of Mr. Dung's book that I don't understand... As for Mr. Ky's book, as I read it, I understand and find it interesting (if my beloved teacher Le Chi Dung reads these lines, I hope he will forgive me). Mr. Ky is really talented." While she was excited, she suddenly became thoughtful, her voice dropped: "Mr. Ky's salary now is enough to buy a chicken every week to improve me, right?"...

Besides the famous monograph of that time, he also wrote the textbooks on literary theory: Artistic methods - 1962, Foundations of literary theory - 1971, 1984, wrote essays on criticism and literary research: The way into poetry, 1969, Poetry with Xuan Dieu, Hoai Thanh, Che Lan Vien, 1988, New poetry - the ups and downs, 1989, etc. His forte and advantage is researching and criticizing poetry. Writing about any author, whether old or young, whether famous or just starting out; From To Huu to Pham Tien Duat, from Che Lan Vien to Thai Giang, from Te Hanh to Luu Quang Vu... (The way into poetry), he devoted himself wholeheartedly, writing with all his thoughts and feelings, both the clarity of thinking and the sensitivity of intuition. His works are always revelatory in nature because of his talented, delicate and extremely profound writing style. In particular, through typical portraits such as The Lu, Luu Trong Lu, Xuan Dieu, Huy Can, Han Mac Tu, Nguyen Binh, Che Lan Vien, Vu Hoang Chuong, Bich Khe... (New Poetry - Ups and Downs), Professor Le Dinh Ky has revived a brilliant poetic era, one of a kind in the flow of Vietnamese poetry in the 20th century.

Perhaps because he is more introverted, his lectures are “simple but not passionate”, or he tries to lead the listeners – students – into the depth of the content of the problem without paying much attention to the excitement, or something a bit more formal for the “young and young at heart” students, often only paying attention to the way he dresses and gestures rather than listening to the lecture. If you study Mr. Ky’s subject, if you focus on listening and broaden your “range of expectation”, you will reap many new and useful things. For example, when teaching the Tale of Kieu, when Nguyen Du describes the “national beauty and genius” couple Kim Trong and Thuy Kieu meeting and falling in love, to the verse: The one who looks directly at the other’s face bows his head, the teacher stops for a long time to explain and interpret all the beauty and cleverness of Nguyen Du in portraying the portrait of a couple of lovers who are so infatuated with each other (with the sign “Seeing in the caress, there is a flirtatious side”). According to the Master, a virtuous girl sitting across from a man who is infatuated with her, when the man “looks down to the face”, the woman must “bow her head” but if she “glares up” at that time, it would be inappropriate!”. Until now, I have not forgotten those humorous, gentle, yet profound analysis of the Master. And I “realized” that: it is true that Nguyen Du chose for the character Thuy Kieu in those moments of time and in that space of love between couples a very graceful posture, very Asian in color.
In December 1976, thanks to the arrangement of language professor Nguyen Lai, who was teaching at a university in the German Democratic Republic at the time, the Master went abroad for less than a month. At that time, I had just gotten married and was having difficulty finding a place to live. The Master called me up and said: “Life is only once. Come to my house and live in a bright and spacious place. I will be in Germany for about three weeks. During that time, the dormitory and the administrative office will probably finish arranging your housing.” I was extremely surprised, and could only bow my head to thank the Master to hide the tears that were about to fall… When I returned from Germany, looking back at the room, the Master thanked me for cleaning and wiping his belongings. Bending down under the bed, the Master suddenly said: “Oh, did you wash my clothes? The last time I went to the South, I also soaked a set of clothes in a basin like that, and by the time I took them out, they were all rotten.” (At this time, Ms. Long had moved to Saigon, and the Teacher lived alone in Hanoi.) He told me that he had bought dozens of spokes in Germany, and was very happy because this item was very rare in the country, but he did not expect that they were spokes for children's bicycles (it seems that at that time they were not called mini bicycles), and he did not have this type of bicycle. Then, the Teacher took a rosy, fragrant "western apple", carefully cut it into many pieces, and placed it on a plate with a "poetic" and "very winged" invitation: "Here, sir, a little taste from faraway Siberia...". That was the most premium fruit I had ever tasted at that time. And until now, I have never seen such a delicious apple!

I remember, Mr. Le Dinh Ky lived a very honest and simple life, far from anything formal, colorful, or frivolous. Although it was short, during my time at the Faculty of Literature, University of General Sciences, with his dedicated guidance, I took my first steps into the profession that I now love very much but at that time I was only afraid of. The first class observation to get comments on my lecture was attended by big names: Professor Hoang Nhu Mai, Professor Le Dinh Ky, Professor Phan Cu De, Professor Ha Minh Duc... Looking down from the podium, I felt my "heart pounding and my legs shaking", my speech was hesitant and faltering. After the lecture, Mr. Hoang Nhu Mai whispered to Mr. Ky: "He lectured as if he was a student talking to the teacher"! I secretly admired Mr. Hoang Nhu Mai's insight. Indeed, at that time, I forgot the content of the lecture, forgot the order of the presentation, even forgot the dozens of students sitting in front of me (among them were quite a few older men who had returned from the battlefield, whom I usually "respected"), and only saw the towering shadows of the teachers... But my beloved teachers were all "noble-hearted", giving me sincere and valuable comments, helping me to be more confident before the long and arduous road that I had to overcome. Mr. Ky encouraged and advised me a lot, he showed me how to read and take notes, how to "go with both feet": teaching and researching, specifically, having to invest in lectures in class and at the same time start writing research criticism. The teacher especially noted and repeatedly reminded me: “You must remember that writing poetry criticism is very difficult, but the most difficult thing is to hide the theory, so that it dissolves into the analytical perception” and added: “There is nothing more awkward than writing poetry criticism where the theory is all exposed, dry, rigid…”. What I have gained in my later research works and critical essays all originate from those valuable introductory lessons, from those experiences and profound “philosophy” of the teacher. The teacher’s attention and guidance are often not “big and heavy” but still contain both theoretical and practical meanings. And more importantly, it helps researchers make appropriate choices. More deeply, it is the aesthetics of poetry criticism research and a cultured way of behaving, a way of “playing fair” towards poetry in particular and literature in general.

Because he was so engrossed in his work and it seemed that every time I went home, I would see him working hard on a writing table full of books and reference materials (but still scientific and with his own "logic" according to his explanation when he met those who questioned the mess), he was often very busy, the time when he had to cook was also his free time for "entertainment" (also according to his joking way of saying it), even so, he still did not spare time to discuss his expertise, about the authors and works that he was interested in. At those times, he looked lively and excited, his thoughtful, thoughtful look was replaced by a comfortable smile. During one such conversation, I mentioned a scientific paper entitled: Youth, Revolution and Poetry, in which there was a vivid, colorful paragraph describing the artistic space of Truong Son - the cradle of the generation of poets who fought against the Americans to save the country, which I knew very well: "Truong Son in the rain of thousands of waterfalls and floods, in the blazing sun and Lao wind, in the howling bombs and bullets...". After listening, the teacher calmly said: "Ah, I "stole" it from a "hand" student who is an armed police officer in his final year at that faculty, how could I write it... I have to live and die with Truong Son to be able to write like that." I understood that it was just a way of speaking, and it was the teacher's sincerity that made the story more and more interesting and sincere. Not only me but many people shared the same feeling that talking to teacher Le Dinh Ky did not require pre-emptive measures, did not require careful consideration of each sentence and each word. Over time, those conversations always evoked a warm, carefree period of life. Those are memories I will never forget.

I remember, when I received the doctoral thesis on “Xuan Dieu’s Poetry before the August Revolution – 1945, through Poetry and Sending Fragrance to the Wind”, from faraway Saigon, he sent me several books (among which New Poetry – the Ups and Downs and Poetry with Xuan Dieu, Hoai Thanh, Che Lan Vien became necessary tools for me to read and ponder) and again advised and reminded me to think deeply, not to repeat others, to find the unique color of “Xuan Dieu’s ego” and the difference between nature – soul in New Poetry and nature – country in post-1945 revolutionary poetry. Knowing that Professor Ha Minh Duc had accepted me to guide the thesis, he shared: “That’s great. Duc is very knowledgeable in this field. The topic is good but not easy to write, you have to try very hard”. Before the official defense day, I sent the thesis summary for him to read and anxiously awaited the weighty assessments from a leading expert on New Poetry. And unexpectedly, the Teacher read it very quickly and sent me a review via fax with words of praise and encouragement. That was beyond my expectations because for me, having the Teacher read it was precious, I did not dare to think that the Teacher would also write a review for me. I called and choked up to thank the Teacher. The Teacher seemed very happy with the initial results of my former student. Then the Teacher asked me if I had received some magazine articles, so I should gradually publish some parts of the thesis before printing it into a monograph. In addition, I had to write more because, whether I wanted it or not, having been in the position of a university lecturer, having finished the Associate Doctorate thesis (at that time it was not called a Doctorate), I had to prepare for the Associate Professor profile... Now, sitting and rereading the review dated October 24, 1995 with the tiny, slanted handwriting that I have cherished and kept for decades as a precious keepsake and remembering those words of the Teacher's advice, my eyes filled with tears. I owe you so much but have never once repaid you…

I should have had a chance. That was the occasion when the Education Publishing House had a program to compile an anthology for professors. Ms. Nguyen Thi Be, Head of the Literature Department of the publishing house, kindly invited me to collect manuscripts, select and write an introduction for the greatest book of the Teacher's life. I accepted immediately because it was a precious opportunity to express gratitude to the Teacher. But later, for very legitimate reasons, the book was made in Ho Chi Minh City. At that time, I was really sorry and sad, but objectively, I saw that the brothers and sisters at the Faculty of Literature - Ho Chi Minh City National University would certainly do very well because they had many close relationships, were living with and understood the Teacher better.
Then, I never saw Thay again. One day in October 2009, Thay quietly left this world to go to the other world…

In my mind, Mr. Le Dinh Ky is an exemplary scientist: combining the erudition and elegance of intelligence with the depth and subtlety of emotions, between sharp thinking and sharp intuition. In my feelings: He is a master with a big heart, kind, generous and tolerant. Every time I remember him, I feel like I am reliving the noble, warm and gentle teacher-student relationship. That is a peaceful sky, full of love for life, love for people, an indelible memory that always comes back and warms me.

Hanoi, April 11, 2014