Published:  00:00 Monday - February 09, 2009

Thousands of famous contemporary poets and poetry lovers flocked to Van Mieu (the Temple of Literature) in Hanoi on February 9 to celebrate the 7th Vietnam Poetry Day.

The annual event, which is celebrated on the 15^th day of the first lunar month, aims to encourage young Vietnamese poets to share their work and experience.

This year’s event highlighted the image of the late President Ho Chi Minh and Truong Son Trail to mark the 40^th anniversary of President Ho’s Testament and the 50^th anniversary of the legendary trail created during the war of resistance against the US.

Poet Viet Phuong said he could not forget the moment when President Ho passed away in 1969.

“At that moment I realised that we will never lose him, because he is always in our hearts and minds,” said Mr Phuong.

He presented the poem “The country filled with boundless love” which he composed to express the Vietnamese people’s heartfelt gratitude toward the late President.

The elderly registered for a parallel sentences contest

At the event, poet Ngoc Ha presented the poem “The wind never drops in Truong Son”, expressing the deep feelings of her relatives who marched to the front decades ago through the legendary trail, though she has never set foot there.

To ensure the peaceful society of today, many young Vietnamese people volunteered to join the army and laid down their lives on the battlefields. PhD Pham Thu Yen, a lecturer of Teachers’ Training University of Hanoi, said the TV programme “Seeking Fallen Combatants” inspired her to compose a poem in honour of the fallen combatants.

Young poets gave a new performance at the event

Meanwhile, a group of young poets performed verses, one after another, inventing new ways of composing poems.

Lu Thi Mai, the youngest member, who is a second-year student at the University of Culture in Hanoi, said that the group is comprised of poetry aficionados coming from different parts of the country.

“One has come from the northern highland province of Ha Giang and one from the central province of Quang Binh which is famous for its sandy land. Above all, we feel a great passion for poetry,” said Mai.

She said the group had converged on Hanoi and practised their art for more than a week before performing at the event.

According to poet Do Trung Lai, one of event organisers, the 7^th Vietnam Poetry Day was successful as it became a forum for experienced and young poets alike to share experiences, and in addition, this year’s event attracted more poetry lovers than last year’s.

Poetry Night in Russia

A Poetry Night was held at the Vietnamese Embassy in Moscow on February 8. The event drew the participation of representatives of Vietnamese nationals living in Russia, Russian scholars of Vietnamese Studies and Russian students who are studying Vietnamese at several universities in Moscow.

Participants presented poems in both Vietnamese and Russian in praise of the friendship between the two countries.

Oleg Bavukin, head of the Foreign Literature Council of the Russian Writers’ Association, expressed his hope that more such exchanges would be conducted in the future to promote bilateral friendship.