Vietnamese poetry
Encyclopedia
Vietnamese poetry originated in the form of folk poetry
and proverb
s. Vietnamese
poetic structures include six-eight, couplet of seven sextuplet of eight, and various styles shared with Classical Chinese poetry forms
, such as are found in Tang poetry
; examples include verse forms with "seven words (per line) for eight lines", "seven words (per line) for four lines" (a type of quatrain
), and "five words (per line) for eight lines". More recently there have been new poetry and free poetry.
With the exception of free poetry, a form with no distinct structure, other forms all have a certain structure. The tightest and most rigid structure was that of the Tang Dynasty
poetry, in which structures of content, number of words per line, lines per poem, rhythm rule determined the form of the poem. This stringent structure restricted Tang poetry to the middle and upper classes and academia.
that Vietnamese poetry is particularly rich in.
Imagery
, or the use of words to create images, is another fundamental aspect of Vietnamese poetry. An example of imagery can be found in the national epic
poem, The Tale of Kieu
by Nguyễn Du (1765–1820):
Cỏ non xanh tận chân trời
Cành lê trắng điểm một vài bông hoa
Due to the influence of the concept of visual arts in the times of the poet, Nguyễn Du usually employs "scenery description" style in his poems. Simple scenery, accentuated at certain points, gently sketched but irresistible. Another line by Bà Huyện Thanh Quan
Lom khom dưới núi tiều vài chú
Lác đác bên sông chợ mấy nhà
Or Nguyễn Khuyến:
Ao thu lạnh lẽo nước trong veo
Một chiếc thuyền câu bé tẻo teo
Sóng biếc theo làn hơi gợn tí
Lá vàng trước gió khẽ đưa vèo.
Or most recently Trần Đăng Khoa in Nghe thầy đọc thơ
Em nghe thầy đọc bao ngày
Tiếng thơ đỏ nắng, xanh cây quanh nhà
Mái chèo nghiêng mặt sông xa
Bâng khuâng nghe vọng tiếng bà năm xưa
These images are beautiful and tranquil, but they can also be non-static and lively. When objects are described in poetry, they are often personified. Using verbs for inanimate, insentient objects is akin to breathing life into the objects, making it lively in the mind of the reader. For instance, Tran Dang Khoa wrote in "Mặt bão":
Bão đến ầm ầm
Như đoàn tàu hỏa
Bão đi thong thả
Như con bò gầy
Or in Góc Hà Nội
Nắng tháng tư xỏa mặt
Che vội vàng nỗi nhớ đã ra hoa
...
Thành phố ngủ trong rầm rì tiếng gió
Nhà ai quên khép cửa
Giấc ngủ thôi miên cả bến tàu[2]
Such lines contain metaphors and similes. Humorous metaphors are commonly seen in poetry written for children. Examples are these lines that Khoa wrote at 9 years old in Buổi sáng nhà em:
Ông trời nổi lửa đằng đông
Bà sân vấn chiếc khăn hồng đẹp thay
...
Chị tre chải tóc bên ao
Nàng mây áo trắng ghé vào soi gương
Bác nồi đồng hát bùng boong
Bà chổi loẹt quẹt lom khom trong nhà
However, these also appear in more mature poets’ work. For example Nguyễn Mỹ in Con đường ấy:
Nắng bay từng giọt - nắng ngân vang
Ở trong nắng có một ngàn cái chuông
Or Hàn Mặc Tử
in Một Nửa Trăng
Hôm nay chỉ có nửa trăng thôi
Một nửa trăng ai cắn vỡ rồi
Particularly, the metaphors in Hồ Xuân Hương poetry causes the half-real, half-unreal state, as if teasing the reader as in ánh cờ
Quân thiếp trắng, quân chàng đen,
Hai quân ấy chơi nhau đà đã lửa.
Thọat mới vào chàng liền nhảy ngựa,
Thiếp vội vàng vén phứa tịnh lên.
Hai xe hà, chàng gác hai bên,
Thiếp thấy bí, thiếp liền ghểnh sĩ.
Or in Ốc nhồi
Bác mẹ sinh ra phận ốc nhồi,
Đêm ngày lăn lóc đám cỏ hôi.
Quân tử có thương thì bóc yếm,
Xin đừng ngó ngoáy lỗ trôn tôi.
The "tứ" (theme) of a poem is the central emotion or image the poem wants to communicate. "Phong cách" (style) is the choice of words, the method to express ideas. Structure of the poetry is the form and the ideas of the poems combined together.
Like verse in Chinese and most European languages, traditional Vietnamese verse is rhymed. The combination of meter and rhyme scheme defines the verse form in which a poem is written.
or compound sound:
The following classification of sounds is extracted from the “System of sounds in Vietnamese” (A very short history of Vietnamese literature, Duong Quang Ham)
Syllables are considered to rhyme when they have similar sound and tone (either flat or sharp). Rhyme is an important element in Vietnamese poetry.
Rhyme words must share the same tone:
Rhyme can be “rich” or “poor”:
Examples of 2 lines using prime rhyme
Cưỡng vận: When two rhymes are secondary prime only.
Lạc vận: When two rhymes are neither prime rhyme or secondary rhyme.
Vietnamese poetry makes use of both end-rhymes and internal rhymes in various stanzas. Stanzas linked by end-rhyme include these rhyme schemes:
|-
| Bữa nay lạnh mặt trời đi ngủ sớm, ||
|-
| Anh nhớ em, em hỡi! Anh nhớ em. || A (flat rhyme)
|-
| Không gì buồn bằng những buổi chiều êm, || A (flat rhyme)
|-
| Mà ánh sáng đều hòa cùng bóng tối. || B (sharp rhyme)
|-
| Gió lướt thướt kéo mình qua cỏ rối; || B (sharp rhyme)
|-
| Vài miếng đêm u uất lẩn trong cành; || C (flat rhyme)
|-
| Mây theo chim về dãy núi xa xanh || C (flat rhyme)
|-
| Từng đoàn lớp nhịp nhàng và lặng lẽ. || D (sharp rhyme)
|-
| Không gian xám tưởng sắp tan thành lệ. || D (sharp rhyme)
|}
Lines and stanzas may also be linked by rhymes in the middle of the line (“back rhyme”), which has no common analogue in English: the last word of one line rhymes with a word in the middle of the next line as in the Lục bát (“six-eight”) stanza, where the last word of the six-word line rhymes with the sixth word of the eight-word line; for instance in The Tale of Kieu:
• Echo of rhyme
(a)- Flat rhyme creates a feeling of gentleness and smoothness
(b) – Sharp rhyme creates a feeling of roughness, motion, awakeness.
• Cadence of lines: Cadence refers to the tempo, rhythm f the poem, based on how the lines are truncated into verses, each verse with a complete meaning. It is “long cadence” when people stop and dwell on the sound when they recite the line. Besides, in each verse, when reciting impromptu, we can also stop to dwell on shorter sounds at verses separated into components, which is called “short cadence”
• Cadence in poetry, created by the compartmentalization of the line and the words, similar to putting punctuations in sentence, so we pause when we read Nhịp (4/4) - (2/2/2/2)
• Musical quality of words: according to linguistics, each simple word of Vietnamese is a sound, which can be strong or weak, pure or muddled, depending on the position of the pronunciation in the mouth (including lips, air pipe and also the openness of the mouth) One word is pronounced at a position in the mouth is affected by 4 elements constituting it: vowel, first consonant, last consonant and tone. Hence words that have
Then when the words get pronounced, the sound produced will be pure, high and up.
On the other hand, words that have
And “down” tone: hanging, tumbling and heavy tones then the word pronounced will be muddled and heavy
The purity of the words punctuate the line, esp words with rhyme most essential to the musical quality of the poem
Punctuating words and rhymes words in these lines are almost elements that make up the echo and the purity, creating a cheerful music, expressing an innocent mind and sunny disposition of this lad here
Sound “iếc” in 2 words “biếc” và “tiếc” rhyming here has 2 “up” vowels (iê) toether with up tone but rather truncated by the last consonant “c”, are known as “clogged sound”. These sounds, when read out loud, are associated with sobbing, hiccup, the music is thus slow, and plaintive, sorrowful. Hence, “iec” is particularly excellently rhymed, to express most precisely the heart-wrenching regret of the boy returning to his old place, meeting the old friends, having deep feelings for a very beautiful girl, but the girl was already married.
Sometimes to preserve the musical quality of the folklore poem, the sounds of the compound words can have reversal of positions. Like the above folklore, the two sounds “tha thiet” are reversed to become “thiet tha”, because the 6-8 form of the poem only allows for flat rhyme.
Poetry or folksongs often have “lay” word, whereby due to the repetition of the whole word or an element of it, “lay” word, when pronounced, two enunciations of the two words will coincide (complete “lay”) or come close (incomplete “lay”) creating a series of harmony, rendering the musical quality of poetry both multi-coloured and elegant
Though rhyme rule is stated as above, word 1, 3 and 5 are allowed to not follow the rule sometimes. That exception is called :nhat, tam, ngu bat luan or “1,3,5, no rule” word 2, 4, 6 must follow the rule as in “2,4,6 follow rules”. Blanks do not follow rules.
Exception
Once in a while, we come across poets that like to break the rule of the second word of “six-word” line, non-flat rhyme replacing flat rhyme as usual. “six-word” line is also divided into 2 verses. For example the two lines in The Tale of Kieu, the word “cot” belongs to non-flat rhyme, but it is located in the position of a flat
The last word of the seven-word line rhymes with the fifth of the next seven-word lin, the last word of the lower seven-word line rhymes with the last word of the six-word line in the next “six-eight”. The last word of the “six-word” line rhymes with the sixth word of the “eight-word line. And the last word of the eight-word line rhymes with the fifth of the following seven-word line. However, the last word of the eight-word line can also rhyme with the third word of the seven-word line, changing the tone of the rhyme. Hence, the third word in the seven-word line can be either flat or non-flat
The converse is true
However a lot of poems do not conform to the above rule:
Vần tréo:
Vần ôm:
can still be seen in the rhyme rule of seven word poetry. 2 kinds of line:
Flat Rhyme:
Or more recently
Sharp Rhyme:
Recently this form has been modified to be:
This form of poetry has no specified rule, or free rhyme. Usually if:
But there are always exceptions
To add melody to the eight-word, some poets find rhymes by making the word number eight of one line rhyme with the word number five or six of the next line.
In Confucis, chapter Nguy Phong, Article Vien Huu says: “Tam chi uu huu, nga can tha dao”- or “My heart is sad, I sing and dao”
Book Mao Truyen says
“"Khúc hợp nhạc viết ca, đô ca viết dao"- or” The song with background music to accompany the lyrics is called “ca”, singing acapella, or without background music is called “dao”
People used to call ca dao as phong dao because the ca dao reflects the customs of each locality and era. Ca dao can consist of 4-word line, 5-word line, six-eight or two seven six eight, can be sung wholecloth, without the need to insert fillers like when people ngam the typical poetry. For example, take the following six-eights
Or:
Vietnamese ca dao is romantic writing that serves as a standard for romance poetry. The love of the labourers are expressed in ca dao in many aspects: romantic love, family love, love for the village, love for the fields, love for the work, love for nature. Ca dao is also an expression of the intellectual struggle when we live in society, or when we meet with nature. Hence, ca dao reflects the emotional life, and material life of human, the awareness of working and manufacturing…in the social, economic and political milieu in a particular historical period. For example, talking about self-control of “four virtues, three conformity” , women lament in songs:
Because their fate is more often than not decided by others and they have almost no sense of self-determination, the bitteness is distilled into poem lines that are at once humorous and painful:
Romantic love in the rural area is a kind of love intimately connected to rice fields, to the villages. The love lines serve to remind ourselves as well as our lovers:
The hard life, of “the buffalo followed by the plough”is also reflected in ca dao
A distinctive characteristics of ca dao is the form which is close to rhyme rule, but still elegant, flexible, simple and light-hearted. They are as simple as colloquial, gentle, succinct, yet still classy and expressive of deep emotions. A sad scene:
Or the longing, missing:
A girl, in the system of tao hon, who had not learned how to tidy her hair, had to get married, the man is indifferent seeing the wife as a child. But when she reached her adulthood, things
Ca dao is also used as a form to imbue experiences that are easy to remember, for example cooking experiences:
Phú means presenting, describing, for example about somebody or something to help people visualize the person or thing. For example:
Or to protest the sexual immorality and brutality of the reigning feudalism.
Tỉ is to compare. In this form, ca dao does not directly say what it means to say like in the phu, but use another image to compare, to create an indirect implication, or to send a covert message. For example:
Or
Or
Hứng (inspiration) originates from emotions, which can give rise to happy feelings or sad ones, to see externality inspires hung, making us want to express our feelings and situations.
Or:
According to Vũ Ngọc Phan, Ngưyễn Can Mộng:
Rhymed verses in Vietnam is born of provers, then phong dao becoming melody, and chuong that can be sung. Six-eight literature, or two-seven all originate from here.
The history of collecting and compiling proverbs, folk poetry and songs only started about 200 years ago. In mid-eighteenth century, Tran Danh An (hieu Lieu Am) compiled Quốc phong giải trào and Nam phong nữ ngạn thi. These compilers copied proverbs, folk poetry by :vi:Nôm/Chinese transcribed Vietnamese words, then translated to Chinese
words and noted, meaning to compare Vietnam folk poetry with Quoc Phong poems in Confucion odes of China.
At the end of the 19th century, beginning of 20th century, books about collected tuc ngu, ca dao written in Nom appear. Into 20th century, books collecting these heritages written in quoc ngu (Roman script) appear. Hence, it can be said that the six-eight form originated from proverbs and folk poetry. Rhyme is the bolded word. For example in The Tale of Kieu, when So Khanh tempted Kieu to elope with him out of lau xanh of Tu Ba:
Six-eight is usually the first poetic inspiration, influencing many poets in their childhood. Through the lullaby of ca dao, or colloquial verses of adults. Like:
Due to the gentle musical quality of six-eight, this form of poetry is often used in poems as a refrain, a link or connection, from rough to smooth, gentle as if sighing or praising. For instance in the Tiếng Hát Sông Hương by Tố Hữu
Or Trần Đăng Khoa in epic
Khúc hát người anh hùng
in Tang dynasty
, tho Duong permeated in the Viet culture
to become Tang poetry of Vietnam. At first, tho Duong Vietnam are written in Chinese language
, then as :vi:Hán Nôm/Sino-Vietnamese language and Vietnamese language
.
by Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh, such as La Cigale et la Fourmi (from the fables of Jean La Fontaine) in Trung Bắc Tân văn (1928).
Poetry with no prosody, no rule, no limits on the number of words in the line, no line limits, appears to have been more adapted to a mass audience. .
With the free poetry using the "dong gay" technique, presenting long lines and short, to create a visual rhythm, when read aloud, not according to line but to sentence, with the aim to hear properly the sound of each word. Visual rhythm is the most important thing, because through it, the reader can follow the analytic process to figure out the meaning of the poem.
The word “free” can be understood as the escape from the restraint of poetry rules. The poets want to chase after his inspirations and emotions, using words to describe inner feelings instead of being constrained by words, by rules. They do not have to be constrained by criticism until they have to change the words, ideas until the poem becomes a monster child of their emotions.
For example in Lưu Trọng Lư 'sTiếng thu
which later becomes Hữu Thỉnh trong bài Thơ viết ở biển:
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and proverb
Proverb
A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
s. Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
poetic structures include six-eight, couplet of seven sextuplet of eight, and various styles shared with Classical Chinese poetry forms
Classical Chinese poetry forms
thumb|right|350px|Poet on a Mountaintop by [[Shen Zhou]], about 1500 CE .Classical Chinese poetry forms are those poetry forms, or modes, which typify the traditional Chinese poems written in Literary or Classical Chinese...
, such as are found in Tang poetry
Tang poetry
Tang poetry refers to poetry written in or around the time of and in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry...
; examples include verse forms with "seven words (per line) for eight lines", "seven words (per line) for four lines" (a type of quatrain
Quatrain
A quatrain is a stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines of verse. Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is...
), and "five words (per line) for eight lines". More recently there have been new poetry and free poetry.
With the exception of free poetry, a form with no distinct structure, other forms all have a certain structure. The tightest and most rigid structure was that of the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
poetry, in which structures of content, number of words per line, lines per poem, rhythm rule determined the form of the poem. This stringent structure restricted Tang poetry to the middle and upper classes and academia.
Poetical devices
The musical nature of Vietnamese poetry manifests in the use of onomatopoeic words like "ri rao" (rustling), "vi vut" (whistling), "am am" (banging), "lanh canh" (tinkling), etc. Writing this kind of poetry demands analytical skills to dissect the compound words and succinct words. Therefore, sometimes by composing poetry, the poet easily falls into the state of associating between words of this meaning and words of another, word playWord play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
that Vietnamese poetry is particularly rich in.
Imagery
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
, or the use of words to create images, is another fundamental aspect of Vietnamese poetry. An example of imagery can be found in the national epic
National epic
A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation; not necessarily a nation-state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with aspirations to independence or autonomy...
poem, The Tale of Kieu
The Tale of Kieu
The Tale of Kiều is an epic poem in Vietnamese written by Nguyễn Du , and is widely regarded as the most significant work of Vietnamese literature. It is even used as a source for bibliomancy. The original title in Vietnamese is Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh , but it is better known as Truyện Kiều...
by Nguyễn Du (1765–1820):
Cỏ non xanh tận chân trời
Cành lê trắng điểm một vài bông hoa
Due to the influence of the concept of visual arts in the times of the poet, Nguyễn Du usually employs "scenery description" style in his poems. Simple scenery, accentuated at certain points, gently sketched but irresistible. Another line by Bà Huyện Thanh Quan
Lom khom dưới núi tiều vài chú
Lác đác bên sông chợ mấy nhà
Or Nguyễn Khuyến:
Ao thu lạnh lẽo nước trong veo
Một chiếc thuyền câu bé tẻo teo
Sóng biếc theo làn hơi gợn tí
Lá vàng trước gió khẽ đưa vèo.
Or most recently Trần Đăng Khoa in Nghe thầy đọc thơ
Em nghe thầy đọc bao ngày
Tiếng thơ đỏ nắng, xanh cây quanh nhà
Mái chèo nghiêng mặt sông xa
Bâng khuâng nghe vọng tiếng bà năm xưa
These images are beautiful and tranquil, but they can also be non-static and lively. When objects are described in poetry, they are often personified. Using verbs for inanimate, insentient objects is akin to breathing life into the objects, making it lively in the mind of the reader. For instance, Tran Dang Khoa wrote in "Mặt bão":
Bão đến ầm ầm
Như đoàn tàu hỏa
Bão đi thong thả
Như con bò gầy
Or in Góc Hà Nội
Nắng tháng tư xỏa mặt
Che vội vàng nỗi nhớ đã ra hoa
...
Thành phố ngủ trong rầm rì tiếng gió
Nhà ai quên khép cửa
Giấc ngủ thôi miên cả bến tàu[2]
Such lines contain metaphors and similes. Humorous metaphors are commonly seen in poetry written for children. Examples are these lines that Khoa wrote at 9 years old in Buổi sáng nhà em:
Ông trời nổi lửa đằng đông
Bà sân vấn chiếc khăn hồng đẹp thay
...
Chị tre chải tóc bên ao
Nàng mây áo trắng ghé vào soi gương
Bác nồi đồng hát bùng boong
Bà chổi loẹt quẹt lom khom trong nhà
However, these also appear in more mature poets’ work. For example Nguyễn Mỹ in Con đường ấy:
Nắng bay từng giọt - nắng ngân vang
Ở trong nắng có một ngàn cái chuông
Or Hàn Mặc Tử
Han Mac Tu
Hàn Mặc Tử was a Vietnamese poet. He was born Nguyễn Trọng Trí, at Lệ Mỹ Village, Đồng Hới District, Quảng Bình Province. His pen names included: Minh Duệ, Phong Trần, Lệ Thanh, and finally Hàn Mặc Tử, by which name is known today. He grew up in a poor family, his father having died when he was...
in Một Nửa Trăng
Hôm nay chỉ có nửa trăng thôi
Một nửa trăng ai cắn vỡ rồi
Particularly, the metaphors in Hồ Xuân Hương poetry causes the half-real, half-unreal state, as if teasing the reader as in ánh cờ
Quân thiếp trắng, quân chàng đen,
Hai quân ấy chơi nhau đà đã lửa.
Thọat mới vào chàng liền nhảy ngựa,
Thiếp vội vàng vén phứa tịnh lên.
Hai xe hà, chàng gác hai bên,
Thiếp thấy bí, thiếp liền ghểnh sĩ.
Or in Ốc nhồi
Bác mẹ sinh ra phận ốc nhồi,
Đêm ngày lăn lóc đám cỏ hôi.
Quân tử có thương thì bóc yếm,
Xin đừng ngó ngoáy lỗ trôn tôi.
The "tứ" (theme) of a poem is the central emotion or image the poem wants to communicate. "Phong cách" (style) is the choice of words, the method to express ideas. Structure of the poetry is the form and the ideas of the poems combined together.
Analysis
As in most metrical systems, Vietnamese meter is structured both by the count and the character of syllables. Whereas in English verse syllables are categorized by relative stress, and in classical Greek and Latin verse they are categorized by length, in Vietnamese verse (as in Chinese) syllables are categorized by tone. For metrical purposes, the 6 distinct phonemic tones that occur in Vietnamese are all considered as either "flat" or "sharp". Thus a line of metrical verse consists of a specific number of syllables, some of which must be flat, some of which must be sharp, and some of which may be either.Like verse in Chinese and most European languages, traditional Vietnamese verse is rhymed. The combination of meter and rhyme scheme defines the verse form in which a poem is written.
Vowel diphthong and rhyme
Âm (sound) is the conjugation of one or many vowels together. Similar sounds, regardless of consonants standing before or after or the effect of tone on the high and low notes of sound, giving the rhythm of the poem. For examples, simple sound like:- à, ca, cha, đá, lá, ta
or compound sound:
- biên, chiêm, chuyên, xuyên
The following classification of sounds is extracted from the “System of sounds in Vietnamese” (A very short history of Vietnamese literature, Duong Quang Ham)
| Types of tone | Symbol | Note |
|---|---|
| Flat | levelhanging |
| Sharp | tumbling (~) asking (?) sharp (') heavy (.) |
| sharp (') heavy (.) |
especially for sound that ends with consonants ch, p, và t |
Syllables are considered to rhyme when they have similar sound and tone (either flat or sharp). Rhyme is an important element in Vietnamese poetry.
Rhyme
Use of rhyme (vần) in Vietnamese poetry is largely analogous to its use in English and other European languages; 2 important differences are the salience of tone in the acceptability of rhyme words, and the use of back rhyme. Rhyme connects lines in a poem together, almost always using the final syllable in a line, and sometimes including syllables within the line.Rhyme words must share the same tone:
- Flat Rhyme: both words exhibit a flat tone — ba, bà (examples: "dâu", "màu", "sầu" )
- Sharp Rhyme: both words exhibit a sharp tone — bả, bã, bá, bạ (examples: "đấy", "cấy")
Rhyme can be “rich” or “poor”:
- Rich rhyme (called prime rhyme) has the same tone, and the same vowel sound
- Flat: Phương, sương, cường, trường
- Sharp: Thánh, cảnh, lãnh, ánh
- Poor rhyme (called secondary rhyme) has the same tone, but slightly different vowel sounds
- Flat: Minh, khanh, huỳnh, hoành
- Sharp: Mến, lẽn, quyện, hển
Examples of 2 lines using prime rhyme
-
-
-
- Lầu Tần chiều nhạt vẻ thu
- Gối loan tuyết đóng, chăn cù giá đông
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Cưỡng vận: When two rhymes are secondary prime only.
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- Người lên ngựa kẻ chia bào
- Rừng phong thu đã nhuộm màu quan san
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Lạc vận: When two rhymes are neither prime rhyme or secondary rhyme.
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- Người về chiếc bóng năm canh
- Kẻ đi muôn dặm một mình xa xôi
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Vietnamese poetry makes use of both end-rhymes and internal rhymes in various stanzas. Stanzas linked by end-rhyme include these rhyme schemes:
- ABAB (alternate rhyme, analogous to the Sicilian quatrain, or Common measure)
- xAxA (intermittent rhyme, analogous to many of the English and Scottish BalladBalladA ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s) - ABBA (envelope rhyme, analogous to the "In MemoriumIn Memoriam A.H.H.In Memoriam A.H.H. is a poem by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, completed in 1849. It is a requiem for the poet's Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833...
" stanza) In this stanza, if the "A" rhyme is sharp, then the "B" rhyme is flat, and vice versa. - AAxA (analogous to the RubaiyatRubaiyat"Rubāʿī" is Arabic for "quatrain", and is used to describe a Persian quatrain, or its derivative form in English and other languages. The plural form of the word, rubāʿiyāt ,often anglicised rubaiyat , is used to describe a collection of such quatrains.There are a number of possible rhyme schemes...
stanza) - Couplets, in which flat couplets and sharp couplets alternate (for example Xuân Diệu's Tương Tư Chiều):
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| Bữa nay lạnh mặt trời đi ngủ sớm, ||
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| Anh nhớ em, em hỡi! Anh nhớ em. || A (flat rhyme)
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| Không gì buồn bằng những buổi chiều êm, || A (flat rhyme)
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| Mà ánh sáng đều hòa cùng bóng tối. || B (sharp rhyme)
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| Gió lướt thướt kéo mình qua cỏ rối; || B (sharp rhyme)
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| Vài miếng đêm u uất lẩn trong cành; || C (flat rhyme)
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| Mây theo chim về dãy núi xa xanh || C (flat rhyme)
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| Từng đoàn lớp nhịp nhàng và lặng lẽ. || D (sharp rhyme)
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| Không gian xám tưởng sắp tan thành lệ. || D (sharp rhyme)
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Lines and stanzas may also be linked by rhymes in the middle of the line (“back rhyme”), which has no common analogue in English: the last word of one line rhymes with a word in the middle of the next line as in the Lục bát (“six-eight”) stanza, where the last word of the six-word line rhymes with the sixth word of the eight-word line; for instance in The Tale of Kieu:
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- Người về chiếc bóng năm canh (A)
- Kẻ đi muôn dặm một mình (A) xa xôi (B)
- Vầng trăng ai xẻ làm đôi (B) ?
- Nửa in gối chiếc, nửa soi (B) dặm trường
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Điệu (rhythm)
Điệu (rhythm), is created by the sounds of selected words and cadence of the lines. Music in the poetry is constituted by 3 elements: rhyme, cadence and words. “Six-eight” folk song is a form of poetry rich in musical quality.• Echo of rhyme
(a)- Flat rhyme creates a feeling of gentleness and smoothness
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- Gió mơn man sợi nắng mành
- Sương còn đu ngọn lá xanh miệt mài
- Dương gian hé rạng hình hài
- Trời se sẽ lạnh, đất ngai ngái mùi
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(b) – Sharp rhyme creates a feeling of roughness, motion, awakeness.
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- Gió mơn man sợi nắng mành
- Sương còn đu ngọn lá xanh miệt mài
- Dương gian hé rạng hình hài
- Trời se sẽ lạnh, đất ngai ngái mùi
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• Cadence of lines: Cadence refers to the tempo, rhythm f the poem, based on how the lines are truncated into verses, each verse with a complete meaning. It is “long cadence” when people stop and dwell on the sound when they recite the line. Besides, in each verse, when reciting impromptu, we can also stop to dwell on shorter sounds at verses separated into components, which is called “short cadence”
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- Dương gian (-) hé rạng (-) hình hài (--)
- Trời (-) se sẽ lạnh (-), đất ngai (--) ngái mùi(--)
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• Cadence in poetry, created by the compartmentalization of the line and the words, similar to putting punctuations in sentence, so we pause when we read Nhịp (4/4) - (2/2/2/2)
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- Rhythm (4/4) - (2/2/2/2):
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- Em ngồi cành trúc (--) em tựa cành mai (--)
- Đông đào (-) tây liễu (-) biết ai (-) bạn cùng (--)
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- Rhythm (2/2/2) - (2/2/2/2):
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- Trời mưa (-) ướt bụi (-) ướt bờ (-)
- Ướt cây (-) ướt lá (--) ai ngờ (-) ướt em (--)
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- Rhythm (2/4) - (2/2/2/2)
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- Yêu mình (--) chẳng lấy được mình (--)
- Tựa mai (-) mai ngã (--) tựa đình (-) đình xiêu (--)
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- Rhythm (2/4) - (4/4)
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- Đố ai (-) quét sạch lá rừng (--)
- Để ta khuyên gió (--) gió đừng rung cây (--)
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- Rhythm (2/4) - (2/4/2)
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- Hỡi cô (-) tát nước bên đàng (--)
- Sao cô (-) múc ánh trăng vàng (--) đổ đi (--)
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- Rhythm (4/2) - (2/4/2)
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- Trách người quân tử (-) bạc tình (--)
- Chơi hoa (--) rồi lại bẻ cành (--) bán rao (--)
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- Rhythm (3/2/2) - (4/3/2)
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- Đạo vợ chồng (-) thăm thẳm (-) giếng sâu (--)
- Ngày sau cũng gặp (--) mất đi đâu (-) mà phiền (--)
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• Musical quality of words: according to linguistics, each simple word of Vietnamese is a sound, which can be strong or weak, pure or muddled, depending on the position of the pronunciation in the mouth (including lips, air pipe and also the openness of the mouth) One word is pronounced at a position in the mouth is affected by 4 elements constituting it: vowel, first consonant, last consonant and tone. Hence words that have
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- “up” vowel like : i, ê, e
- “resounding” consonant like: m, n, nh, ng
- “up sound” : level, sharp, asking tones
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Then when the words get pronounced, the sound produced will be pure, high and up.
On the other hand, words that have
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- "down" vowel: u, ô, o,
- “dead-end” consonant: p, t, ch, c,
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And “down” tone: hanging, tumbling and heavy tones then the word pronounced will be muddled and heavy
The purity of the words punctuate the line, esp words with rhyme most essential to the musical quality of the poem
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- Hôm qua (-) tát nước đầu đình (--)
- Bỏ quên cái áo (-) Trên cành hoa sen (--)
- Em được (--) thì cho anh xin (--)
- Hay là (-) em để làm tin (-) trong nhà. (--)
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Punctuating words and rhymes words in these lines are almost elements that make up the echo and the purity, creating a cheerful music, expressing an innocent mind and sunny disposition of this lad here
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- Nụ tầm xuân (-) nở ra xanh biếc. (--)
- Em đã có chồng (--) anh tiếc (-) lắm thay. (--)
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Sound “iếc” in 2 words “biếc” và “tiếc” rhyming here has 2 “up” vowels (iê) toether with up tone but rather truncated by the last consonant “c”, are known as “clogged sound”. These sounds, when read out loud, are associated with sobbing, hiccup, the music is thus slow, and plaintive, sorrowful. Hence, “iec” is particularly excellently rhymed, to express most precisely the heart-wrenching regret of the boy returning to his old place, meeting the old friends, having deep feelings for a very beautiful girl, but the girl was already married.
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- Yêu ai tha thiết, thiết tha
- Áo em hai vạt trải ra chàng ngồi.
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Sometimes to preserve the musical quality of the folklore poem, the sounds of the compound words can have reversal of positions. Like the above folklore, the two sounds “tha thiet” are reversed to become “thiet tha”, because the 6-8 form of the poem only allows for flat rhyme.
Poetry or folksongs often have “lay” word, whereby due to the repetition of the whole word or an element of it, “lay” word, when pronounced, two enunciations of the two words will coincide (complete “lay”) or come close (incomplete “lay”) creating a series of harmony, rendering the musical quality of poetry both multi-coloured and elegant
Luật (rule)
Poetry rule: Flat rhyme is denoted with B, sharp rhyme is denoted with T, rhyme with no particular rule will be denoted by a blankThough rhyme rule is stated as above, word 1, 3 and 5 are allowed to not follow the rule sometimes. That exception is called :nhat, tam, ngu bat luan or “1,3,5, no rule” word 2, 4, 6 must follow the rule as in “2,4,6 follow rules”. Blanks do not follow rules.
| Line number | Rhyme | |||||||
| 1 | B | T | B | |||||
| 2 | B | T | B | B | ||||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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- Cảnh nào cảnh chẳng đeo sầu
- Người buồn cảnh có vui đâu bao giờ
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Exception
Once in a while, we come across poets that like to break the rule of the second word of “six-word” line, non-flat rhyme replacing flat rhyme as usual. “six-word” line is also divided into 2 verses. For example the two lines in The Tale of Kieu, the word “cot” belongs to non-flat rhyme, but it is located in the position of a flat
| Line number | Rhyme | |||||||
| 1 | Mai | cốt | cách, | tuyết | tinh | thần | ||
| 2 | Mỗi | người | một | vẻ | mười | phân | vẹn | mười |
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Two seven, six eight
“two seven” means a couple of seven-word line is followed by a couple of “six eight”. The song of the wife of a soldier by Dang Tran Con is translated by Doan Thi Diem into modern language in this form. In the first seven-word line, the third word is a non-flat rhyme, fifth is a flat rhyme, seventh is a non-flat. In the second seven-word line, third word is flat rhyme, fifth is non-flat rhyme, seventh is flat rhyme. The next “six-eight” lines follow the usual rule.| Line number | Rhyme | |||||||
| 1 | B | B | T | |||||
| 2 | B | T | B | |||||
| 3 | B | T | B | |||||
| 4 | B | T | B | B | ||||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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- Chàng thì đi cõi xa mưa gió
- Thiếp lại về buồng cũ gối chăn
- Đoái trông theo đã cách ngăn
- Tuôn màu mây biếc, trải ngần núi xanh
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The last word of the seven-word line rhymes with the fifth of the next seven-word lin, the last word of the lower seven-word line rhymes with the last word of the six-word line in the next “six-eight”. The last word of the “six-word” line rhymes with the sixth word of the “eight-word line. And the last word of the eight-word line rhymes with the fifth of the following seven-word line. However, the last word of the eight-word line can also rhyme with the third word of the seven-word line, changing the tone of the rhyme. Hence, the third word in the seven-word line can be either flat or non-flat
| Line number | Rhyme | |||||||
| 1 | B | T | ||||||
| 2 | B | T | B | |||||
| 3 | B | T | B | |||||
| 4 | B | T | B | B | ||||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
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- Nước trong chảy lòng phiền chẳng rửa
- Cỏ xanh thơm dạ nhớ khó quên
- Nhủ rồi tay lại trao liền
- Bước đi một bước lại vin áo chàng
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Four word poetry
If second word is flat rhyme then the 4th word is sharp rhyme| Line number | Rhyme | |||
| 1 | T | B | ||
| 2 | B | T | ||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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- Bão đến ầm ầm
- Như đoàn tàu hỏa
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The converse is true
| Line number | Rhyme | |||
| 1 | B | T | ||
| 2 | T | B | ||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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- Chim ngoài cửa sổ
- Mổ tiếng võng kêu
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However a lot of poems do not conform to the above rule:
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- Bão đi thong thả
- Như con bò gầy
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Five-word poetry
Similar to four word poetry, it also has its own exceptions.-
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- Hôm nay đi chùa Hương
- Hoa cỏ mờ hơi sương
- Cùng thầy me em dậy
- Em vấn đầu soi gương
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Six word poetry
Using the last word, với cách with rhyme rule like vần tréo or vần ôm:Vần tréo:
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- Quê hương là gì hở mẹ
- Mà cô giáo dạy phải yêu
- Quê hương là gì hở mẹ
- Ai đi xa cũng nhớ nhiều
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- Đỗ Trung Quân - Quê Hương
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Vần ôm:
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- Xuân hồng có chàng tới hỏi:
- -- Em thơ, chị đẹp em đâu?
- -- Chị tôi tóc xõa ngang đầu
- Đi bắt bướm vàng ngoài nội
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- Huyền Kiêu - Tình sầu
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Seven word poetry
The influence of Seven word, four line in Tang poetryTang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
can still be seen in the rhyme rule of seven word poetry. 2 kinds of line:
Flat Rhyme:
| Line number | Rhyme | ||||||
| 1 | B | T | B | B | |||
| 2 | T | B | T | B | |||
| 3 | T | B | T | T | |||
| 4 | B | T | B | B | |||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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- Quanh năm buôn bán ở mom sông
- Nuôi đủ năm con với một chồng
- Lặn lội thân cò khi quãng vắng
- Eo sèo mặt nước buổi đò đông
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Or more recently
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- Em ở thành Sơn chạy giặc về
- Tôi từ chinh chiến cũng ra đi
- Cách biệt bao ngày quê Bất Bạt
- Chiều xanh không thấy bóng Ba Vì
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- Quang Dũng - Đôi Mắt Người Sơn Tây
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Sharp Rhyme:
| Line number | Rhyme | ||||||
| 1 | T | B | T | B | |||
| 2 | B | T | B | B | |||
| 3 | B | T | B | T | |||
| 4 | T | B | T | B | |||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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- Lẳng lặng mà nghe nó chúc nhau:
- Chúc nhau trăm tuổi bạc đầu râu
- Phen này ông quyết đi buôn cối
- Thiên hạ bao nhiêu đứa giã trầu
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Recently this form has been modified to be:
| Line number | Rhyme | ||||||
| 1 | B | T | B | ||||
| 2 | T | B | T | ||||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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- Ta về cúi mái đầu sương điểm
- Nghe nặng từ tâm lượng đất trời
- Cảm ơn hoa đã vì ta nở
- Thế giới vui từ mỗi lẻ loi
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- Tô Thùy Yên - Ta về
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Eight-word poetry
This form of poetry has no specified rule, or free rhyme. Usually if:
- The last line has sharp rhyme then word number three is sharp rhyme, word number five and six are flat rhyme
Rhyme T B B T Word number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 - The last line has flat rhyme then word number three is flat rhyme, word number five and six are sharp rhyme
| Rhyme | ||||||||
| B | T | T | B | |||||
| Word number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
But there are always exceptions
Finding Rhyme
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- Vần tiếp
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- Em cứ hẹn nhưng em đừng đến nhé,
- Tôi sẽ trách -- cố nhiên -- nhưng rất nhẹ;
- Nếu trót đi, em hãy gắng quay về,
- Tình mất vui lúc đã vẹn câu thề
- Đời chỉ đẹp những khi còn dang dở.
- Thơ viết đừng xong, thuyền trôi chớ đỗ,
- Cho nghìn sau... lơ lửng... với nghìn xưa...
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- Hồ Dzếnh - Ngập Ngừng
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- Vần tréo
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- Trong ánh nắng hạt sương dần nhẹ bỗng
- Rồi tan vào thoáng đãng trời xanh
- Cánh hoa mỏng rập rờn với gió
- Có nhớ về hạt sương sớm long lanh?
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- Hải Kỳ - Giấc mơ
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- Vần ôm
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- Đêm Trường Sơn. Lá với nước rầm rì
- Hơi đá lạnh nép mái nhà nghe ngóng
- Chúng tôi ngồi xòe tay trên lửa nóng
- Máu bàn tay mang hơi lửa vào tim
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- Nguyễn Khoa Điềm - Bếp lửa rừng
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To add melody to the eight-word, some poets find rhymes by making the word number eight of one line rhyme with the word number five or six of the next line.
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- Sàn gác trọ những tâm hồn bão nổi
- Những hào hùng, uất hận gối lên nhau
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- Cao Tần - Ta làm gì cho hết nửa đời sau?
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Dạng (form)
- six-eight
- two seven, six-eight
- four-word
- five-word
- six-word
- seven-word
- eight-word
- free verses
Ca dao (folk poetry)
Ca dao is a form of folk poetry that can be sung like other poems, and can be used to create folksongs. Cadao is actually a Sino-Vietnamese term. In Folk Literature book', Dinh Gia Khanh noted:In Confucis, chapter Nguy Phong, Article Vien Huu says: “Tam chi uu huu, nga can tha dao”- or “My heart is sad, I sing and dao”
Book Mao Truyen says
“"Khúc hợp nhạc viết ca, đô ca viết dao"- or” The song with background music to accompany the lyrics is called “ca”, singing acapella, or without background music is called “dao”
People used to call ca dao as phong dao because the ca dao reflects the customs of each locality and era. Ca dao can consist of 4-word line, 5-word line, six-eight or two seven six eight, can be sung wholecloth, without the need to insert fillers like when people ngam the typical poetry. For example, take the following six-eights
- Đường vô xứ Nghệ quanh quanh
- Non xanh nước biếc như tranh họa đồ
Or:
- Tốt gỗ hơn tốt nước sơn
- Xấu người đẹp nết còn hơn đẹp người
Vietnamese ca dao is romantic writing that serves as a standard for romance poetry. The love of the labourers are expressed in ca dao in many aspects: romantic love, family love, love for the village, love for the fields, love for the work, love for nature. Ca dao is also an expression of the intellectual struggle when we live in society, or when we meet with nature. Hence, ca dao reflects the emotional life, and material life of human, the awareness of working and manufacturing…in the social, economic and political milieu in a particular historical period. For example, talking about self-control of “four virtues, three conformity” , women lament in songs:
- Thân em như hạt mưa sa
- Hạt vào đài các, hạt ra ruộng cày
Because their fate is more often than not decided by others and they have almost no sense of self-determination, the bitteness is distilled into poem lines that are at once humorous and painful:
- Lấy chồng chẳng biết mặt chồng
- Đêm nằm mơ tưởng, nghĩ ông láng giềng
Romantic love in the rural area is a kind of love intimately connected to rice fields, to the villages. The love lines serve to remind ourselves as well as our lovers:
- Anh đi anh nhớ quê nhà
- Nhớ canh rau muống, nhớ cà dầm tương
- Nhớ ai dãi nắng dầm sương
- Nhớ ai tát nước bên đường hôm nao!
The hard life, of “the buffalo followed by the plough”is also reflected in ca dao
- Trâu ơi, tao bảo trâu này
- Trâu ra ngoài ruộng, trâu cày với ta
- Cày cấy vốn nghiệp nông gia,
- Ta đây trâu đấy, ai mà quản công...
A distinctive characteristics of ca dao is the form which is close to rhyme rule, but still elegant, flexible, simple and light-hearted. They are as simple as colloquial, gentle, succinct, yet still classy and expressive of deep emotions. A sad scene:
- Sóng sầm sịch lưng chưng ngoài bể bắc,
- Hạt mưa tình rỉ rắc chốn hàng hiên...
Or the longing, missing:
- Gió vàng hiu hắt đêm thanh
- Đường xa dặm vắng, xin anh đừng về
- Mảnh trăng đã trót lời thề
- Làm chi để gánh nặng nề riêng ai!
A girl, in the system of tao hon, who had not learned how to tidy her hair, had to get married, the man is indifferent seeing the wife as a child. But when she reached her adulthood, things
- Lấy chồng tử thủa mười lăm
- Chồng chê tôi bé, chẳng nằm cùng tôi
- Đến năm mười tám, đôi mươi
- Tối nằm dưới đất, chồng lôi lên giường
- Một rằng thương, hai rằng thương
- Có bốn chân giường, gãy một, còn ba!...
Ca dao is also used as a form to imbue experiences that are easy to remember, for example cooking experiences:
- Con gà cục tác: lá chanh
- Con lợn ủn ỉn: mua hành cho tôi
- Con chó khóc đứng khóc ngồi:
- Bà ơi! đi chợ mua tôi đồng riềng.
Phú form
Phú means presenting, describing, for example about somebody or something to help people visualize the person or thing. For example:
- Đường lên xứ Lạng bao xa
- Cách một trái núi với ba quãng đồng
- Ai ơi! đứng lại mà trông
- Kìa núi Thành Lạc, kìa sông Tam Cờ.
- Em chớ thấy anh lắm bạn mà ngờ
- Bụng anh vẫn thẳng như tờ giấy phong...
Or to protest the sexual immorality and brutality of the reigning feudalism.
- Em là con gái đồng trinh
- Em đi bán rượu qua dinh ông nghè
- Ông nghè sai lính ra ve..
- "Trăm lạy ông nghè, tôi đã có con!".
- - Có con thì mặc có con!
- Thắt lưng cho giòn mà lấy chồng quan.
Tỉ form
Tỉ is to compare. In this form, ca dao does not directly say what it means to say like in the phu, but use another image to compare, to create an indirect implication, or to send a covert message. For example:
- Thiếp xa chàng như rồng nọ xa mây (I am far away from you, just as a dragon away from the clouds)
- Như con chèo bẻo xa cây măng vòi(like the cheo beo bird far from mang voi plant
Or
- Gối mền, gối chiếu không êm(cotton pillow, bamboo pillow not soft)
- Gối lụa không mềm bằng gối tay em.(silk pillow not as soft as your arm as my pillow)
Or
- Ăn thì ăn những miếng ngon(when you eat, you only eat the nice stuff)
- Làm thì chọn việc cỏn con mà làm(but when you work, you only choose the tiny task to do)
Hứng form
Hứng (inspiration) originates from emotions, which can give rise to happy feelings or sad ones, to see externality inspires hung, making us want to express our feelings and situations.
- Trên trời có đám mây vàng
- Bên sông nước chảy, có nàng quay tơ
- Nàng buồn nàng bỏ quay tơ,
- Chàng buồn chàng bỏ thi thơ học hành...
Or:
- Gió đánh đò đưa, gió đập đò đưa,
- Sao cô mình lơ lửng mà chưa có chồng...
Six-eight
According to Vũ Ngọc Phan, Ngưyễn Can Mộng:
Rhymed verses in Vietnam is born of provers, then phong dao becoming melody, and chuong that can be sung. Six-eight literature, or two-seven all originate from here.
The history of collecting and compiling proverbs, folk poetry and songs only started about 200 years ago. In mid-eighteenth century, Tran Danh An (hieu Lieu Am) compiled Quốc phong giải trào and Nam phong nữ ngạn thi. These compilers copied proverbs, folk poetry by :vi:Nôm/Chinese transcribed Vietnamese words, then translated to Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
words and noted, meaning to compare Vietnam folk poetry with Quoc Phong poems in Confucion odes of China.
At the end of the 19th century, beginning of 20th century, books about collected tuc ngu, ca dao written in Nom appear. Into 20th century, books collecting these heritages written in quoc ngu (Roman script) appear. Hence, it can be said that the six-eight form originated from proverbs and folk poetry. Rhyme is the bolded word. For example in The Tale of Kieu, when So Khanh tempted Kieu to elope with him out of lau xanh of Tu Ba:
- Đêm thu khắc lậu canh tàn
- Gió cây trút lá, trăng ngàn ngậm gương
- Lối mòn cỏ nhợt mùi sương
- Lòng quê đi một bước đường một đau.
Six-eight is usually the first poetic inspiration, influencing many poets in their childhood. Through the lullaby of ca dao, or colloquial verses of adults. Like:
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- Cái ngủ mày ngủ cho ngoan
- Để mẹ đi cấy đồng xa trưa về
- Bắt được con cá rô trê
- Thòng cổ mang về cho cái ngủ ăn
Due to the gentle musical quality of six-eight, this form of poetry is often used in poems as a refrain, a link or connection, from rough to smooth, gentle as if sighing or praising. For instance in the Tiếng Hát Sông Hương by Tố Hữu
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- Trên dòng Hương-giang
- Em buông mái chèo
- Trời trong veo
- Nước trong veo
- Em buông mái chèo
- Trên dòng Hương-giang
- Trăng lên trăng đứng trăng tàn
- Đời em ôm chiếc thuyền nan xuôi dòng
Or Trần Đăng Khoa in epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
Khúc hát người anh hùng
-
- Cô Bưởi lắng nghe tiếng gà rừng rực
- Thấy sức triệu người hồi sinh trong lồng ngực
- Và cô đi
- Bên đám cháy
- Chưa tàn
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- Lửa hát rằng:
- Quê tôi - những cánh rừng hoang
- Chính trong cơn bão đại ngàn - tôi sinh
- Nuôi tôi trong bếp nhà gianh
- Ủ là một chấm - thổi thành biển khơi...
Variations of six-eight
Variations in the six-eight are due to lines with different rhyme rules. Refer to the rhyme rule above.Tang poetry in Vietnam
As a result of the contact with Northern culture, especially the apex of Chinese poetryPoetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
in Tang dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, tho Duong permeated in the Viet culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
to become Tang poetry of Vietnam. At first, tho Duong Vietnam are written in Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, then as :vi:Hán Nôm/Sino-Vietnamese language and Vietnamese language
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
.
Free poetry movement
The Vietnamese "free poetry" movement may have started from the poems translated from FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
by Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh, such as La Cigale et la Fourmi (from the fables of Jean La Fontaine) in Trung Bắc Tân văn (1928).
-
-
- Ve sầu kêu ve ve
- Suốt mùa hè
- Đến kỳ gió bấc thổi
- Nguồn cơn thật bối rối.
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Poetry with no prosody, no rule, no limits on the number of words in the line, no line limits, appears to have been more adapted to a mass audience. .
With the free poetry using the "dong gay" technique, presenting long lines and short, to create a visual rhythm, when read aloud, not according to line but to sentence, with the aim to hear properly the sound of each word. Visual rhythm is the most important thing, because through it, the reader can follow the analytic process to figure out the meaning of the poem.
The word “free” can be understood as the escape from the restraint of poetry rules. The poets want to chase after his inspirations and emotions, using words to describe inner feelings instead of being constrained by words, by rules. They do not have to be constrained by criticism until they have to change the words, ideas until the poem becomes a monster child of their emotions.
For example in Lưu Trọng Lư 'sTiếng thu
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- Năm vừa rồi
- Chàng cùng tôi
- Nơi vùng giác mộ
- Trong gian nhà cỏ
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- Tôi quay tơ
- Chàng ngâm thơ
- Vườn sau oanh giục giã
- Nhìn ra hoa đua nở
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- Dừng tay tôi kêu chàng...
- Này, này! Bạn! Xuân sang
- Chàng nhìn xuân mặt hớn hở
- Tôi nhìn chàng, long vồn vã...
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- Rồi ngày lại ngày
- Sắc màu: phai
- Lá cành: rụng
- Ba gian: trống
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- Xuân đi
- Chàng cũng đi
- Năm nay xuân còn trở lại
- Người xưa không thấy tới
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- Xuân về.
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which later becomes Hữu Thỉnh trong bài Thơ viết ở biển:
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- Anh xa em
- Trăng cũng lẻ
- Mặt trời cũng lẻ
- Biển vẫn cậy mình dài rộng thế
- Vắng cánh buồm một chút
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-
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- đã cô đơn
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-
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- Gió không phải là roi mà vách núi phải mòn
- Em không phải là chiều mà nhuộm anh đến tím
- Sông chẳng đi đến đâu
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- nếu không đưa em đến
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- Dù sóng đã làm anh
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- Nghiêng ngả
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- Vì em
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- Nghiêng ngả
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- Dù sóng đã làm anh
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Quoting poetry (Lẩy thơ)
Lẩy thơ is often known as playing and quoting The Tale of Kiều, a famous poetry play in folk culture dân gianExternal links
- Chinh Phụ Ngâm Khúc - ny Đoàn Thị Điểm (1705–1748), originally by Đặng Trần Côn (1715?-1745)
- Poetry book :vi:Góc sân và khoảng trời by :vi:Trần Đăng Khoa - Information and Culture Publisher - 1998
- :vi:Proverbs and folk poetry and songs of Vietnam by :vi:Vũ Ngọc Phan - Hanoi Social Science Publisher- 1997
- New poetry movement 1930 - 1945
- GardenDigest.com, Extractions of commentary of poetry - by Michael P. Garofalo
- Evan.com, The 6th Poetry Day in Việt Nam, 2008 at Văn Miếu-Quốc Tử Giám