Pham Ho poet (second from right) together with Binh Dinh writers and teachers. Photo: TLTG

1. Before becoming a writer, Pham Ho had been a revolutionary in realm of culture. At his vigour age of 20, the young man Pham Ho eagerly participated in the famous Vietnamese Revolution against French colonialism in August 1945. He worked in turn as a propagandist in Quy Nhon City, a standing secretary of Binh Dinh branch of National Salvation Association and editor of The Binh Dinh News, etc. Right in this No. V War Zone, he met and worked Tran Mai Ninh poet, who had great influence to his writing career later. After the Dien Bien Phu Victory in 1954, Pham Ho headed to the North of Vietnam and continued his career of letters and arts.

2. “He is not a worldly human being but a toy, a special gift that the Creator makes just for the children” Tran Dang Khoa poet once praised Pham Ho in his book “A soul in the fairy land”. That comment is absolutely true if we review the life-work of Pham Ho. He identified himself with career of writing for children as if it was his fate. During the anti-French Resistance War, Pham Ho directly involved in publishing a series of books “Élite resistance fighters” for children and teenagers. His very first works such as “Story telling under moonlight” and “My story of drawing Uncle Ho” also served the children readers. The poem “A looking for friend calf ”, which has been considered a typical work of Pham Ho’s poetic childlike style, was composed in 1950 at a Kon riverside countryside in Binh Dinh Province. “To me, leading a life of writing for children is actually a sense of happiness. I love the children with all my heart and through that children love, I want to show another kind of love for the Vietnamese Communist Party, for Vietnamese people and for this beloved country…” confided Pham Ho poet. He followed that working philosophy for all of his life.

In the words of L. Tolstoi, “writing for children is a hard work”. Thus, if a writer wants to enter the profession of letters for children, he must have both good sense of responsibility and talent; he must know how to harmonize his adult way of perception with his childly spirit. Writing for children seems like a heart-to-heart chat as a result of an right employment to art of communication between the writer and his children readers. In fact, in the profession of letters, successful writers for children are just enough to count on our fingers. Given that context, Pham Ho really becomes a giant personality in literature circles for children.

A lot of his works have been engraved on memories of many young generations. It is very interesting to know that the children readers often call him the poet of “a looking for friend calf” or the writer of “ a tale of fruit and flowers” rather than his real name Pham Ho.

3. Pham Ho had once lived away from his homeland for over 50 years. That  aroused his homesickness and his deep love towards the homeland. The homesickness and the love for the homeland were found both in his writings and his daily life. I myself fortunately had 2 chances of meeting him at his private house in Hanoi in 2004 and in 2006. He was seriously ill at that time and his doctor didn’t allow him to talk much or have long conversations with his guests. He obeyed the time discipline but tried to talk more. He talked about his old memories about his schooling, about his pals, about Quy Nhon beauty, etc. Each word of his narration pervaded nostalgia.

I have read poems and stories written by him and find that many of them talk about Binh Dinh. Xuan Dieu poet uses the word “motherland” to express his love to Binh Dinh while Pham Ho prefers to praise beauty of Binh Dinh through trivial but fine feature of its daily life. His poetic works such as “People at my homeland”, “Typical walks of Binh Dinh people” and stories such as “A nest of maiden chicken eggs”, “The sticky rice cake from my aunt”, “The teacher Lieu”, etc. all has such pround flavour.

4. “All my life, I wish/ To compose diminutive poems/ As minor as small coloured marbles of the children…” (“Diminutive poems”). Pham Ho excellently played a role of the special toy, the special gift that the Creator offers the children readers. He said goodbye to the children, to all of us. His departure to join the angels means a big loss of Vietnam’s literature for children. I want to quote a line of verse about fragrant hydrangea flower as words of homage paid to him: “It is only the lofty soul that pervades a lingering fine scent in this world”.

• Written by Le Nhat Ky
• Translated by To Uyen