Many questioned why the poet Han Mac Tu begins his poem “Here is Vy Da hamlet” with a question: “Why aren't you back to Vy Hamlet?”
For many student generations, the poem “Here is Vy Da hamlet” by Han Mac Tu is equally compared with a romantic song of the bloom of youth.
 |
|
Present-day Hue still sees romantic images of bamboo-made boat and river wharf described in Han Mac Tu’s poem.
|
The title of an immortal love poem
On Le Loi Street in Quy Nhon city locates a small two-storey house, which is also a tailor’s shop. Its owner, the tailor Nguyen Dinh Duong, said his uncle bought this house long time ago and he is also told that the poet Han Mac Tu once lived here.
In 1933, Tu met Hoang Cuc when she followed her father to live in Quy Nhon. He then fell in love with her. At that time, no one thought that is the cause of the birth of an immortal love poem “Here is Vy Da hamlet”.
“Why aren’t you back to Vy Hamlet?”
Many questioned why the poet Han Mac Tu begins his poem “Here is Vy Da hamlet” with a question: “Why aren't you back to Vy Hamlet?”
To answer this question, it is said that Cuc returned to Hue after knowing Tu for three years while he was still living in Quy Nhon. Han Mac Tu also went to Hue to find the girl he secretly loved afterwards.
In Hue, the young poet met Hoang Cuc once and he also came to her house in Vy Da hamlet, but he didn’t dare to enter her house. They never met each other again since then.
Many years later, knowing that Tu was struck with a severe disease, Cu sent him a postcard in which there were images of clouds, water, and a small wooden boat with a boatgirl. At the back of the postcard was some best wishes to him. After receiving the postcard, Han Mac Tu was much moved and he composed the poem “Here is Vy Da Hamlet” which was sent to Hoang Cuc as a gift.
Who is the beautiful girl in the poem?
In present-day Hue, the house where Hoang Cuc used to live is located on Nguyen Sinh Cung Street, belonging to Vy Da ward.
The old-style house was built on a large area with front and back yards. Like other houses here, her house is surrounded by lines of areca trees. At the right corner of the yard is the bamboo hedges, not the truc (ivory bamboo) hedges described in Han Mac Tu’s poem.
When we came to the house, it was locked. Some residents living around helped us find one of her relatives living nearby. The son-in-law came to the house and unlocked the door so that we could enter the house and burnt incense on her altar.
An old aged woman living near Cuc’s house said, “Cuc is a very good-natured girl who never forgot to buy gifts for her neighbors when coming back from Sai Gon or Ha Noi. She sometimes helped us cook some vegetable food. Although she was very friendly, she never talked about her private life. After she had passed away, perhaps a thousand attended her funeral.”
According to the poet Vo Que, Cuc began to live as a recluse and became a vegan after parting from Han Mac Tu.
Hoang Thi Kim Cuc was also one of women greatly contributing to the Hue’s cuisine culture. She devoted her life to teach household arts at Dong Khanh school, offering many excellent cooks for the city. Her book entitled “Hue’s dishes” has been published widely, becoming a handbook for many Vietnamese cooks in the past 50 years.
Everlasting with time
“I was one of her students from the sixth to tenth grade,” Huynh Thi Tuy, a Dong Khanh’s student from 1958-1962, recalled. “Han Mac Tu was our idol at that time; everyone loved his poems, particularly the poem ‘Here is Vy Da Hamlet’.” She then read the whole poem without missing any words.
The poem is attractive to not only students in the past but present-day ones. Students at Hai Ba Trung high school could answer all questions related to the poem.
On the way to HCM City, we stopped at a destination in Phan Thiet where we saw groups of students visiting vestiges related to the unfortunate but talented poet. The name “Han Mac Tu” will be surely everlasting.
| 
