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Poems Written While In Prison
A COMRADES PAPER BLANKET
New books, old books,
the leaves all piled together.
A paper blanket
is better than no blanket.
You who sleep like princes,
sheltered from the cold,
Do you know how many men in prison
cannot sleep all night?
AUTUMN NIGHT
Before the gate, a guard
with a rifle on his shoulder.
In the sky, the moon flees
through clouds.
Swarming bed bugs,
like black army tanks in the night.
Squadrons of mosquitoes,
like waves of attacking places.
I think of my homeland.
I dream I can fly far away.
I dream I wonder trapped
in webs of sorrow.
A year has come to an end here.
What crime did I commit?
In tears I write
another prison poem.
CLEAR MORNING
The morning sun
shines over the prison wall,
And drives away the shadows
and miasma of hopelessness.
A life-giving breeze
blows across the earth.
A hundred imprisoned faces
smile once more.
COLD NIGHT
Autumn night.
No mattress. No covers.
No sleep. Body and legs
huddle up and cramp.
The moon shines
on the frost-covered banana leaves.
Beyond my bars
the Great Bear swings on the Pole.
GOOD DAYS COMING
Everything changes, the wheel
of the law turns without pause.
After the rain, good weather.
In the wink of an eye
The universe throws off
its muddy cloths.
For ten thousand miles
the landscape
Spreads out like
a beautiful brocade.
Gentle sunshine.
Light breezes. Smiling flowers,
Hang in the trees, amongst the
sparkling leaves,
All the birds sing at once.
Men and animals rise up reborn.
What could be more natural?
After sorrow comes happiness.
FREE, I WALK ON THE MOUNTAIN
AND ENJOY THE VIEW
Mountains. Clouds.
More mountains. More clouds.
Far below a river gleams,
bright and unspotted.
Alone, with beating heart,
I walk on the Western Range,
And gaze far off towards the South
and think of my comrades.
Translated by Kenneth Rexroth
President Ho Chi Minh wrote several poems during his great revolutionary career which have since become gemstones in Vietnam’s treasure of literature. In addition to his Prison Diary in 1942, Ho Chi Minh wrote many poems between 1941 and 1969, which became food for thought and a great motivation to the nation’s struggle.
During his lifetime, Ho Chi Minh said he was not so keen on poetry but as a poet he put so much thought and inspiration into his writings. When he was in Chiang Kai-shek’s jail in Guangzhou, China in 1942, he wrote the poem "Moonlight" describing the inner feelings of a poet,
"
What could
one do
when the
night is so
exquisite?
To the
window I
go and look
at the
moonshine
Through
the bars
the moon
gazes at
the poet."
Later when he was in Viet Bac Resistance Base, the poet was mentioned in his "News of Victory". Ho Chi Minh wrote,
"Moonlight
sneaks
through a
window
urging for
poetry.
Please
wait until
after
military
affairs are
less
urgent."
For Ho Chi Minh, poetry represents the soul, ideology, action as well as a weapon. So he wrote, "Poetry should also contain steel and poets should know how to attack." Ho Chi Minh persisted in this view on poetry, which has since become a guiding principle for Vietnam’s poetry.
Ho Chi Minh’s poems written between 1941 and 1969 marked stages of national development because his verses centered on the nation, the people and the revolution. Ho Chi Minh rarely mentioned himself as an individual in his poems, which merely reflects a noble revolutionary spirit in the unceasing struggle for the just cause of the nation and mankind. A secondary school teacher of literature, Ms. Mai Thu Ngan, says she takes pride in teaching Ho Chi Minh’s poetry, "I am always highly inspired whenever I teach my pupils Ho Chi Minh’s writing and poetry. Ho Chi Minh is a great man but his poetry has a simple and clear style and is highly profound. I find in his writing and poetry a noble soul of an artist and a devoted revolutionary. Uncle Ho’s writing and poetry seem to brighten the nation and my own life."
Prison Diary is Ho Chi Minh’s biggest collection of poems. In the book he often mentioned the word freedom to which he devoted his whole life. The poetry collection is a manifesto on freedom written with the will, the heart and soul of a great communist. As a foreword to the book he wrote,
The body
is in jail
But the
spirit,
never
For the
great
cause to
prevail
Let the
spirit rise
forever!
One of his verses in the collection represents an overall guiding principle for action under all circumstances:
Nothing is
too difficult
to
undertake
Where
there’s a
will, there’s
a way
Even to
remove a
mountain
Or level up
an ocean.
Generations of people have been motivated by these verses to overcome their hardest challenges to fulfil their tasks. Young Vietnamese of the current generation continue to appreciate Uncle Ho’s poems in this spirit. An 8th grader of Trung Vuong lower secondary school, Nguyen Phuong Thao says Uncle Ho’s poems encourage her in her study and life, "By learning Uncle Ho’s poetry, I gain enough encouragement to surmount existing obstacles to success. I feel optimistic and confident in whatever circumstances because of the inspiration from his verses. I also learn from his poems that people should love one another and strive for the nation’s future development."
President Ho Chi Minh’s poetry signifies the soul, sentiment, thought and action and he used diverse techniques which brings consistency of different ideas. His poems deal with diverse themes and target different layers of human feelings be they philosophical, emotional or satirical. He was keen to use puns, similes, and metaphors but was also straightforward and realistic. With a subtle art, his poetry has proved highly inspirational and educational.
Ho Chi Minh Archive in English
Ho Chi Minh Archive in Espanol
