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THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467) VOLUME 8 NUMBER 2 JUL 2006
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New Formalism the beat
of a new era AN
INTRODUCTION TO NEW FORMALISM POETRY BY
DANG TIEN
translated from Vietnamese by
Do Vinh
Dang Tien
started writing at the beginning of 60’s, and had works published in the
Saigon-based literary magazines Tin Sách, Văn, and Bách Khoa. In
the overseas, he contributed to the magazines Diễn Đàn, Thông
Luận, Đoàn Kết (Paris), Hợp Lưu, Văn, and
Văn Học (USA). He is the author or
co-autohr of ‘Vu tru Tho’ (Vietnam: Giao Diem, 1972). ‘Xuan Dieu’ (co-authored,
Hanoi: Tac Pham Moi Publishing House, 1987), ‘The Lu’ (co-authored, Hanoi:
Hoi Nha Van Publishing House, 1991), ‘Vu Ngoc Phan’ (co-authored, Hanoi: Hoi
Nha Van Publishing House, 1995). Vietnamese New Formalism is a new school of
poetry which has been spreading in recent years, beginning with the
Vietnamese Journal of Poetry (Tạp
Chí Thơ) which is published in the United States. Most notable was
the publication of issue18, spring 2000, “The
Change of Centuries”, demonstrating its growing influence with the
enthusiastic participation of many writers and poets from within Vietnam and
abroad. The name “Vietnamese New Formalism” coined from New Formalism which
was flourished in USA during the 1980-1990 period. Vietnamese New Formalism poetry has these
particular characteristics: – Consists of
non-rhyming verses, entirely different from the rhyme-schemes of classical
poetry, yet presented on the page in a manner similar to that of a
traditional poem; easily recognizable as a poem. – Each classical verse
of poetry includes five, six, usually seven, or eight words (syllables),
sometimes alternating 6-8 syllable verses, organized into stanzas of four
lines or of multiple lines. Enjambments occur at the exact number in the
syllable count, without deference to the grammar or to the meaning of a
sentence. From the first to the last verse, it is the same throughout,
sometimes punctuated, sometimes not. – Strings sentences
together as the author tells a story, one story overlapping the next,
sometimes clear, sometimes unclear. – Employs the
vernacular, common and sometimes profane, of the average person using
everyday language in normal daily activities. Lacks the classical usage of
flowery words found in methaphors, metonymy, and parallel constructions, but
employs repetition to create rhythm in a verse. These poets appear to take pride in bringing
normal, everyday life into poetry and in breathing poetry into life, thus
reforming and even revolutionizing it. Tạp Chí Thơ wrote: If we
are unable to bring normal every day sayings into poetry, then how can we bring
life into poetry? And thus, how are we able to share the joy and pain of
every sector of society, so that poetry can become the voice of this new era?1 In some sense, they are right. Vietnamese New
Formalism poetry is a type of modern folk poetry, not the kind of poetry that
has become literature and selected for lectures in the schools under
intellectual scrutiny, but the kind of poetry that permeates the common folk,
reflecting their ordinary daily activities. For instance, these two sayings
are from lullabies: Saying A, similar to New Formalism poetry: Hai tay cầm bốn tao
nôi Tao mô thẳng th́ thôi Tao mô dùi th́ sửa lại
cho cân. Two hands gripping four
ropes’cradle Let them be, the ropes that are
tight Pull hard to fix the ones that
aren’t. Saying B, similar to classical poetry: Hai tay cầm bốn tao
nôi Tao thẳng, tao dùi, tao
nhớ, tao thương. Two hands gripping four ropes’
cradle One tight, one loose, one to
remember, one to love. Nôm poetry by Nguyễn Khuyến: Năm nay cày cấy
vẫn chân thua Chiêm mất đằng
chiêm, mùa mất mùa Phần thuế quan thu,
phần trả nợ Nửa công đứa
ở, nửa thuê ḅ Sớm trưa dưa
muối cho qua bữa Chợ búa trầu chè
chẳng dám mua. This year farm work has truly
failed Season after season, loss of rice Part goes to taxes, part goes to
debts Half pays a servant, half pays a
cow’s rent Breakfast and lunch of salty
pickles At the market, betel and tea we
cannot dare to buy. This is a poem written in the conforming
classical Tang-style, very exact in its format. But if we look beyond the
confines of its formalities, we will find it to be a most “New Formalism”
poem, in the deepest sense: bringing ordinary language and life into poetry.
If the late great Tam Nguyên was alive in this day and age of New Formalism,
perhaps the prolific poets Đỗ Kh. and Nguyễn Đăng
Thường would not be so bold, and Khế Iêm would not have to
spend hundreds of pages to discuss “the butterfly effect.”2 In addition, I believe that the first poet of
Vietnamese New Formalism was Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh, when he wrote
the line ‘The ve cry ve-ve’ (ve =
cicada) in 1914, very new formalism. On the contrary, a common saying of common
folk is: ‘Hear ye, hear ye / The sounds
of gambling / Fluttering in the mornings... ’ again, a very classical verse, in the vein of traditional poetry. Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh revealed that
before he translated La Fontaine’s fable, The
Cicada and the Ant, he had never written poetry, nor even tried his hand
at it. The verse ‘The ve cry ve-ve’ perhaps
came to him naturally, arising out of the original French, Nguyễn
Văn Vĩnh did not intend to reform or mordernize literature at all.
Yet indirectly, he had changed the paradigm between poetry and life and cut a
new course in the literary psyche of the Vietnamese although, in reality, that
particular verse did not have any significant affect upon our literature. It
was the later poets who were conscious of the efforts to reform Vietnamese
literature in more direct ways. The use of enjambment techniques to accent a
certain word or image, often encountered in Thơ Mới (New Poetry), is an approach adopted from
French poetry. By the time of Bích Khê (1915-1946) enjambment had become a
perfected technique, with its own aesthetic value, such as that found in the
poem Duy Tân (1941): Người họa
điệu với thiên nhiên, ân ái Buồn, và xanh trời.
(Tôi trôi với bờ Êm biếc – khóc với thu
– lời úa ngô Vàng & Khi cách biệt –
giữa hồn xây mộ – T́nh hôm qua – dài hôm nay
thương nhớ... Humans in harmony with nature,
passionate, sad, and blue As the heavens. (I float like the
shorelines that are clear Green – crying with the
autumn – wilting words, yellow maple Leaves & Once
separated – a cemetery amidst souls – Yesterday’s love –
extending long into today’s memory... In his foreword to The Poetry of Bích Khê
(1988), Chế Lan Viên confesses Bích Khê’s influence in his own poetry;
an example appears in the poem Tập
Qua Hàng (Passing By the Lines): Chỉ một ngày nữa
thôi. Em sẽ Trở về. Nắng
sáng cũng mong. Cây Cũng nhớ. Ngơ cũng
chờ. Và bướm Cũng thêm màu trên cánh
đang bay 3 Just one more day. You will Return. The morning sun longs for
you. The Trees also remember. The roads
await. And butterflies’ wings fly more
colorfully This poem is not quite New Formalism yet because
it still has the rhyme cây – bay, but this rhyme does not
have any function here. Minus the rhyme, by replacing the word cây with the word vườn, for instance, and re-ordering the verse, we can
make: Chỉ một ngày nữa
thôi em sẽ trở về nắng sáng
cũng mong vườn cũng nhớ ngơ cũng
chờ và bướm cũng thêm màu trên cánh
đang bay In this revised format, it would be a great
addition to the Vietnamese Journal of Poetry (Tạp Chí Thơ) publication! When we cite these examples, it is to show
that oftentimes, it is unclear where the boundaries between schools and
delineations between periods of modern and classical poetry really are. In
that spirit, it could be said that Vietnamese New Formalism is a variation of
folk poetry; and we agree whole heartedly with Khế Iêm when he wrote,
“Looking back upon past eras, from the traditional to free-style, and to new
formalism, poetry has always been a vital thread that is dynamic and ever
changing, becoming the beat of each and every era”.4 As one of the
original proponents of New Formalism, and perhaps its most devoted advocate,
Khế Iêm wrote: Each
literary period bears its own unique aesthetic sensibility and historical
values. Yet the paradox is there, the creative process is also the negation
process. What we express about pre-war (traditional) poetry or free-style is
just a deconstruction of ourselves because we had in the past composed poetry
in the traditional and free-style form before switching to New Formalism.5 (Khế Iêm has published two collections
of poetry Thanh Xuân, ‘Youth’ 1992,
in rhymed verses and Dấu Quê
‘Vestiges of The Homeland’ 1996, in free-verse form.) While in America, New Formalism only emerged
as a new form of writing in the 1980s under the auspices of Neo-formalism. It
was not until 1996 that 25 poets came together under the label of New
Formalism and took center stage with their collection of poetry, Rebel Angels.6 But
apparently New Formalism poetry had its origins in France, starting with the
works of Jean Ristat, Từ Khúc
Giục Mùa Xuân Rảo Bước (Ode pour hâter la venue du
Printemps) published in a series in the magazine La Nouvelle Critique from
1977 to1978. A popular form of French poetry is the Alexandrin, twelve
syllables in length as French is a polysyllabic language. With every twelve-syllable
count, there is enjambment and a new line is started below, regardless of the
grammar and word structures. Đỗ Kh. had translated this poem, also
using the same enjambment technique, but with 6-8 syllable verses, since they
appear more “traditional” (to Vietnamese): a new line is entered after every
sixth or eighth word, and this can continue for a thousand lines.7 The
excerpts of these translations were published sporadically in magazines such
as Hợp Lưu, and Tạp Chí Thơ, issue 2
(1994), issue 18 (2000). The poet Nguyễn Đăng Thường,
residing in London, who contributed to the translations, was inspired by the
translated poems and wrote his own poem of thirty-one stanzas of five lines
each, also using the enjambment format of New Formalism poetry, but in the
seven-syllable style. That is the poem Những
Nụ Hồng của Máu (Roses of Blood), critically acclaimed
for its avant garde and original quality. This poem was published in the
magazine Thế Kỷ 21,
issue 27, July 1991, in California. Perhaps this is the first New Formalist
poem, appearing about the same time as that of Đỗ Kh. whose
translations recently were reprinted by Nguyễn Đăng
Thường in an arts-and-craft format, by the Giọt Sương Hoa publishing house. In a footnote to the translation, Đỗ Kh.
carefully noted the political context of the poem, wherein the poet Jean
Ristat had composed the poem with the ambition to “reform” the Communist
Party of France ahead of its 22nd Convention in the year 1977. That explains
the images of a “hurried spring” giục
giă mùa xuân. He also notes that it is an Ode, thus, of course, it
is also a love poem. Jean Ristat was the boyfriend of Aragon, his
secretary and the heir to Aragon’s literary legacy. The poem has homosexual
inuendos. Generally speaking, New Formalism poetry in Europe and America
falls into a special cultural category alongside the Women’s Rights Movement,
Homosexual Rights, Anti-War Movements and even the Vietnam Syndrome Movement. Thus, when the Vietnamese poetry journal Tạp Chí Thơ proclaims: New
Formalism is the harmonious continuity between the past and the present,
between traditional and free verse, between diverse cultures, and to a deeper
degree, a conciliation of the conflicts that had long been ingrained in the
subconscious, not only of any single race of people, but all of humanity for
from centuries past. We have had the good fortune in the past quarter of a
century to learn and absorb the best that world civilizations has to offer
and to apply them through appropriate means of communication and languages,
thereby enriching Vietnamese poetry. 8 It appears presumptious, yet it is an honest
ambition. The authors are people who have deep understanding of literature
and of their role in it. They are willing to sacrifice themselves
(financially, in some instances) to promote the cause of poetry without any
ulterior political or literary motives. Even a decade later, they are still
quiety working in solitude and sometimes may be envied by people who have
negative preconceptions and biases, without enjoying acclaim like the Dadaists in Europe at the turn of the
last century, or the Xuân Thu Nhă
Tập (Spring-Autumn Literary Movement) group in Việt Nam
around the same period. In the final estimate, life and poetry both
have their destinies. Phan Khôi rose to fame with the poem T́nh Già (Old Love) published in 1932
in Phụ Nữ Tân Văn.
Today, it would be difficult to find a magazine willing to print a poem like T́nh Già; and even if one did publish it,
it would not receive the same acclaim. Should there be such a clamor, it
would only further frustrate the author. A reincarnated Phan would probably
just swear it off. More recently, the poet Chân Phương,
previously associated with the
Tạp Chí Thơ poetry circle, wrote a critical essay about
Vietnamese New Formalism poetry, regarding it as “an inappropriate copy,
turning enjambment techniques into a mechanical trick devoid of any
thinking.” 9 I believe the Vietnamese New Formalism poets do
indeed “respect the rules and regulations,” at least subconsciously. Take
for example, an analysis appearing in Tạp Chí Thơ issue 20, in the
poem Giữa Những Ḍng
Thơ (Between The Verses) written by Phan Tấn Hải; the
hidden structure is a five-word verse. Khế Iêm’s Con Mèo Đen (The Black Cat) is a poem comprised of eight-word
lines, Nguyễn Thị Thanh B́nh’s Mưa Muộn (A Late Rain) is a poem of seven-word lines.
Some will ask: so why make enjambment at all? Answer: the enjambment
technique is an essential component within the whole formality of Vietnamese
New Formalism poetry. Sometimes it is intended to evoke emotions, such as in
the poem Những Nụ
Hồng của Máu (Roses of Blood) by Nguyễn Đăng
Thường, referred to in an earlier paragraph, which contains these
opening verses: Ten thousand and one rainy nights
before When Christ was crucified on the
cross In the noontime violin that day
appeared A ray of sunshine meekly shining
through The arched door suddenly
striking... The beauty of these verses is, no matter how
you read it, with or without enjambments, the poem would still be enjoyable.
Thus, we could praise the author for his clever talent, or criticize him for
his trickery, having his cake and eating it too. He explains himself: The poem
is lengthy because I wanted to create the impression with some people that it
was a kind of Chanson du Mal Aimé,
or Giây phút chạnh ḷng
(Affected Moments) or Le condamné à
Mort of a past era, a time of turmoil. Những Nụ Hồng
của Máu (Roses of Blood)
is a ballad full of ‘sound and fury’, a love poem, romantic, comic,
sarcastic, realist, surrealist, of the highest calibre, of the lowest grade,
perhaps not even poetry, (depending on the reader), a kind of pulp fiction,
soap opera, film noir, reformed theatre, kabuki, TV, documentary film, a
confused collage painting, or masterpiece (depending on the observer) with
all the allusions of things past and present, east and west.10 (The poems that Nguyễn Đăng
Thường alludes to are of Apollinaire, Thế Lữ and
Genet). Another beauty: Nguyễn Đăng Thường
coincidentally defined New Formalism poetry in a dynamic yet also specific
way, without being aware of it. In addition, New Formalism poetry does not
entirely break with tradition, rather, it embraces diversity, chaos and all
sorts of baggage from the past. * Aspiring to bring common language, common life
into poetry. Unfortunately, how can one know which normal life it refers to? In the same New Formalism vein, Mai Ninh
composed a poem while on a cruise ship touring the Nil River; Trọng
Tuyến writes poetry while attending a science convention in Japan;
Thanh B́nh writes while riding a back wind in springtime on her way to Đinh
Cường’s house on a prairie; and Đinh Cường writes poems
while painting in Virginia; Đỗ Minh Tuấn writes poetry while
repairing plumbing in Hà Nội; and Đỗ Kh. writes poetry while
having fun with making love somewhere around the world and sighs not so much
ecstasy. So what is the common life? What is common language? Thus, Vietnamese New Formalism poetry plods
along. In traditional-classical poetry, from Nguyễn Trăi to Xuân
Diệu, five hundred years apart, the poetic verse did not undergo much
change. Between Lưu Hy Lạc and Phan Nhiên Hạo, only a few
afternoons apart, a few streets, and yet their poems are so definintely
different! That is nothing compared to the distances in
mountains and rivers, walls and fences, firewalls and bamboo gates. Poetry,
intitially, is a playful verse of a song, later taking on speech, and
ideations from the greater society, the advantages and power of authority and
government. The friends of Tạp
Chí Thơ are led by Khế Iêm, who holds only a candle in his
hand. For the past decade, he has sought “the butterfly effect”11
with the light of his candle. Khế Iêm understands the difficulties of
New Formalism poetry of the greatest concern is the lack of young readers.
The overseas Vietnamese diaspora generally does not read Vietnamese. While in
Vietnam, few have even heard of New Formalism poetry, not because it lacks
literary value, but because its distribution and diffusion is limited by a
regulated press that is subject to government control. As in literature and the arts, a society
advances when its politics is a product of culture. Society becomes backward
and unable to grow when culture becomes a tool of politics. The future of
poetry, including that of New Formalism, lies in the borderlands between
these polarities. From the times of the Book of Poetry of Confucius, to the Poetics of Aristotle, to the modern day, more than two thousand
years have transpired; the story of Poetry has been told and retold ad
nausium. But these two verses still rings delightfully: “Fukkit, let’s split this grenade between us.
Me, no tough shit. One needs a piece of one’s heart involved in Poetry.” These lines belong to no one but Đỗ Kh.,
I just don’t remember which piece he puts them in. Can’t find him anywhere to
ask. So, heh Khiêm, you write these lines in which poems? DANG TIEN New
Year of the Dog 02/02/2006 1. Tạp chí Thơ, issue 20, page
73, 2001, California 2. Khế Iêm, New Formalism, pages 35-74, Văn Mới publishing house,
2003, California. Theory of New Formalism Poetry, 180 pages. 3. Chế Lan Viên, Anthology, page 282, Văn Học Publishing House, 1983,
extract from Hái Theo Mùa,
1973-1977 4. Khế Iêm, New
Formalism, page 19, Văn
Mới publishing house, 2003, California. 5. Khế Iêm, Tạp
Chí Thơ, page 114, issue 21, 2001, California. 6. Editors Mark Jarman and David Mason, Rebel Angels, Story Line Press, 1996,
Oregon, reprinted 1998. 8. Jean Ristat, Ode pour hâter la venue du Printemps, Gallimard, 1978, translated
by Đỗ Kh., Đoản Khúc Để Mùa Xuân Đến Vội,
Giọt Sương Hoa, 2001, London. E-mail:
ndtdel@indirect.co.uk, giá 5 Euros. 9. Tạp Chí Thơ, page 75, issue
20, 2001. 10. Chân Phương, Tạp Chí
Văn Học, page 74, issue 226, July-August, 2005, California. 11. Nguyễn Đăng Thựng,
Tạp Chí Thơ, page 124,
issue 18, 2000. 12. Extract from Chaos Theory. 13. As of date, I know of three Vietnamese New Formalism poetry
collections that have been published: In Vietnam: Đoàn Minh Hải, Đại Nguyện của Đá, 2002. In America: Lưu Hy Lạc, 26 Bài Thơ Tân H́nh Thức, Giọt Sưong Hoa,
2002; Hà Nguyên Du, Gene Đại
Dương, nxb Tạp Chí Thơ, 2003. The Writers Post & literature-in-translation, founded 1999,
based in the US. Editorial note: Works published in this issue are simultaneously published in the printed Wordbridge magazine (ISSN: 1540-1723). Copyright © Dang Tien & The Writers Post. Nothing in this magazine may be downloaded, distributed, or reproduced without the permission of the author/ translator/ artist/ The Writers Post/ and Wordbridge magazine. Creating links to place The Writers Post or any of its pages within other framesets or in other documents is copyright violation, and is not permitted. |