Poet Nguyen Thi Kim – Vietnam

Her biography:

Poet Nguyen Thi Kim was born in 1941 in Hanam Province, Vietnam. She graduated from Pharmacy University. Be a Doctor of Pharmacy and Medicine since 1987. Worked in the National Nutrition Institute. Graduated from the 1st course of Creative Writing University. Now living in Hanoi, Vietnam. She is member of Vietnam Writers’ Association.

“SEE ALL CAPITAL”

Episode I: “Seeing the Capital”
In 1966, the war escalated fiercely in the North, and the University of Pharmacy was evacuated to Ha Bac.
Teachers and students used bamboo to put up makeshift houses for hostels and classrooms. Each intake took care of themselves. During the war, students were still able to eat their fill, but they had cassava added to their meals. Each class was about 50 people. The main food was pumpkin, squash soup, fried squash, braised jackfruit seeds. Particularly, the braised jackfruit seed dish was delicious, but the night patrol group complained that students were very “noisy” (by breaking wind).
During the semester exam review week, the school gave each class two kilograms of pork to improve nutrition. Thinly sliced boiled meat was divided into eight trays (six students per tray). A little protein was added to the meal, there was a happy atmosphere in the restaurant.
Suddenly a student looked dumbfounded, a serious look on his face, he said loudly: “What a pity! What a pity!”
Before I could ask, he immediately said: “The piece of meat is fatty, before I can feel it for a long time, it slips down my throat.”
He laughed and continued: “Perhaps because the cook sliced the pork so well. A pork slice is so thin that through it, you can see the whole capital of Hanoi!”
Episode II: The story of Melientha suavis
Although the students ate a low diet, they studied very hard, the results were very good, the class was always happy. After school, they played volleyball, badminton, and practised singing and dancing. When making a football field, we didn’t know why we cut down a few melientha suavis plants (its leaf is like katuk leaf, with very high protein, woody stem and big trunk, this vegetable is abundant in Huong Son area, when cooked as soup it tastes sweet). The ethnic people blamed us for that, we also regretted doing it, but it’s already over.
There is an anecdote about this kind of vegetable, poet Tan Da wrote a four-line poem addressed to a female poet (I don’t remember her name):
I want to eat melientha suavis of Huong Pagoda
Afraid of expensive boat fee for long distance
You go and I stay at home
Salted cabbage is pungently sour, salted eggplant is dark grey

And the poet received a bunch of the vegetable and a reply from the female poet:
To whom some vegetables of Huong pagoda
Less boat fee, shorter distance
If you don’t go, just stay at home
Replacing pungently sour cabbage and dark grey salted eggplants.

Our predecessors are amazingly romantic, and also so noble.
As juniors, we bow our respect to you.