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THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467) VOLUME 8 NUMBER 1 JAN 2006
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Reading Vietnamese New
Formalism KHE IEM Translated into English by
Joseph Do Vinh About the translator: Do Vinh is pseudonym of
Joseph Do Vinh Tai, who was born in Vietnam in
1968, immigrated with his family to the US in 1975, and studied at the
University of Washington, from where he graduated in BS Political Science. He
started in the literary community in 1980, became active in the literary
circles of the Pacific Northwest from the mid 1980’s to the early 1990’s. His
poetry and writings have appeared several magazines; his collection of poetry
‘Green Plums’ was published in 2005. Do Vinh is
currently living in Central Valley, California. According
to the American novelist Pearl S. Buck, winner of the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1938, the greatest books of China such as Shui Hu Chuan, San Kuo, and Hung Lou Meng are accomplishments of the masses, collected
from many professional storytellers. The people, for the most part, were
illiterate. Thus, on weekends, holidays, and time-off from work, they
gathered to listen to a storyteller who told these tales. The listener might
tip the storyteller by placing money in a hat or bowl, perhaps buying a cup
of tea for the teller to wet his voice. When a storyteller could collect
enough money from these tips to quit his day job, he then became a
professional storyteller. These professional storytellers traveled from
village to village and gathered up contemporary tales that they embellished
and wrote down. The style was clear and simple so that the story could be
told in a lively and interesting, yet easy to understand way for everyone to
enjoy. Thus the authors Shih Nai An, Lo Kuan Chung and Ts’ao Hsueh Ching are merely good
storytellers who have retold tales that they have learned, not ones that they
themselves composed. Therefore, the authorship of these collected stories should
rightly be credited to the masses, which created them over many generations. Similarly,
the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, about the Trojan
War, were created as oral compositions. Whether that war actually happened or
not is unverifiable because we lack written historical records, but through
Homer’s retelling, it became an essential part of classical Greek literature.
The story could have started out as a number of different stories of heroes
and then the professional bards compiled them into one complete work. If the
early bards were talented storytellers with great memories who retold these
tales with accuracy, then the later bards, telling much longer stories,
probably improvised many of their lines following sophisticated rules. We have
evidence from classical Greek times that shows that people had memorized
Homer’s epic poems in their entirely, word-for-word, over 25,000 verses.
During the Greek Dark Ages, 1200 – 750 BC, the wealthiest people entertained
themselves by listening to the professional storytellers singing the stories
of the Trojan War and its Greek heroes. The Greeks believed that the greatest
storyteller of them all was a blind man by the name of Homer. He had composed
ten epic poems, but only two of them remained. As a set, these epic poems
told of the history of the Trojan Wars, with each poem, recording only a part
of that history. Many historians and researchers of antiquities have
concluded that Homer’s two surviving works were actually compiled by many
authors and evolved over time. Regardless of how these epic poems came to be,
they had to be written down and perfected through many decades once writing was
developed. And
so, in the centuries prior to writing, poetry and stories were passed down to
ensuing generations through oral retelling. Such stories were refined
collectively by many and remained significant through the ages. But with each
new era, there were opportunities to record the stories, as literature,
differently, such as when the printing press came into use, and the people’s
educational level had increased dramatically. In 1850 more than half of the
European population was illiterate, compared to 1900 when more than 85% could
read. By this time, oral readings were no longer as common. Poetry became detached
from the oral tradition, and moved closer toward the culture of the written
word, thereby distancing itself from the general public. Once film-making was
invented and television became the dominant mode of communication, poetry
came to be relegated to universities and study halls, inessential to daily
life. It no longer maintained the relevance it had had for thousands of
years. In order not to be a lost art, poetry must revive its artistic
functions by reinventing itself with a new voice. The
early New Formalism Poets of America in the 1990s believed that one of the
advantages of New Formalism was that it was compatible with internet
technology. At that time, given the ease of transmission with its simple
format, the poems could be kept intact, and the reader could engage with
poems online without the baggage and nonsensical layouts that came with free
verse. And now, a decade later, we can also transmit sounds over the
Internet. Amazingly enough, poetry is returning to its original oral roots
and its true voice. Meanwhile,
in the Vietnamese tradition, poetry is sung lyrically, not read. When sung,
the words become melody to be harmonized with instrumentation. Such stylistic
performances often overwhelm the meaning of a poem, and force the poet to compose
with words that are suitable for musical presentation. But the reading of a
New Formalism Poem is entirely different. What holds
the attention of the reader is the rhythm and the circumstances of what is
being told. The reader must carefully read each word. We know that one sound
is basically formed by one word, with one syllable that is strong or weak,
long or short in relation to the other words surrounding it. To read is to
give life to the poem, to awaken the sounds locked within the words, and to convey
to the listener the unique characteristics of each line and each phrase, unduplicable from one to the next. Of course, reading
here is not silent reading, but must be reading out loud. But in reading a
New Formalism poem, one’s voice must flow through to the end of a sentence
that does not necessarily stop at the end of a line. Any break in the reading
will cause a disruption in the emotive experience. This naturally begs the
question, why then, must the poet conform to formalism. Why couldn’t free verse
suffice? When
we read rhymed verses, we stop at the end of a line, the length of which
varies from language to language. For instance, Westerners tend to use longer
phrases, and thus their poetic verses average ten syllables per line, while
the Vietnamese use shorter phrases and thus their verses average only seven
or eight syllables per line. The formats are quite simple, aimed at guiding
us to sing or to read the poems. In English poetry, each line is 10 syllables
arranged in unstressed, stressed, such mono tone, taken together to create a
rhythm. In Vietnamese poetry, with its five-, seven-, or eight- syllable each
line, a melody is created that can be read at a fast or a slow speed. Since
Vietnamese verses lack rhythm, Vietnamese New Formalism employs repetition as
a substitute. But this technique is not easily applied. It must be natural.
The readers should not notice the repetition, but rather experience it as a
natural rhythm. By
the time of the Renaissance, blank verses in English, with its lined
composition, had erased the practice of stopping a reading at the end of a
line. One can read a poem from the top down, in grammatical order, clearly
word for word in an orderly fashion. Later on, at the start of the 20th
century, free verse poetry was read in much the same way. But there were
still significant differences between the reading of free verse and blank
verse. Free verse employed the broken-line technique, with lines ranging from
long to short, to create the visual rhythm on paper. But when read, it is not
read by line, but by sentence, the purpose of which is to be able to clearly
perceive the sounds of each word. The visual rhythm is important, because
through it, the reader will follow the analysis to get the meaning of the
poem. Thus, in order to understand the poem in its entirety, the reader must
process many parts separately and taken together – the sounds of the words,
the rhythm of the lines and sentences, the meanings in analysis. With
performed poetry, the listener experiences poems directly, drawn in by the
talent of the performers in bringing poems to life with their presentations.
And so the reading of free verse cannot be understood through the traditional
poetic analysis because visual rhythm and presentation have overtaken oral sound
structure as the primary components. With
blank verse or Vietnamese New Formalism poetry, when read, the reader is
engaged in a struggle between the speed of syntax and line (or form). With
traditional poetry, pausing at the end of a line conforms to formalism
because the verse is also the format. If we try to read following the syntax
(the sentence) while our breath is just good enough for one poetic line (of
the verse), what will happen? We have seen that the sentence (syntax) tends
to increase the speed and intensity of a line, and lines tend to slow down
the progress of sentences. The stresses between these two components create a
balance in the poem. In Vietnamese New Formalism poetry, the use of five-,
seven-, and eight-syllable verses has a precise meaning that is essential to
a reading. Thus, from rhymed poetry to free verse, we could only truly
understand a poem by way of its reading. (We must know how to read a poem in
order to understand it). Rhythm or melody is the sound of a line, while formalism
is the abstract structure behind a line. In
the past, when an audience heard a poem, they were primarily receptive to the
sounds and the rhythms of the poem. In reality, poetry is a special art form
that is not meant to be read in a crowd, but should be read in a quiet
solitary place. But if a person has to read a poem out loud for his own
enjoyment, he may be distracted, or limited to just listening to the sounds
of the words and unable to completely appreciate the poem in its entirety. He
may also be inclined to read the poem in silence. When the poem is read to
him, the listener can better appreciate the poem fully manifested with its
sound and meaning in complimentarity. The Internet
is an ideal tool for communication. We can see (read) the poem with our eyes,
following its refined structure, the story line and other essential
components, while listening to the rhythm of the poem arising from within us,
in a solitary and private place. The audience experiences the poem as form
and its shadow, engaged and disengaged, understanding the poem and
understanding ourselves at the same time. Only in this way can we fully
appreciate the depths of poetry in all its artistic variations, perhaps
accompanied by music, for instance. Of
course, we will need professional readers. Each reader will bring in their
own special talent, their emotions, their sophistication and sense of
provocation, no different from a singer. The revival of poetry is a necessary
but not sufficient pursuit, if we are unable to develop a repertoire of
professional readers. Like the bards and storytellers of classical times, the
good and the bad will be exposed to criticisms, and the poet will have the
opportunity and inspiration to continue to create. A poem not yet read out
loud, is a poem not yet participating in real life. Translated into English by Joseph Do Vinh. Notes — Pearl buck, Nobel Lecture. December 12, 1938. 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
© Khe Iem
2006. 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.
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