The Beauty of Vietnamese Poetry: Ca Dao

Lei Pui

Vietnamese Literature

03-01-2014

     The Beauty of Vietnamese Poetry: Ca Dao

The literary treasures of third world countries are often lost in the melee of the practical problems that afflict these nations. In the wake of the war, there happened to be a person who somehow ventured to retrieve the lost assets of Vietnamese folk culture and ended up creating a beautiful compilation of poetry which we now know as Ca Dao. It is not that Ca Dao is a modern avatar of Vietnamese poetry; on the contrary, it is one of the oldest. However, thanks to the likes of John Balaban, the world is now aware of it spellbinding aspects. Ca Dao means a “song with short unfixed melody” which is mainly a form of lyrical poetry, accompanied with a melody. It is sung by the peasants and farmers in most parts of Vietnam, and the first person narrative is so alluring that it does not even require any musical instrument to enhance its charm

John Balaban, a professor of English in Creative Writing and a poet-in-residence of North Carolina ventured to seek and find the long lost poetry of the Vietnamese folk culture. The time of this venture is quite contradictory to its nature, as Balaban set off in search of music and lyrics in the wake of the Vietnam War. He scouted across villages and settlements in search of Ca Dao, with little hope of ever finding any relevant text or document pertaining to the same. But his efforts were rewarded when he realized that Ca Dao was still alive in every farmer or peasant whom he met, and they all sang out their poetry for him.  To his amazement and joy, he ended up with recordings of over 500 Ca Dao poetries and compiled 50 of them, which he later translated as modestly as he could. Balaban’s translation of Ca Dao not only enriched the seemingly failing Vietnamese traditional folk poetry but also presented it in a global platform to attract admirers from all across the world.