Webinar shares poems and memories of President Ho Chi Minh

 

Poet Tran Dang Khoa (Photo: VNA)

New York (VNA) - Stories about President Ho Chi Minh’s wise mindand vision and his simple lifestyle and humanity were shared at a webinar held bythe permanent mission of Vietnam to the United Nations with renowned poet TranDang Khoa on the occasion of the late leader’s 131st birthday on May 19.

Entitled “Tho, hoi uc ve Nguoi - Mot nhan cach lon” (Poems and memoriesabout President Ho Chi Minh - A great figure), the webinar featured AmbassadorDang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, and officialsfrom Vietnamese embassies and representative offices worldwide.

President Ho Chi Minh signs a decree on January 1, 1960. (File photo: VNA)

Six-three-year-old Khoa has spent years studying and writing aboutPresident Ho Chi Minh. One of his first poems about the Vietnamese leader - “AnhBac” (a Photo of Uncle Ho) - was written when he was eight years old and in Grade2. The pure and simple poem of a child was published in newspapers and won thehearts of millions of readers around the country.

He said he is particularly impressed by how the President used talentedpeople. He made Vo Nguyen Giap, who then was a history teacher and had neverreceived formal military training, an army general.

American journalist Lady Borton once asked President Ho Chi Minh why hepromoted Giap, and he replied simply: “We have been fighting guerrilla style, andso are our appointments. Giap has defeated all of the French Generals so hemust be a General.”

President Ho Chi Minh was a major inspiration for writers and musiccomposers, Khoa said, adding that most works about him are touching andmeaningful. The poet who wrote the most poems about President Ho Chi Minh was thelate To Huu, while the most beautiful works included those by late poets VietPhuong from Hanoi and Felix Pita Rodriguez from Cuba.

Ambassador Quy said that for people of his generation, born in the1960s, poems about Uncle Ho, especially those from Tran Dang Khoa, are the mostbeautiful and unforgettable, regardless of time./.

VNA