“Thoughts of Hanoi” by Nguyen Thi Vinh

1.  SIGHT:

      Present:

        Pitchblack night

         Flash of lightning

       Past:

         “brown thatch”

         “lush green sea”

         bright-eyed girls

         “ruddy cheeks”

         “4-piece dresses”

         “raven-bill scarves”

         Meadow – boys playing there at

                          night

          “Stainless blue sky” – no war

           old men “strolling to the

               temple”

           “village graybeards” -- wisdom

         Note:  The stanza describing the

                    girls and boys emphasizes

                    the vitality of youth.

2.  SOUND:

      Present:

        Trains

         Boys singing

         “jubilant voices of children” –

          learning the alphabet

3.      SMELL:

Past:

  Crops

4.      TOUCH:

Present:

    Night -- chilling and cold

    “Burn the future”

    “way back sliced”

Past:

    sowing

    harvesting

    spinning

    weaving

    "ploughing"

    transplanting

    old women feeling “twilight sun”

5.  TASTE:

      Past:

        Old women chewing betel leaves

The speaker’s memories of Hanoi are vivid and full of sensory images.

Using these images the speaker compares the Hanoi that he knows in the present to that which he knew in the past.

The present images focus on cold, stormy Hanoi.  Through these images, the speaker shows that a “frontier of hatred” now splits Vietnam into two parts.  The “frontier of hatred” is the line dividing North from South Vietnam.  Just as the speaker cannot merge his past and present, he cannot merge the two parts of his country.

By contrasting his past and present, the speaker deals with the destruction of war.  He shows that political divisions can destroy friendships or families.

The imagery reinforces this message, for the reader clearly views the differences between the war-torn Hanoi of the present and the placid Hanoi of the past.