Vietnam: What are the guidelines for analysis of the poem "Làm lẽ" for 8th-grade students? When are 8th-grade students required to undergo training during the summer break?

Ho Xuan Huong, a person with a vibrant life force, a deep personal consciousness, and a longing for marital happiness, falls into the heart-wrenching tragedy of becoming a concubine. She was the child of a concubine. She herself married twice, both times as a concubine. All these tragic experiences of her mother, herself, and countless other unfortunate women under the detestable polygamous policies of feudal society, accumulated into a substantial explosive: the poem "Làm lẽ". The poem has a tremendous impact against polygamous policies, loudly demanding the right to life and marital happiness for women.

Ho Xuan Huong, oppressed and indignant with the life of a concubine, explodes with words from the very beginning of the poem:

"One wears a warm blanket, the other is cold"

"Curse the fate of sharing a husband!"

The opening verse articulates directly the injustice in marriage and affection. "One wears a warm blanket, the other is cold" is truly clever. The poetic image immediately recalls the notion of the bedroom, the bed, the conjugal bliss. And the injustice between the first wife and the concubine becomes as evident as mountains and abysses. One "wears a warm blanket" as warm as possible while the other "lies alone outside" as cold as possible. Yet the physical coldness pales in comparison to the emotional coldness, the cold in the heart, "cold".

Ho Xuan Huong directly curses the lowly fate of sharing:

"Curse the fate of sharing a husband"

Cursing both with words and melody, the seven-character line features four accented words (curse, the, fate, share) sharp as a knife. But despite the curse, the pain remains, that is “the fate of sharing a husband". Sharing what cannot be shared, isn’t it worth cursing? Folk songs also reject the shared husband scene:

"Hungry, lie beneath the figs

Marry one husband, don’t share one.”

Why then, is Xuan Huong, an intellectual, not wise enough to avoid twice falling into the "shared husband" situation? This is precisely the pitiful aspect of a woman. Due to yearning for conjugal happiness, knowing well that being a concubine is worthless, yet she couldn’t "avoid".

The female poet Xuan Huong, a victim of polygamous policies, bluntly reveals the tragedies in the bed chamber of the "shared husband" fate:

"Rarely five times a year

Once or twice a month it happens not at all."

The poet cleverly combines two idioms "rarely five times a year" and "when it happens, it happens not at all" into a vague line: "Rarely five times a year". The Tang poetry became pure Vietnamese poetry, describing the sparse and rare occurrences of affection between husband and concubine. Ho Xuan Huong’s language in this case can be called oblique language, vague descriptions because it is a difficult subject. Yet everyone understands, that’s Xuan Huong’s artistic talent. More than a hundred years ago, amid a rigid and hypocritical society, a woman boldly voiced the desires of flesh, of affection, of love, and Ho Xuan Huong was indeed ahead of her time. Perhaps that’s why young French people today, reading Ho Xuan Huong, firmly believe that the muse lives in tandem with them!

Ho Xuan Huong is a woman with a profound personal consciousness, valiant, cultivated yet couldn’t escape the tragic fate of "being a concubine"? Perhaps this tragedy doesn’t stem from awareness, courage, or intellect but rather from the deep recesses of the soul of a woman, and Xuan Huong is more womanly than any woman alive. Listen to the throbbing heartbeat of this pitiful and venerable woman:

"Going through the motions for shoddy reward

As though working for free, hired for nothing."

Only Xuan Huong has the courage and talent to grasp an idiom to explain the behavior leading to marital tragedy. "Going through the motions for shoddy reward", from material action, material phenomenon, the author evokes spiritual action, the mindset of a minor concubine. From the "shoddy" to the "nauseating" flavor of sticky rice, the poet hints at the wretchedness of the "shared husband" scene. This concretizing of the abstract closely aligns with folk poetic principles. In pursuit of a small bit of conjugal happiness, a woman must degrade herself to "go through the motions for shoddy reward", but once involved, the concubine recognizes the vile nature of polygamous policies:

"As though working for free, hired for nothing."

The concubine is nothing more than a "worker", a servant, yet worse than a worker for being "hired for nothing". So wretched, so humiliating. The repetition of "shoddy, shoddy", "hired, hired" creates a haunting, resentful melody of the concubine's fate.

The poem concludes with a bitter self-reflection:

"Had I known it would be like this

I'd rather have remained alone from the start."

This is a reassessment, devoid of imagery or embellishment, directly expressing the thoughts of a lifetime as a concubine. An intellectual woman like Xuan Huong couldn’t envisage all the harshness of the "shared husband" fate. She bitterly considers that "I'd rather have remained alone from the start." For a woman, destined to be a wife, a mother, "remaining alone" is most tragic, yet being a concubine is even more tragic. Thus, it highlights how harsh the "shared husband" fate truly is!

The poem "Làm lẽ" excels in sincere, ardent emotion, profound thoughts, and intense rebellion. Artful expression captures the unspeakable aspects of the "shared husband" fate in a refined, evocative manner. Vietnamese idioms have given wings to Xuan Huong’s poetry, domesticating Tang poetry into a form rich with national melody.

With the poem "Làm lẽ", the polygamous policies of feudal society have been dealt a fatal blow. To voice the injustices of polygamous policies, to demand the rights to life and marital happiness, Ho Xuan Huong had to pay with her entire life. Thus, the more one thinks of her, the more one admires and respects Ho Xuan Huong, the enigmatic woman, the "Queen of Nom Poetry" in the national literary heritage.