♦ Dr. Tran Quoc Viet

thuongHa Noi is remembered not only through its streets and monuments but also through everyday speech, folk verses, and poetry that have permeated social life across generations. From folk songs and proverbs to classical and modern poetry, literature preserves a vibrant Hanoi through memory and emotion. Here, the city is not presented as a panorama to be described, but as a lived space, one that has been inhabited, named, and remembered through language. To traverse these layers of text is to traverse the ways Hanoi resides in the collective consciousness of Vietnamese people.

thuongIn Vietnamese literature, particularly in concise and orally-transmissible forms, Hanoi appears less as a geographically defined city than as a cultural environment. Folk songs, proverbs, and poetry do not reconstruct the city in its entirety; rather, they preserve elements durable enough to accompany everyday life: behavioral norms, a sense of history, and urban experiences that have transformed into memory.

Hanoi in folk songs and proverbs: norms of life transmitted through words

thuongIn folk songs and proverbs, Hanoi first emerges as a familiar social space, where people live under each other’s gaze and thus must regulate their behavior accordingly. Names like Kẻ Chợ or Tràng An (old names of Hanoi) do not function merely as place names but as symbols of a value system. The well-known verse:

“Chẳng thơm cũng thể hoa nhài,
 Dẫu không thanh lịch cũng người Tràng An”

(“The beauty of Trang An people (ancient Hanoians) was always as elegant as jasmine’s.”)

thuongIs the most typical expression of how Hanoi is represented in folk poetry. Here, “elegance” is not an innate trait, but a social expectation attached to the designation. Language does not passively reflect reality; instead, it actively participates in creating reality through the repetition of norms, turning them into a “way” of life.

thuongIn the same vein, the proverb “Eat northern food, wear the clothes of Hanoi, the capital” (Ăn Bắc, mặc Kinh) affirms the central role of the capital in shaping customs and aesthetic standards. Hanoi is perceived as the place where standards for living and presenting oneself to the community are established, where daily life has reached a level of sophistication sufficient to become a model.

thuongThe sense of familiarity with Hanoi is also captured in the verse:

“Rủ nhau chơi khắp Long Thành,

Ba mươi sáu phố rành rành chẳng sai.”

(Together we roam Long Thanh*

Thirty-six streets, distinct and clear.)

*an old poetic name for Thang Long, the former name of Hanoi

thuongThe value of this verse lies not in geographical accuracy, but in the words “distinct and clear”. Hanoi is remembered as an urban space internalized into lived experience, where residents can navigate, name, and remember through daily routines. The city thus appears as a space for long-term living, stable in memory, even as it constantly changes in reality. What folk verses and proverbs preserve corresponds to an urban life that has already reached a high degree of sophistication in social practices and leisure, as reflected in works such as Tang thương ngẫu lục (Random records of the great upheaval).

Archival photo: Hanoi in the early 20th century (by Léon Busy).

Hanoi in classical poetry: Cultural memory and historical nostalgia

thuongIn classical poetry, Hanoi is viewed in relation to time. The city no longer appears as a functioning living space, but as a repository of cultural memory. The most emblematic work is Thăng Long thành hoài cổ (Nostalgia for the Citadel of Thang Long) by Bà Huyện Thanh Quan, where Hanoi appears through the fading traces of the past:

“Lối xưa xe ngựa hồn thu thảo,
 Nền cũ lâu đài bóng tịch dương.”

(“Where horse-drawn carriages once thronged, now only autumn’s withered soul remains;

Where grand towers once stood, now only the dying sunlight stains.”)

thuongThe scenery evokes a contrast between bygone splendor and the silent present, giving Hanoi a somber and contemplative character. Nostalgia here is not personal lament but a historical consciousness of the rise and fall of a land of culture, of the distance between past power and ordinary life.

thuongA similar sensibility runs through Nguyễn Du’s Long Thành cầm giả ca (“The song of the Musician of Long Thanh”), which portrays Hanoi through people and art. The image of the songstress from Long Thành and her once-renowned music reveals a capital once highly refined, where artistic talent reached its peak, while also exposing the fragility of human fate in the flow of change. In classical poetry, Hanoi thus appears not through streets, but through cultural memory imbued with loss and retrospection.

Hanoi in modern poetry: Historical experience and personal memory

thuongIn the 20th century, poetry recorded Hanoi with the rhythm of direct experience. In Đất Nước (The Country) by Nguyễn Đình Thi, Hanoi appears through the imagery of autumn:

“Sáng mát trong như sáng năm xưa,
 Gió thổi mùa thu hương cốm mới.”

(“A crisp, clear dawn, just like the dawns of yesteryear,

On the autumn breeze, the scent of young green rice flakes fills the air.”)

thuongThese concrete sensory images function both as personal impressions and as symbols of collective memory. Hanoi is not positioned outside history but is tied to shared endurance and will, to a period when individual life merged with the fate of the nation.

thuongIn the post-war era, poetry about Hanoi shifted towards private urban memory. The poem Em ơi, Hà Nội phố (Oh, Hanoi streets) by Phan Vũ preserves the city through seemingly trivial details:

“Ta còn em mùi hoàng lan,
 Ta còn em mùi hoa sữa.”

(“I still have you, the scent of yellow orchids

 I still have you, the scent of milkwood pine.”)

thuongHanoi here exists through small sensory fragments: scents, rooftops, streets. The urban space is preserved in personal memory as part of emotional life, creating an intimate and enduring image of Hanoi.

Archival photo: Nguyễn Đình Thi and an excerpt from his poem The Country (Source: Dân Việt newspaper).

thuongViewed across folk verses, classical poetry, and modern poetry, it is evident that Hanoi in Vietnamese literature is sustained not through comprehensive descriptions, but through the repetition of concise, culturally dense linguistic forms. Folk poetry and proverbs construct a Hanoi of living standards; classical poetry preserves Hanoi within cultural depth and historical reflection; modern poetry records Hanoi through historical experience and personal memory. These layers of text overlap, constructing an emotional geography and an aesthetic frame of reference, allowing Hanoi to not only be seen but remembered and lived with across generations./.

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References

1. Bà Huyện Thanh Quan. (1993). Thơ Bà Huyện Thanh Quan (The Poetry of Bà Huyện Thanh Quan). Education Publishing House.

2. Nguyễn, D. (2002). Long Thành cầm giả ca (The song of the Musician of Long Thanh). In Toàn tập Nguyễn Du (The complete works of Nguyen Du). Literature Publishing House.

3. Nguyễn, Đ. T. (1960). Đất nước (The Country). Literature Publishing House.

4. Nguyễn, V. N. (2005). Ca dao tục ngữ Việt Nam (Vietnamese folk poetry and proverbs) (Reprint of 1928 ed.). Literature Publishing House.

5. Phạm, Đ. H., & Nguyễn, Á. (2005). Tang thương ngẫu lục (Random records of the great upheaval) (Reprint ed.). Literature Publishing House.

6. Phan, V. (2009). Em ơi, Hà Nội phố (Oh, Hanoi streets). Literature Publishing House.

7. Vũ, N. P. (2000). Tục ngữ, ca dao, dân ca Việt Nam (Vietnamese proverbs, folk poetry, and folk songs). Literature Publishing House.