The Wandering Ballad of Cụ Mén

An old farmer. A garden of sweet potatoes. A journey from the village field to the open sea.The Wandering Ballad of Cụ Mén, Vol 1 is the opening movement of Phạm Hồng Điệp’s modern Vietnamese folk epic. Through a sequence of lyrical, humorous and deeply human poems, the book introduces Cụ Mén - an old farmer whose strength, wit, tenderness and restless spirit transform ordinary rural labor into a journey of memory, resilience and meaning.This first volume begins close to the soil. Cụ Mén tends sweet potatoes, plows the field, nurses the maize, gathers food, brews wine, traps fish, rows the boat, joins the village fair, chews betel, patches the thatch and moves through the familiar rhythms of village life. Yet as the poems unfold, his world widens. The farmer of the field becomes a man of rivers, boats, fishing nets, squid, sharks, storms, courage and the open sea.Rooted in Vietnamese folk tradition and shaped by the cadences of rural life, Vol 1 celebrates the quiet heroism of ordinary people. It honors work done by hand, meals shared after labor, laughter rising from hardship, and the enduring bond between humanity and the land.At once earthy and poetic, rustic and expansive, intimate and epic, The Wandering Ballad of Cụ Mén gives international readers a rare encounter with the spirit of rural Vietnam. Cụ Mén does not wander for fame or fortune. He wanders to live fully, to help others, to laugh, to endure, and to carry forward the values of the land.A modern Vietnamese folk epic of labor, laughter, resilience and the enduring soul of Vietnam.