The Wandering Ballad of Cụ Mén

An old farmer. A mountain road. A mission of kindness across the highlands of Vietnam.The Wandering Ballad of Cụ Mén, Vol 2 is the second movement of Phạm Hồng Điệp’s modern Vietnamese folk epic. Through a sequence of lyrical, humorous and deeply human poems, this volume follows Cụ Mén as he leaves the familiar world of village fields and waterways and travels into the highlands, where remote communities face poverty, isolation, harsh weather, old customs and the long labor of building a better life.Across Thái, H’Mông, Tày, Dao, Pa Kô, Cơ Tu, Xê Đăng and Ba Na villages, Cụ Mén becomes a helper, teacher, healer and companion. He guides communities in farming, animal husbandry, forest protection, flood resilience, herbal medicine, literacy, health, village cooperation and cultural preservation. He helps people raise pigs and goats, plant maize and rice, open learning paths for children, protect mountain forests, prepare for floods, reform harmful customs and build stronger, more abundant villages.Yet this is more than a story of development. It is a lyrical encounter with the cultural life of Vietnam’s highlands: communal houses, mountain fairs, forest spirits, gongs and drums, brocade cloth, herbal medicine, traditional songs, village covenants, ancestral memory and the quiet strength of people who endure hardship with dignity.At once rustic and poetic, intimate and expansive, Vol 2 shows Cụ Mén not only as a wanderer, but as a living bridge between tradition and renewal. He does not travel for fame or fortune. He travels to serve, to listen, to teach, to heal and to help communities stand more firmly on their own land.A modern Vietnamese folk epic of mountain villages, human kindness, resilience and cultural renewal.