My episode artwork here is a painting by Vietnamese artist Hồ Tiệp of Vũ Tiến Lâm, the singer on the track THƯƠNG CA QUÊ TÔI (Heartfelt Nostalgic Song of my Homeland) by Trần Nguyên Hào which is referenced in this episode of my podcast. The painting appears as the thumbnail for the track on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjsHpXDB1P0
Thanks Ant for introducing us to a splendid poem and song. I note that our word ‘Nostalgia’ comes from the Greek for Return Home. The meaning is figurative, ie the return home is in the imaginative yearning rather than being a real event. And I think it is that same figurative sense that the Vietnamese poet has in mind when at the end of his poem he says that today he visited his Homeland.
Interesting points about social mobility. When we lived in a countryside village all the middle class people were incomers, whilst all the working class people and their parents before them were from the village itself or its surrounds. Class is the big divide in these matters.