When I was 13, I briefly watched a 2-minute interview clip of the world-renown Vietnamese songwriter Phạm Duy, who is immortalized by his profound contribution to Vietnamese music. Those 2 minutes, though forgotten for 20 years, made a permanent imprint in the subconscious of my mind that eventually re-emerged to influence my writing style post-2020.

In this clip, Phạm Duy explained his poetic style and of his peers (who were influenced by a blend of traditional Vietnamese and French chanson elements), a style he loosely referred to as "Relevant Irrelevance."

In short, it is a technique where the poet/writer evokes imageries (often from Nature, a signature Vietnamese style) that on the surface are completely irrelevant to the story being told. But if the irrelevant imageries were taken away, then the story completely loses its essence and meaning. "Relevant Irrelevance."

One of my favorite examples of this method is the heart-wrenching scene painted with words in the first verse of "Đêm Gành Hào Nghe Điệu Hoài Lang," or "Yearning for My Betrothed In the Night of Gành Hào":

🎶 Beneath the moon, the river so gently flows

Like a swathe of golden silk sweeping to the Eastern sea.

Oh Gành Hào, in the midnight hours, who is singing a yearning chord for her betrothed?

Tilting moonlight illuminates the Myrtle forest

Eh u eh u eh u

With earnest sorrow, the zither releases her tender strings

Eh u eh u eh u

To carry the melody back to the pier of bygone time ...🎶 

As you can see, the illuminating moon and the silken river that flows to the Eastern sea here on the surface seem irrelevant to the main story....but at the same time, you cannot imagine this story written any other way. Relevant irrelevance. 

In an age where copy-and-paste self help books are prolific on the shelves, and imageries are employed mostly as a utilitarian mechanism to describe a scene for the sake of moving the story along....I understand that my "relevant irrelevance" style, which forces the readers to slow down and fully immerse in the encompassing soul of the story, may seem like swimming against the current.

But I'm sure that ANYONE who has read my piece about "Drifting Water Hyacinth and a Broken Rice Shack by the Đồng Nai River" can attest that...while drifting water Hyacinth has nothing to do with the story...it has everything to do with the story, and the story can not be told any other way.  😉