A Journey

Illegal immigrants. Sans Papiers. They both are the same words, just different languages. In Sans Papiers, written by lê thị diễm thúy, describes the writer’s feelings about Henri Matisse’s The Swimming Pool.

The first couple of stanzas of Sans Papiers, it talks about how letting our past be a part of us. Don’t run away from it or ignore it, let it become one with you to produce the true you.

As the poem goes on, she describes the painting with riveting words and engaging, artistic comparisons.

Lê thị diễm thúy chose this art of work because of how she perceived it. This artwork made her reminisce about those who have to cross long distances just to find shelter and safety. This artwork makes her imagine how those who have to immigrate feel. “I imagined one of those people standing in front of this piece and taking in both the exuberance and the gravity of the paper cutout”(lê thị diễm thúy).

The way Lê thị diễm thúy tackles this idea is in such an artistic manner. Her poem is engaging and meaningful. Just by reading this poem, the average reader would be able to pick up that she herself has gone through these hardships and is now using these experiences she had for self-growth. This is what she meant when she says “feel the past course through you”. Lê thị diễm thúy didn’t run away from her past but embraced it and this made her become a writer with a splendid way with words. She then goes on to say “watch the world explode before your eyes”. I feel like this one stanza alone is a brilliant one. This comes after the previous stanza discussed. Once you allow the past to be one with you, you are able to just sit back and finally enjoy yourself rather than keep wondering about what happened before…you’d be living in the moment. Once you can finally just let go of what has already happened because we are human, we can’t change the past, all we can do is accept it and begin to appreciate the present. I think this is what Lê thị diễm thúy is trying to tell us readers.