Singing About Life

During the years surrounding the Tet attack, from 1966 to 1969, I lived in a world of mixed feelings, where joy and sadness mingled, with songs from the heart, songs of anger, songs for the army and for rural construction, and happy songs for the itinerant singing movement. I also started to become irreverent, writing a few ''pavement songs'' and ''profane songs''. I did not aim to write in any particular style, whether destructive or constructive, anti- or pro-war. I did not want to take any particular stance about any question. I accepted everything! I wanted to live to the full life as it came...

This was particularly so after my round the world trip in 1966, when I saw the slogan MAKE LOVE NOT WAR appear everywhere. I wrote a song to show my acceptance of life, of love as well as war:

MỘT NGÀY MỘT ÐỜI
ONE DAY, ONE LIFE
(Saigon-1969)
One day for the living
One day for the dead
One day for those I love
One day for those I hate
One day to make war
One day to be lazy
One day for peace
One day for madness
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Such is man's fate.

One day for the gun
One day for the pen
One day for killing
One day for singing
One day for laughing
One day for singing
One day for company
One day for loneliness
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Such is man's fate.

One day for the fatherland
One day to forget the country
One day for the family
One day for the lover
One day to be a soldier
One day to follow a coup
One day for prayers
One day for suicide
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Such is man's fate.

One life for living
One life for shackles
One life for wandering
One life for waiting
One live without novelty
One life without refusal
One life when one says
A man's life, alas!
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Alas, alas!
Such is man's fate.
Such is man's fate.
(Humming)

This song has a singing English version by Steve Addiss and sung by Norm Burns:
ONE DAY ONE LIFE
One day is to laugh, one day is to cry
One day to be born, one day is to die
One day is for joy, one day is for pain
One day is for peace, one day is insane.
Hoi, hoi oi, hoi oi, this life we lead, this life we lead
Hoi, hoi oi, hoi oi, this life we lead, this life we lead

One day is for fear, one day to be brave
One day is to kill, one day is to save
One day undertood, one day is perplexed
A hero one day, the traitor the next.
Hoi, hoi oi, hoi oi, this life we lead, this life we lead
Hoi, hoi oi, hoi oi, this life we lead, this life we lead

One lifetime of love, one lifetime of hate
A life we must choose, one life for our fate
A hope that wéve lost, a hope that we keft
A life that we curse, a life we accept
Hoi, hoi oi, hoi oi, this life we lead, this life we lead
Hoi, hoi oi, hoi oi, this life we lead, this life we lead
(Humming)

By that time (1969) the war in Vietnam was reaching a peak, all moral and spiritual values were in decline. War demanded soldiers, and the young people of Vietnam had to accept their fate, all we could do was to bid them to live to the utmost such life as was granted to them. Do not call them amorous soldiers! The poet Thanh Hữu wrote:
I love you, because you're not an amorous soldier
You're taking a beautiful step in the spring of fate
And the nation enjoys peace.

If the South did not go overboard in the vulgar celebration of soldiers, if the North did not force on the young of Vietnam the task of realizing Marxism-Leninism under the guise of a liberating army, born in the North and volunteering to die in the South, our country would not have had war between its own people or with other nations.

Continuing in that vein, and following on from the poem of Thanh Hữu, I wrote CUNG CHÚC VIỆT NAM (Wishes For Vietnam) for young women wanting to become beauty queens, young children wishing to be supermen and people wanting to be angels.

CUNG CHÚC VIỆT NAM
WISHES FOR VIETNAM
after a verse by Thanh Hữu
(Saigon-1969)
For love of a young man, not an amorous soldier,
For love of a young man, not an amorous soldier,
Taking a beautiful step in the spring of fate
Our nation will be at peace.

For love of a young woman, not a beauty queen
For love of a young woman, not a beauty queen
Living a beautiful life of virtue
Our nation will suffer less.

For love of a young child, not a superman,
For love of a young child, not a superman,
Living a beautiful life of naive simplicity
Our people will make fewer errors.

For love of people not angels
For love of people not angels
Living a beautiful life in suffering
Humanity will be kept from evil.

In the previous decade, I had published a collection entitled ENTERING LIFE with songs like TÌM NHAU (In Search Of Each Other), LỮ HÀNH (Travelling), XUÂN HÀNH (Spring Travel), MỘT BÀN TAY (A Hand), XUÂN CA (Spring Song), etc., which had a metaphysical flavor. Starting with MỘT NGÀY MỘT ÐỜI, my songs about life had a more realistic, brutally frank character.
NHỮNG ÐIỀU TÔI BIẾT TRONG ÐỜI TÔI
THINGS I HAVE KNOWN IN MY LIFE
(Saigon-1969)
Who knows when the cold wind of winter will come
I know somebody is waiting for the evening.
Who knows when the young moon will rise
I know somebody is waiting for sweet words.
Who is looking at the clouds, walking in the rain,
Waiting for a loved one's return
Who cares for the short-lived flower
I know somebody who is fated to endure hardships
Who can hear a caged bird's sad song
I know somebody in prison praying
Somebody in the night, slowly walking
Bending his head.
I know so much
I know so much
But so very little
That's why I'm so troubled
Looking for help.
Who knows someone who loves all his life
I know why they hate each other
Who knows someone whose heart is full
I know why they kill each other
Nobody loves anybody, so nobody is happy
So I sing a song of optimism
So I sing a song of optimism

A couple of events that happened during that time gave rise to two songs which, for me, were the most ferocious among the "songs for life". The first was KỂ CHUYỆN ÐI XA (Story Of A Long Trip) which I wrote while in a hotel room in New York, looking down at people busily doing their Christmas shopping in the snow. On my bed, I saw an American magazine article about the Mỹ Lai massacre, with color photographs. I thought of the French army, of the mother of Gio Linh, of the arm traders, the news traders, getting rich over the heads of the Vietnamese people. The song consists of questions from children and answers from a father returning from a long trip. It was recorded in a Jo Marcel tape in 1970.
KỂ CHUYỆN ÐI XA
STORY OF A TRIP
(New York 1970)
Daddy, Daddy!
You have travelled a lot! Where have you been?
Tell me what have you seen
Tell me what have you seen
My child,
I started from the fields of our country
I walked along the streets of many capital cities
In crowded Asia, in far away Europe and America,
In Africa on the way back
I have travelled much, but covered so little
I have wandered much, but have not gone far
But I will tell you...

Daddy, Daddy!
You have travelled a lot! Where have you been?
Tell me what have you seen
Tell me what have you seen
My child, I have heard many noble speeches
Humanity, World Solidarity, words that fill the Atlantic Ocean
I looked at myself in the Seine
And held a lover on the Eiffel tower
But just as the fire of passion rose in my heart
I felt a chill as I heard the cry
Of the mother of Gio Linh
Mixed with the heartless words of those
Who get rich on the bodies of our people
Trading in arms and money
The world is mad. Bombs exploding on both sides
Rising taxes, climbing prices
My child...

Daddy, Daddy!
You have travelled a lot! Where have you been?
Tell me what have you seen
Tell me what have you seen
My child,
One Christmas night in the New World
From a high rise building I observed
People coming and going, giving gifts
Children playing in the snow by the bridge
But in the lights playing above a park
I suddenly saw a bamboo grove
I saw two country children kneeling by the ditch
Older brother trying to shield younger brother
A machinegun rang, a pool of blood,
Mỹ Lai has become a Christmas gift
For the children of the civilized world
My child...

All I want to say is, the world is turning fast
People are busily working in peace
Why is our country still in so much strife
Who is pushing this war?
Sacrificing our young
Filling North and South with suffering
My child!
I feel ashamed looking for amusement
When our homeland is in such a state
While the world prospers.
Such bitterness! Such heartlessness!
The silent world is guilty
For this nation's fate, my child
CODA
My child!
I have travelled much
But that only increases my sorrow
I have travelled much
But that only increases my sorrow
But that only increases my sorrow
But that only increases my sorrow

The second "song for life" was written when the heroic and naive Hà Thúc Nhơn stood up to face corrupt officials and got killed. DẠ HÀNH (Voyage Through The Night) was part of the trilogy LỮ HÀNH (The Journey) -XUÂN HÀNH (Spring Travel) - DẠ HÀNH (Night Travel).

If LỮ HÀNH was an endless journey and XUÂN HÀNH was a journey through a mans life, DẠ HÀNH was a voyage through a Vietnam full of brutality and corruption.
DẠ HÀNH
VOYAGE THROUGH THE NIGHT
(Saigon-1970)
He walks in the night
A deep, dark, empty night,
The long night of Vietnam - (puff)
(PUFF = Sound of being hit on the back)
Fighting to keep my eyes open, waving my arms
He walks on a path full of thorn
On the barren earth, in the mud, (puff)
Blindly he walks,
Wandering without a guide
Encircled by demons
Demons drinking blood (puff)
Pulling and tugging
Waving their arms
Threatening, blocking his way (puff)
Demons who are ripping out the young's hearts and brains
Eating Vietnam's soul and body (puff)
Opening their arms,
Threatening, blocking his way (puff)
Pulling, embracing,
Forcing him to bend
Like an animal skulking in the night (puff)
But I'm a man, I won't behave like an animal
I'm a man, I'm not afraid of devils
Go forward! Go upward!
Go and find sunlight
But I'm a man, I won't behave like an animal
I'm a man, I'm not afraid of devils
Go forward! Go upward!
Go and find sunlight
He walks in the night full of guns and bombs
Of blood and fog
Of sadness and hatred (puff)
He carries tears and a mourning veil
Crying, screaming
In shame, in hate (puff)
He walks in terror, in loneliness

But still he strives forward
Breaking out of the night (puff)
The demons are enraged
Stubbornly they bear their teeth
In madness and hate at the sight of the brave (puff)
They swing their fists
They brandish their guns and their swords
Keeping the man down (puff)
They kill the young man
In the white night, in the black night
In the dying night hope comes to light (puff)
But I'm a man, I won't behave like an animal
I'm a man, I'm not afraid of devils
Go forward! Go upward!
Go and find the sunlight.

---

Back to Overview of PD's Works