For The Homeland And Nation
Love Songs
For The Homeland
The 1954 migration of a million Vietnamese from the North to the South moved us
to write many songs about the northern homeland, such as Vũ Thành's GIẤC MƠ
HỒI HƯƠNG (DREAM OF RETURNING HOME), Hoàng Dương's HƯỚNG VỀ HÀ NỘI
(Turning Towards Hanoi), etc. A series of love songs for the homeland was to
follow, of which TÌNH HOÀI HƯƠNG and especially TÌNH CA were the originating
pieces...
LONGING FOR THE HOMELAND
(Saigon-1952)
My homeland,
Where a pretty little canal flowed across square plots of land
Where flagrant ricefields gave their two crops a year
Where the melodious songs of villagers carried well into the night
My homeland,
With its long dyke
Dark shadows hurrying homewards
When the distant afternoon market closed,
Cosy fires, arching young bamboos, heart warming smoke trails.
On your way home were you thinking of her?
On my way home I thought of her bright teeth smiling
If anyone can buy her smile
I will buy back my days of innocence...
O my homeland!
Where the banyan's shadow embraced young children
Where the noontide sun rested in the foliage
What were the placid buffaloes dreaming of
As they lay on the hillside ?
Were they waiting for my flute's ethereal melody ?
O my homeland! Silver haired old mother,
Lullabies of childhood days
Soft arms where I rested my head
These images are engraved for ever in my heart.
How I long for my homeland!
In its blue smoke my soul found peace
When evening came
Life was full of the joys of love
A love ever expanding
Vast as the ocean The wanderer
Sheds a tear for the homeland
Homeland so far away! Homeland always cherished!
ÐỜI MỚI magazine, founded by Trần Văn Ân and
Nguyễn Ðức Quỳnh, had a wide readership during the 1950s. In an
interview by this magazine, I said: ''After expressing our people's glory
and hardship with Resistance music, I am now turning to the love for the
homeland...'' Therefore, I published in Ðời Mới a new song, TÌNH CA
(Song Of Love), which was written at the same time as TÌNH HOÀI HƯƠNG.
TÌNH CA was about
national identity, what made up the nation: language, scenery, people.
Musically speaking, both these songs were a continuation of Resistance folk
songs on a higher artistic level.
SONG OF LOVE
(Saigon-1953)
My mother tongue I have loved
Since the day I was born
When mother sang the dreamy verses
Of a timeless lullaby
Speech of my land! Through four thousand years of ups and downs
You have laughed and cried with the nation's changing fortunes!
The words mother spoke as I lay in my cradle
Through a thousand years you has become the voice of my soul.
I love the ringing echoes
Of calls filled with lingering anger,
Of memories of distant love,
Of faith in a bright future.
I love the verses of the tale of Kiều
Wandering amorously like the sound of a kite pipe
I love it when the girl next door opens her pretty mouth
And speaks words artless yet so charming...
I love this land lying blissfully by the blue sea
Its ricefields lapped by the Pacific's waves
Overlooking the ocean and singing of prosperity
My land! The Trường Sơn mountains hiding the setting sun
The Western lands waiting for the hands of men, o my land!
My land! Sacred flames rising in the northern heights,
Ricecrops in the southern fields waiting for the monsoon, o rice!
I love the neverending rivers
The Perfumed River full of love
The Mekong that brings abundant harvests
The Red River whose blood is tinged with expectations
If you love this vast hazy (*) world
Please come and build the ricefields of Vietnam with me
Let all wild birds fly in formation
Let brothers from North, South and Center work together in love
I love the farmer by his deep ricefield braving sun and cold
He who has stood on this poor soil for thousands of years
His iron body never fading
Brown shirts, on labouring country mothers
And country children playing with their buffalo friends
Brown shirts, on people's backs as they march
From the highland's jungles all the way to Cape Cà Mau - o brown shirts
I love many people
Lý, Lê, Trần... and many more
Heroes of a distant past
And heroes in the future
For the love of my nation and my people
On this spring day I am singing this song of love
The fields of my homeland have turned lush and green
And my heart opens like a flower
(*) Originally "đại đồng" (world without frontiers), but this term was thought to smack of propaganda and the censor advised me to change it. A similar thing happened to my song VIỄN DU.
For The Nation
In the TINH HOA edition of 1954, I wrote the following preface:
BÀ MẸ QUÊ (THE COUNTRY MOTHER) stands for sacrifice, patience, love
and also represents the past; VỢ CHỒNG QUÊ (The Country Couple) stands for
pure love, work, the happiness of a healthy life, and also represents the
present; EM BÉ QUÊ (The Country Child) is the young fast growing seed who
will build society, and represents the future.
THE COUNTRY MOTHER
A vegetable garden, lush and green
Shelters a brood of chicks
Country mother, faced with a hundred hardships,
Brings up her helpless children
Country mother!
The songs of roosters is ringing above the bamboo trees
Country mother!
She has still not returned from the dawn market
They wait for her bright smile
And the good snack she will bring.
The rain it comes, her shirt is getting wet
But the more it rains, the better for the rice harvest
The sun it shines, steam rises from the courtyard
When the sun comes she brings out the rice to dry
Country mother!
Day or night, no work is too hard for her
Country mother!
Time passes, not a thought for herself
Drops of sweat she sheds, to make her children happy
When your mouth is dry and you yearn for a drink
Your thoughts will go to the country mother
Winter comes, her frail body covered by a thin sedge mat,
She watches her children sleeping contentedly
Country mother!
Ever since I left
Country mother!
Ever since the homeland faded away
Tears would rise whenever I look back towards my village
VỢ CHỒNG QUÊ
THE COUNTRY COUPLE
He was a young man whose lifeblood runs in the furrows
His speech was as gentle as rice and potatoes
She was well known in the village for her dutiful ways
Her tanned complexion and her bright smile
O young man on the road carrying the rice,
Balancing on the Midland's pole
The North's and South's harvests
Make sure you don't spill your load
O young man, don't spill your load
O young woman scooping water by the canal
Together we shall empty out the eastern seăbr>
So well do we work together
O young woman! O young man!
Looking at the birds he dreamed of soaring like one
Sharing his food with his mate, like a paired chopstick
Smiling but not speaking, she gazes at the scenery,
Her blushing cheek the soft color of clouds
One day in autumn
He brought a large bunch of areca nuts
Leading a well-dressed procession on the winding path
Mother's mind was now at peace
Many young girls had dreams
Young children beat their rackety drums.
He plowed his field deep and collected rainwater on his soil
He harvested golden corn and brown potatoes
She hoed the soil and bathed in the morning mist
She watered the field and cooked the rice.
Put the hook on the i, make the o perfectly round
As long as we live in together on this land
We shall love each other
We shall never leave each other
My child, sleep deeply
Smile in your dream
And love a free life
À à ơi, À à ơi ! À à ơi, à ơi
Not so long ago the areca palms were only head high
And we had only a few perches of land
But now two buffaloes are ours
And look at the little toddler playing in the rain puddles
Rain is falling a plenty and the rice is growing fast...
Harvest time is here
Every morning we get up before the rooster
To hull the rice
The loving rice harvest
Promises the two of us a life of peace
EM BÉ QUÊ
THE COUNTRY CHILD
Who says it's hard work to tend buffaloes?
It is actually quite fun
Sitting on a buffalo, waving a flag of reed
And singing incessantly.
But I haven't forgotten my studies!
Lying on the hillside under a cool breeze
Raising my voice above the ricefields' soft singing voice
I spell as fast as I can.
When evening comes and the music of kite pipes
Rises on the deserted dyke
On the way back to the hamlet
I learn my i's and my t's
Then I put the buffaloes in their shed
Get the water, and that's it for the day
Roasted in hot embers
Potatoes taste better than gold.
I am only five or ten
But I am not weak at all
My dear parents work with passion
For the love of their children
I'd love living like a man
I envy the heroic life of a soldier
I dream of growing up quickly
And show off my strength in labor.
Here comes the bright moon
Of Mid-Autumn festival
With the gay beating of drums
Joyous singing
And endless lines of lantern and torches
On every village pathway
Everybody in these parts
Are sharing in the happiness.
Buffalo, let's go ploughing
Buffalo, let's go sowing
These fields, these grassy hills
Belong to us peasants
Vietnamese country children
Are the strong seedlings
Who will grow and build this country
And make it more and more prosperous.
The fields will glow with gold
As the sun rises above the horizon
The children will grow to young men
And defend their homeland and their gardens.
Peace will reign, the harvest will be plentiful
Then the fields will be full of flagrant grass
And the buffaloes will have a feast
These ''love songs for the nation'' were built with the same techniques as my modern folk songs. After their dissemination in the cities of the south, young musicians such as Hoàng Thi Thơ, Lam Phương, Duy Khánh, Trần Thiện Thanh (a.k.a. Nhật Trường), etc. responded by writing songs they called mambo- or bolero-style folk songs.
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