Phạm Thiên Thư

Saigon 1971. I met Phạm Thiên Thư (*) when I was writing songs for love and school age such as Trả Lại Em Yêu (I give back to you), Con Ðường Tình Ta Ði (The Street Of Love We Walked), etc. This monk who had recently shed his frock gave me a poem in the same vein, with the difference that the girl of the poem bore the plain, unromantic name Hoàng Thị Ngọ. Using the pentatonic scale and a recitative form, I made from it a love song full of romance and nostalgia: NGÀY XƯA HOÀNG THỊ
LONG AGO HOÀNG THỊ
(Poem by Phạm Thiên Thư - adaptation by Phạm Duy)
After school, you walked home in the light rain
After school, you walked home in the light rain
Books under your arm, long hair flowing, dress flapping
Your steps so gentle, shoulders so small
By the roadside little nestlings huddled quietly
I followed Ngọ home, my footsteps falling on the silent country road
You walked home from school, I followed you home
My feet were heavy, my heart was sobbing
Tomorrow at school I'd still be in a daze
You walked home from school, under a rainy veil
Hurriedly I gave you a bunch of new flowers
To press in your book, so love would last forever
You walked home from school, I followed you home
You walked home from school, I followed you home
Your smile seemed to carry the sorrows of the world
So many days I followed you on this road
Noontimes and afternoons, autumn and winter
And when spring passed we said good bye
As the flamboyants welcomed summer.

Time passes... Time passes...

The little green road has faded
The little green road has faded
Today per chance I walk on the path of old
Those trees are still there clothed in red
Your dress has faded many times
I hear the echo of our footsteps
From the days we used to look for each other.
Once I used to follow you home after school
Now on this road life like a turbulent sea
Has wiped out the footprints of the lovers.
O the road leading home, the road leading home
The flowers are still pretty, how come my heart is so tired
This flower I pick to remember the one time lover
You walked home from school, I followed you home
You walked home from school, I followed you home
Footsteps following each other in the hazy red dust
I followed you home, your long hair was flowing
Today the tall skinny trees are still lining the road
I search in vain, where has the red dust gone?
Where has the red dust gone?
Where has the red dust gone?

From then on I kept looking out for more poems from Phạm Thiên Thư such as the collection Ðưa Em Tìm Ðộng Hoa Vàng (With You I Search For The Yellow Flower Grotto) or the poem Gọi Em Là Ðóa Hoa Sầu (I Name You The Flower Of Sorrow), to adapt them into the most pure-hearted songs of that period. For me at that time, the images of Zen, pagodas, yellow flower grottoes are fresh and indispensable.The song Ðưa Em Tìm Ðộng Hoa Vàng was distilled from hundreds of the poet's lines, and in only three sections it conveys all the imagery of yesteryear, when there was a man who resigned his office to go into the mountains to search for the yellow flower grotto... What did he do it for? Not just to think of his lover but to take refuge from the world. At that time I also considered myself as a recluse, who found arefuge in the poetry of Phạm Thiên Thư.
ÐƯA EM TÌM ÐỘNG HOA VÀNG
WITH YOU I SEARCH FOR THE YELLOW FLOWER GROTTO
(Poem by Phạm Thiên Thư - Adaptation by Phạm Duy)
Once upon a time a man resigned his office
To go into the mountains in search for a yellow flower grotto
So he could think of his lover
Don't worry about the rain
Let's go together to the bridge over the stream
Only one stream doth this river have
The clouds over the source
Would wash the hair of someone at the river's end
I remember the days before you got married
In spring you would make a dress of peach petals
In autumn you would wear a dress of azure
Winter would see you in a cloak of flowers
Once upon a time a man resigned his office
To go into the mountains in search for a yellow flower grotto
So he could think of his lover
Now you don't love me anymore
I climb up on the grapefruit tree to cry for our love
Let it be, like a tomb in the sunset
Let it be, so much for broken hearts
I remember the days when you wore your long flowing hair
Looking at the moon, how could you have forgotten our vow
As this flowering season comes to an end
We become like butterflies floating over the hill.
Once upon a time a man resigned his office
To go into the mountains and sleep soundly in the yellow flower grotto
Let the clouds float away
He would sleep by the fragrant hill, the moon in his arms
Let it be, all this is only a drifting cloud
Let it be, that's all there is to life
A bird is dying under the flowers
His calls falling like leaves
Tomorrow I'll die under the peach tree
If you want to cry for me, shed your tears into eternity.

GỌI EM LÀ ÐÓA HOA SẦU
I NAME YOU A FLOWER OFSORROW
(poem by Phạm Thiên Thư - adaptation by Phạm Duy)
Once upon a time in a dress tinted with sunset
In a dress tinted with sunset
She carried a basket to the hills
To collect golden berries
Her singing voice echoes
Her singing voice echoes
I stopped writing, and for no reason
Suddenly felt a tinge of sorrow.
A little cottage was still in my dreams
Still in my dreams
Love was a poem with no title
A^?n Lan, girl with the long flowing hair!
A^?n Lan, girl with the long flowing hair!
This spring will the breeze come back to nurture old fragrances?
That night when I was studying under the moon
And the words became dull...

I heard the sound of your footsteps
The sound of your footsteps
Like drops of dew falling on the ground
In the path to the back door
With your smile you brought
A thread of silk to tie on our hair
A yellow flower.
I dozed off on my books
Fragrant pages pressed against my cheeks
Then a breeze woke me with the smell of orchid
A^?n Lan, Hidden Orchid, are you angry at me?
A^?n Lan, Hidden Orchid, are you angry at me?
A^?n Lan, enduring fragrance of sorrow
My love, I name you
A flower of sorrow
A flower of sorrow...

When the poet gave me more poems to put to music, I chose Em Lễ Chùa Này (In This Pagoda You Worship) because both of us wanted to return to things that belonged to the old Viet culture, such as those ancient pagodas in the North, where in my youth I often saw couples date.
EM LỄ CHÙA NÀY
IN THIS PAGODA YOU WORSHIP
(poem by Phạm Thiên Thư - adaptation by Phạm Duy)
Spring came I went with you to worship
At this pagoda where the sunshine played
And a thousand reeds shyly display their colors
A pretty butterfly flutter by the water
Summer came I went with you to worship
The wind on the hill caressed the young apricot
The incense smoke played around your hair
Then autumn came I went with you to worship
In the bell tower a bird was perching
Its song mingling with the morning mist
Yellow leaves fell in the chilly wind.
Winter came I went with you to worship
At this pagoda, a drizzle was falling
In the courtyard lay broken branches
An orchid trembled in the wind.
End of winter I came to the pagoda in a daze
To farewell your coffin
Silent flowers stood in mourning
Remembering your hair silky as clouds
In the ground of these gardens you lie
By the yellow flowers
In this peach gardens butterflies fluttered
Back and forth uncertainly...
Your grave had just been filled
A bird sang on the tree
Its notes merging into the brook's murmur
Endlessly mourning.
From that day the pagoda grounds have been empty
In the sunlight an apricot flower has opened
My love, the clouds have crossed the bridge.
My love, the clouds have crossed the bridge...

Before Phạm Thiên Thư became well known through the songs I made from his poems such as NGÀY XƯA HOÀNG THỊ, ÐƯA EM TÌM ÐỘNG HOA VÀNG, etc. and especially the suite of poems ÐOẠN TRƯỜNG VÔ THANH (Silence of Broken Heart), he had published in a newspaper under the penname Thái Phương Thư a poem titled HUYỀN THOẠI TRÊN MỘT VÙNG BIỂN (Myth Over A Sea) which talked about a sailor, a dancing girl, a port town, a dark wine cellar, the sound of a trumpet. I made it into a song with a surrealistic atmosphere:
HUYỀN THOẠI TRÊN MỘT VÙNG BIỂN
MYTH OVER A SEA
(poem by Phạm Thiên Thư - adapted by Phạm Duy)
What myth are you carrying in your heart?
The name of a yellow grass by the river
Heading for the land of mystery
A star wandering in space.
A sailor looks sadly at the water
He remembers the name of a lover on a port town.
In the middle of the night over the empty sea
A bunch of stars disappear by the coral reef.
Night after night by the blue sea
A dancing girl sits waiting for the moon
The wind murmurs, the waves lament
A lonely star floats in the familiar sky.
A blue expanse, a wreath of mourning
On the tree of mist a golden moon
A dancing girl, a death
A black cross on the wild sands.
A myth over a sea
A story of two lovers
A story dimly told between glasses of wine
A melancholic voice singing night after night
A myth over a sea
A story of two lovers
A story dimly told in a dark cellar
Over a trumpet's valves night after night...

To summarize, when I met the poet Phạm Thiên Thư a.k.a. the ex-monk Tuệ Không in 1971, I felt liberated and overcame the bitterness, lassitude and impasse of tâm ca (songs of the heart), tâm phẫn ca (songs of an angry heart), vi?a he` ca (songs of the pavement)...I wanted to stop praising the temporal and look for the eternal, to leave humanistic music in order to write nature music,to stop writing sentimental and social music to write spiritual music.
I started writing ÐẠO CA (Songs Of The Tao). Leaving worldly music, I thought that I could write music of the Tao with a monk who surely must be much more knowledgeable than I about religion. I invite you to come back to PHẠM DUY TỔNG QUÁT and visit SONGS OF THE TAO...

(*) The poet calls our encounter as a meeting of a cloud and a mountain...

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