Songs Of Sorrow From The Battlefield
A MEMENTO FOR YOU
From a poem by Linh Phương
(Saigon-1971)
You asked me, you asked when I'll be back
I'll be back, I'll be back in a few days
I'll be back, maybe after the Pleime victory
Or after the battles of Ðức Cơ, Ðồng Xoài or Bình Giã
I'll be back, I'll be back among the swaying trees
I'll be back, perhaps in a wreathed coffin
I'll be back lying on a stretcher
In a helicopter bearing funeral colors
You asked me, you asked when I'll be back
I'll be back, I'll be back in a few days
I'll be back a desolate afternoon
Wrapped in a poncho
I'll be back, on your young hair
Hurriedly you'll tie a mourning veil
You asked me, you asked when I'll be back
I'll be back, I'll be back in a few days
I have a memento for you, a blackened bullet
To carry to your wedding
I'll be back, defeated, crippled
One spring day you'll walk hesitatingly
By your man lame and wizened
You asked me, you asked when I'll be back
I'll be back, I'll be back in a few days
We'll look at each other like total strangers
I'll return to disrupt your future
We'll look at each other like total strangers
And you'll try to forget my last words, my love
You asked me, you asked when I'll be back
I'll be back, I'll be back in a few days...
WHEN I RETURN, WHEN I RETURN, WHEN I RETURN
from a poem by Kim Tuấn
(Saigon 1968)
When I return, the doves will be in their nests
Barbed wires will no longer encircle the fort
Soldiers will be ploughing in the fields.
When I return, a kite will be fluttering in the wind
On the green country grass
Half naked children will be smiling peacefully.
When I return, the buffalo's rattles will be echoing as in a dream
When I return, holding my heart, clutching my chest
A lullaby will bring the past back to life.
Somebody is trying to persuade humanity to visit Hell, but nobody answers
When I return, mother's hair will have just turned white, her eyes far away
She will look towards the future and forget her pains
The storks will fly again over the fields
Old bamboo groves will bow their heads pensively
Blue smoke will give off a familiar smell
When I return, I'll visit the riverbank of old
I'll grieve for past happenings
I'll cry for things that happened to my country
So many sufferings, so many pains have passed
My homeland, there it is,
Where I grew up with lullabies
With love, with bitterness.
When I return, the birds will sing of love
The children will sing about peace
Small and weak, yet they'll reach at love.
When I return, when I return, life will flow peacefully
The old moon will shine on the country path
There's the woods warmed by memories
There's my sweetheart waiting by the pillow
And when I wake up I'll find myself
And when I wake up I'll find myself
And when I wake up I'll... find... myself...
LOVE SONG ON A WRETCHED BATTLEFIELD
from a poem by Ngô Ðình Vận
(Saigon-1971)
From me to you! From me to you! From me to you!
A lonely raindrop in the night
From me to you! From me to you! From me to you!
A raindrop, a teardrop
A teardrop so rare in this world.
From me to you! From me to you! From me to you!
A lost and lonely light
A cigarette flickering in the storm
From me to you! From me to you! From me to you!
A warm breath, a passionate love for us
From me to you! From me to you! From me to you!
All that is left in the world, a warmth so sublime
I hold you tight, dissolving in an exile's space
From me to you! From me to you! From me to you!
Can you hear the leaves rustling? Leaves rustling
The melancholic whisper of the wind
Wandering on the treetops
What happiness is not in tatters and full of bitterness?
What happiness is not in tatters and full of bitterness?
THẦM GỌI TÊN NHAU
TRÊN CHIẾN TRƯỜNG TỒI TỆ
SILENTLY CALLING YOUR NAME ON A WRETCHED BATTLEFIELD
from a poem by Ngô Ðình Vận
(Saigon-1971)
Silently I call your name!
Silently I call my name!
Silently I call his name!
Pawns all in the game of life
Soldiers young and old
I call your name!
I call my name!
I call his name!
I call our names!
Silently I call your name
My friend
You have just fallen
In the battlefield, in the mountains,
In a deep valley of Lower Laos
I call your name!
I call my name!
I call his name!
I call our names, all my life!
I call your name!
I call my name!
I call his name!
O war! People's fates in a deck of card
Where is your family? Where are your friends?
I call your name!
I call my name!
I call his name!
We all know how to love, love our country, we know how to suffer
We have brothers and sisters, we have a heart,
We know how to suffer, even how to hate
Silently I call your name!
Silently I call my name!
Silently I call his name!
In the wind in the night in the forest
Or in the rain in the street
I call your name!
I call my name!
I call his name!
I call our names!
Silently I call your name
My friend
Who just fell
Die, my friend
So that others can live and laugh
I call your name!
I call my name!
I call his name!
I call our names, all my life!
FEEL LIKE MY BELOVED IS HERE STILL
from a poem by Lê Thị Ý
(Saigon-1971)
Tomorrow I'll go to collect your body
I'll get drunk to forget who I am
Tomorrow I'll go to collect your body
So wild and passionate a spirit surely could not die
The wintry highlands are cold and indifferent
Like the unadorned lips of a widow
Our love was fated to be unfulfilled
But when I'm drunk you're by my side
In the evening the plane alights
The grey clouds seem to grieve
A song of sorrow I sing
My lonely body wrapped in a black dress
O how I long for a familiar kiss
A light I shall keep, waiting every night
Under a flag you now lie
Under a flag you now lie
I cannot see your corpse
Between two rows of candles - you have been promoted
The smell of incense reminds me of your breath
I wrap my arms around your grave
I am holding you my love!
THE HEM ON MY SHIRT IS UNDONE
from a poem by Hữu Loan
(set to music long ago - published in Saigon in 1971)
She had three older brothers who joined the army long ago
She had a younger brother who did not yet talk
So young and innocent she was...
I was a Resistance soldier, away from home
I loved her as one can only love
The girl that I love, the girl that I love,
On our wedding day I wore battle fatigues
The mud from the fields were on my soldier's shoes
I was on leave from my unit a long way away
She smiled happily by her strange looking bridegroom
Who needs a wedding dress in these times of trouble
I had to leave right after the wedding
My thoughts went to her from far away
Those who married soldiers seldom have their husband by their side
If I failed to come back
Oh what would come of her, so small and helpless
It was not this soldier's fate to die
But that of the young woman back home
It was not this soldier's fate to die
But that of the young woman back home
It was not this soldier's fate to die
But that of the young woman back home
Alas! Alas!
On my return I wasn't to see her
Mother sat by her yellowing grave
The flower pot of the wedding day
Had become an incense burner
I remembered the sweet girl
Who used to hem my shirt
My girl in purple
My girl in rose myrtle
When she died
I could not say a word to her
I could not look at her...
She had three older brothers who joined the army long ago
She had a younger brother who did not yet talk
Young and innocent she still was...
One rainy evening on the North Western front
Her brothers heard the news about their sister
First of her death, then of her marriage
We were patrolling on the rose myrtle covered hills
Rose myrtle covered hills, rose myrtle covered hills, purple hills
Purple evening sky, color of partings
Then autumn came over the rivers
Rivers, rivers carrying the early autumn wind
The chilly wind that caressed the yellowing tomb
We were patrolling on the rose myrtle covered hills
As the soldiers marched, a martial song rose
Mixed with a lullaby
À ơi ! À ơi ! The hem on my shirt is undone
My wife died young, old mother hasn't mended it
Rose myrtle covered hills, purple hills
Rose myrtle covered hills, purple hills...
War Songs
TRẦN THẾ VINH'S REFRAIN
O small sun of the South
Sun that warmed up my loneliness
Let me pass through the bullets
Let peace come to the country
O sun you can cry now
For the lover of sunshine has ascended
A bluebird full of love
Has become an angel: O TRẦN THẾ VINH
Spirit of the Earth, keep my body
Stop the invaders on the ground and in the air
Spirit of the Winds, keep my soul
As a gift for the eternal fatherland
O sky, o moon
O flickering stars
Take notice as Vinh appear every night
On the changing homeland
O river of separation
A hero's wings have been broken for the people
In the name of love
Look to the day of unification
Spirit of the Earth, keep my body
Stop the invaders on the ground and in the air
Spirit of the winds, keep my soul
As a gift for the eternal fatherland
O nameless sweetheart
In this war caused by the invaders
A woman's fate is determined
You are not alone wearing a mourning veil
O nameless woman, be consoled
For though you have lost a loved one
Our country has gained an icon
A hero whose name is glory
Spirit of the Earth, keep my body
Stop the invaders on the ground and in the air
Spirit of the Winds, keep my soul
As a gift for the eternal fatherland.
(MƯỜI HAI THÁNG ANH ÐI)
JOURNEY OF A MARINE
(TWELVE MONTHS I TRAVELLED)
from a poem by Phạm Văn Bình
January I went to Huế
The ancient city was deserted and dilapidated
No sign of you when school finished
Flowing hair in a mourning veil.
February I transferred to the capital
Under the flares guarding a bridge
I caught the smell of alcohol in the wind
And saw the city's lights through the mist
Then I got my rucksack and go west
Green was the land under the coconut palms
At night on the forest's edge I dreamed of the warmth of your lips
Lips as sweet as durian in harvest season
Then came Summer with clouds floating
Far away I did not forget you
Then comes Autumn with its drizzles
I remembered the knight Kinh Kha crossing the river
Standing at one end of the river, his friend at the other
Old myths now gone
Like the Moon Fairy of our youth
August was parched and dry without her
September I went to the Mekong delta
Like mother's breast filled with milk
I came to make the fields prosper
And offer you my victories
To Cà Mâu I went, and sent you a letter
Carrying the love of the wind and clouds
Of birds longing for the forest, of you and me
Now the year will soon be over
In the cold of winter people are making wedding dresses
But we'll have to wait
The apricots are flowering, you are waiting
Twelve months have passed, with many wishes and dreams
I so miss your rosy cheeks, your lips tasting of honey
But I'll be back to welcome the New Year with you.
from a poem by Phạm Cao Phan
PART I : TRỊ THIÊN
1.- Qua Cầu Ái Tử (Crossing the Aí Tử Bridge)
2.- Bên Giòng Thạch Hãn (By The Thạch Hãn River)
3.- Lời Dặn Dò (Words Of Advice)
PART II : TAM BIÊN
4.- Suối Trăng Hờn (Angry Brook and Moon)
5.- Ðêm Hội Máu (Festival of Blood)
6.- Một Tình Thiêng (A Sacred Love)
PART III : BÌNH LONG
7.- Ðêm Hội Pháo (Festival of Guns)
8.- Bất Khuất (Indomitable Spirit)
PART IV : CHIẾN THẮNG SAU CÙNG - FINAL VICTORY
9.- Ðưa Mẹ Về (Taking Mother Home)
10.- Trị-Thiên Yêu Dấu (Beloved Trị Thiên)
11.- Ðưa Mẹ Về (Taking Mother Home)
12.- Hội Gió Trường Sơn (Festival Of Winds On The Trường Sơn Range)
13.- Ðưa Mẹ Về (Taking Mother Home )
14.- Sữa Trắng Rừng Xanh (White Milk, Green Forest)
FINALE : MẶC NIỆM - REMEMBRANCE
15.- Mặc Niệm (Remembrance)
16.- Xin Tha Thứ (Please Forgive)
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