Buzz
1. The Poem of the Boat and the Sea
I will tell you a story
About the boat and the sea:
'From a time unknown
The boat listens to the call of the sea
The seagulls' wings, the blue waves
Carry the boat to distant lands
The boat’s heart full of longing
And the vast love of the sea
The boat sails on without tiring
The sea remains distant... so far away
On quiet moonlit nights
The sea is like a little girl
Whispering her thoughts
The waves gently lap around the boat
Sometimes without warning
The sea rushes to rock the boat
(For eternal love
Does it ever stand still?)
Only the boat understands
How vast the sea truly is
Only the sea knows
Where the boat goes, where it returns
On days they are apart
The sea grows old with longing
On days they are apart
The boat’s heart breaks – fractured
If we must part, my love
The sea will be left with only the storm'
If I must be far from you
I will be left with nothing but turmoil.
April 1963
This poem was adapted into music by composers Phan Huỳnh Điểu and Hữu Xuân, resulting in songs of the same name.
2. Tây Tiến
The Ma River is far behind, Tây Tiến, my love!
Remember the forests, the vast loneliness.
Sài Khao’s fog covers the weary soldiers,
Mường Lát blossoms in the misty night.
The winding slopes rise, steep and deep,
Desolate hills of clouds, guns touching the sky.
Thousands of meters up, thousands of meters down,
Whose home in Pha Luông, far away in the rain?
My friend, worn out, cannot continue,
Falling on his gun, forgetting life itself!
Each evening, the mighty roar of the waterfall,
Each night, Mường Hịch's tigers tease the soldiers.
Oh, Tây Tiến, the rice smoke rises,
Mai Châu, where the scent of sticky rice fills the air.
The camp bursts into the flame of a torch festival,
There, a girl in her traditional dress.
The bamboo flute plays a shy melody,
The music heads to Viên Chăn, weaving the soul of poetry.
The people of Châu Mộc, on that misty evening,
Did they see the spirit of the reeds at the riverbank?
Did they remember the figure on a single log,
Floating in the flood, flowers swaying in the current?
The Tây Tiến soldiers had no hair to grow,
Their army green, fierce like tigers.
Eyes staring, sending dreams across the border,
At night, dreaming of Hanoi, its fragrant beauty.
Scattered across the frontier, graves in distant lands,
The battlefield where they march without regrets.
Clad in funeral robes, returning to the earth,
The Ma River howls with its lone song.
Tây Tiến, the soldiers left with no promises,
The road leading up is steep and full of parting.
Who will climb Tây Tiến this spring?
Their spirits remain in Sầm Nứa, never returning.
Phù Lưu Chanh, 1948
Quang Dũng joined the Tây Tiến army in 1947 and marched to the Northwest to cooperate with the Laotian forces to protect the Vietnam-Laos border. Initially, the poem was titled 'Remembering Tây Tiến.' This poem was later adapted into music by composer Phạm Duy with the same title.
4. The Rice of Our Village
Dedicated to Uncle Xuan Dieu
The rice of our village
Carries the taste of alluvial soil
From the Kinh Thay River
It holds the fragrant scent of lotus flowers
In the full pond of water
And the song of mother’s lullaby
Sweet yet bitter...
The rice of our village
Experiences the July storms
The March rains
The drops of sweat falling
On hot June afternoons
Where water boils as if cooked by someone
Killing the fish and shrimp
And the crabs crawling ashore
While my mother heads down to plant...
The rice of our village
In the years of American bombs
That rained down on rooftops
In the years when the rifle trees
Followed the soldiers far away
In the years when bullets were golden
Like rice in the fields
A bowl of rice during harvest
That smells of road construction...
The rice of our village
Thanks to the efforts of friends
In the early hours, fighting the drought
By fetching water with a bamboo basket
At noon, picking pests off the plants
The rice grows tall, touching the face
In the evening, carrying manure
As the plows smooth the earth
The rice of our village
Sends its strength to the frontlines
Sending it far away
While I sing with joy
The golden rice of our village...
1969
Source: 1. Tran Dang Khoa, "Góc sân và khoảng trời," NXB Văn hóa dân tộc, 1999
2. SGK Tiếng Việt 5, tập 2, NXB Giáo dục, 2004
3. SGK Văn 5, tập 2, NXB Giáo dục, 1989
This poem was written in 1969 and was later set to music by composer Tran Viet Binh in 1971.
5. The Purple of Sim Flowers
Weeping for the wife of Le Do Thi Ninh
She had three brothers who joined the army
And younger siblings
One of whom could barely speak
When her hair was still green
I, a soldier of the People's Army
Far from home
Loved her like my own sister
On the day of our marriage
She did not ask for new clothes
I wore my military uniform
With my combat boots
Covered in mud from the battlefield
She smiled sweetly
Beside me, her unique husband
After we married, I had to leave
From the distant war zones
With memories of hesitation
Marrying a soldier during wartime
Many would not return
What if I don't make it back?
Then she would wait,
And be lonely in the rural afternoons...
But it was not the soldier who perished in the war
It was the small woman in the home front
I returned
But could not find her
My mother sat beside the dark grave of her son
The vase from our wedding day
Now just a cold incense holder
Her hair, short and untidy
Oh, my dear, at the last moment
We could not speak one last time
Not even look at each other once more
In the past, she loved purple sim flowers
Her dress was the same color
In those days
She would sit alone by the lamp
Fixing my shirt
In those days...
One rainy afternoon in the forest
Her three brothers, still at war in the Northeast
Received the news that she passed away
Before they even knew she had gotten married
The cool autumn wind brought chills to the river water
The youngest sibling grew up
Staring at her photograph in awe
As the wind returned in the early autumn
Golden grass lay by the grave
Through the march, we passed the sim flower hills
Endless hills of purple sim
The purple color of the sim flower
Turned the afternoon into a forlorn, distant hue
Like the ancient lyrics of a song from the past
His shirt torn at the hem
His wife had passed, and his elderly mother had not sewn it
Who asks in ignorance or malice?
In the lonely purple afternoon, there is no one to understand
The purple deepens with the weight of sorrow
Looking at the torn shirt, I sing in the purple flower hue
His shirt torn at the hem
His wife passed away too soon, and his elderly mother had not sewn it...
The purple sim flowers, purple with tears
Purple with grief and sorrow
The dying sun and the sound of marching drums
The marching sounds echo as the army moves
Vast and endless, the purple twilight calls us
Where do I go, where do I long to go?
And where does the longing lead?
His shirt torn for a long time...
1949
This poem exists in many variations, but this is the confirmed original. It has been set to music by various composers such as Dzung Chinh, Pham Duy, Anh Bang, Duy Khanh, Nguyen Dang Mung, Thu Ho, Hong Van... The author's wife, Le Do Thi Ninh, was the daughter of Le Do Ky, who worked at the Provincial Committee of Thanh Hoa after the August Revolution with Huu Loan. Le Do Ky was the Chief Inspector of Forestry for all of Indochina. He had several sons who became famous officers in the Vietnamese People's Army: His eldest son, Le Do Khoi, died at Dien Bien Phu five hours before our forces planted the flag at the French headquarters. Then came Le Do Nguyen, also known as General Hong Cu. His younger brother, Le Do An, also known as Nguyen Tien Phong, later became the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union. Another brother, Le Do Thai, was a Colonel. Hong Cu and Le Do Thai now live in Hanoi and married the daughters of Professor Dang Thai Mai.
Source: Huu Loan, "Màu tím hoa sim," NXB Văn học, 1990
6. The Diêu Bông Leaves
The flag of Dinh Bang draped lazily at the doorway
As she wandered, searching
Through the afternoon fields
And the rice stalks
She said:
- Whoever finds the Diêu Bông leaf
Shall be called my husband
Two days later, I found the leaf
But she frowned:
That’s not the Diêu Bông leaf
In the winter that followed, I found another leaf
She shook her head, watching the sunset by the river
On her wedding day
I found the leaf
She smiled as she sewed the fabric together
She had three children now
And I found the leaf
She spread her hands over her face, not looking at me
Since that moment
I have carried that leaf
Traveling across mountains and seas
The wind from my homeland whispers
Calling Diêu Bông...!
...Oh Diêu Bông!
This poem was later adapted into a song by composer Pham Duy, and another version was composed by Tran Tien titled 'The Story of Diêu Bông's Leaves'.
7. The Fragrant Milkflower
At fifteen, you grew day by day
One morning, you suddenly became a young woman
That autumn day, I still remember
The sweet scent of milkflowers by the lake
Our first love, filled with autumn's hues
The fragrance of milkflowers in your dress and hair
Our first love, we thought nothing could part us
Yet, it faded in the delicate mist and wind
Was it the autumn, was it you, or was it me?
Was it because winter came, and the milkflowers faded?
Was it metaphysical, or something we couldn't explain?
Perhaps it was the golden butterfly, fluttering its wings
So much pain, but ironically
It wasn't like Romeo and Juliet's tragic end
None of us dared to die for love
So we parted, each going our own way
Only autumn remains, full of memories
The scent of milkflowers returns each year
Reminding us of a first love
There were two of us who once loved each other...
This poem was later adapted into a song by composer Pham Viet Long titled 'First Love'.
Source: Nguyen Phan Hach, The Fragrant Milkflower, NXB Hội Nhà văn, 2000
8. A Love Poem at the End of Autumn
The sky turns pale with drifting white clouds
Golden leaves fall, scattered and sparse
Is it time for the leaves to return to the forest?
Autumn departs with the leaves
Autumn sails toward the vast ocean
Riding the endless flow of the water
Autumn finds its place in the chrysanthemums
Only you and I remain
Only you and I
Belong to the old autumn
Suddenly, a chilly breeze blows
It stirs everything: old paths now feel strange
Grass bends in the direction of the wind
Night falls with mist wetting your cheeks
The cold touches my hand
Our love is like a tree
Having weathered through storms
Our love is like a river
Calm after the floods
Time is like the wind
Seasons pass with the years
Age moves with the seasons
Only you and I remain
Only you and I
With love that stays...
- Look, new lovers pass by
They walk through the chilly breeze
This poem was adapted into a song by composer Phan Huỳnh Điểu titled 'Autumn's Last Love Letter'.
Source: Xuân Quỳnh, Self-Sung, NXB Tác phẩm mới, 1984
9. A Little Spring
A single purple flower blooms in the river's flow
Oh, little bird, singing so loudly
Each drop of dew sparkles as it falls
I reach out, trying to catch it
In spring, some hold guns
With new growth hanging from their sides
In spring, others work the fields
Sowing seeds in the fertile land
Everything seems urgent
Everything seems restless
The land has lived through four thousand years
Full of struggles and hardships
The land is like a star
Always moving forward
We are like the birds, singing
We are like the flowers, blooming
We join in the great symphony
A single note, trembling in the wind
A small spring, silently given to the world
Whether we're twenty or our hair has turned grey
This spring, I sing
The folk songs of the South
The land stretches thousands of miles
The love for the land, infinite as the sky
Written in November 1980
This poem was written by the author on his sickbed shortly before passing, reflecting his deep love for life, the country, and his wishes. It was published in the poetry collection Huế Spring. The poem was later turned into a song by composer Trần Hoàn.
Sources:
1. Huế Spring, NXB Văn nghệ Giải phóng, 1970
2. Vietnamese Poetry 1945-1985, NXB Giáo dục, 1987
10. If I Were Young Again – Hoàng Cầm
If I were young like I once was
I would bring you to live with me
On those wistful afternoons
I would play and you would sing to keep spring alive
But your boat was tied to a different fate
And I, lost in life, forgot the shore through the fog
The years... the years stand far apart
When will you be free from your promises?
If one day I turn back
And wander back to the distant riverside
Would you still be there, or gone?
At the end of the village, a lonely rooster crow fades away...
This poem was adapted into a song by composer Phạm Duy titled 'Tình Cầm'.
