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discountalien-pancake · 2 years

Text

*cries a little bit over Tình Ca by Phạm Duy*

The song spends approximately seven minutes serenading the concept of a peaceful and unified Vietnam (which is a recurring theme in his songs).

The poetry of it is fucking masterful and is also impossible to properly translate to english. The resonance of the bits of wordplay, of the references and imagery, the way all of it rhymes perfectly, the natural melody of the tonal pattern—

https://open.spotify.com/track/6TNXpgQhDLrBeJu2y6vwDH?si=k11JCyooQX2o9q01NBqOog

Translation and annotations under the cut

Tôi yêu tiếng nước tôi từ khi mới ra đời người ơi!

Mẹ hiền ru những câu xa vời.

À à ơi! Tiếng ru muôn đời.

I’ve loved the voice (tiếng) of my homeland (nước) from when I first entered life, [untranslatable phrase addressing unspecified listener].

Sweet Mother lulling [me] with distant verses.

Oh~ oh! A voice lulling [me] for all my life.

Tiếng nước tôi! Bốn ngàn năm ròng rã buồn vui .

Khóc cười theo mệnh nước nổi trôi, nước ơi!

Tiếng nước tôi! Tiếng mẹ sinh từ lúc nằm nôi.

Thoắt ngàn năm thành tiếng lòng tôi, nước ơi!

The voice of my homeland! Four thousand years[1] of continuous sorrow and joy.

Crying, laughing to the will of water[2] floating and flowing, my homeland, oh!

The sounds of my homeland! Mother’s voice from the time I lay in the crib.

Escaping for millennia to become the voice of my heart[3], homeland, oh!

Tôi yêu tiếng ngang trời.

Những câu hò giận hờn không nguôi!

Nhớ nhung hoài mảnh tình xa xôi.

Vững tin vào mộng đẹp ngày mai.

I love the voice crossing the sky,

The calling verses[4] unrelentingly angered.

Forever missing shards of a distant romance,

Steadily believing in a beautiful dream of tomorrow.

Một yêu câu hát Truyện Kiều.

Lẳng lơ như tiếng sáo diều ư diều làng ta

Và yêu cô gái bên nhà.

Miệng xinh ăn nói mặn mà ừ mà có duyên.

One loves the verses of the Tale of Kiều[5]

Lilting as the sound (tiếng) of a flute-kite, aye, the kite of my village

And loves the girl next door

Her mouth pretty, her manner rustic, rustic but[6] charming

Tôi yêu đất nước tôi, nằm phơi phới bên bờ biển xanh.

Ruộng đồng vun sóng ra Thái Bình.

Nhìn trùng dương hát câu no lành.

I love my country[7], lying exposed along the banks of the blue sea

Paddies and fields, earthern waves out to the Pacific

Gazing at the endless sea, singing content verses

Đất nước tôi! Dẫy Trường Sơn ẩn bóng hoàng hôn.

Đất miền Tây chờ sức người vươn, đất ơi!

Đất nước tôi! Núi rừng cao miền Bắc lửa thiêng.

Lúa miền Nam chờ gió mùa lên, lúa ơi!

My country! Trường Sơn[8] tinted by the sunset.

The earth of the West[9] waiting for someone’s strength to reach it, earth, oh!

My country! High forest slopes of the North of sacred fire

Rice of the South awaiting the wind of the growing season, rice, oh!

Tôi yêu những sông trường.

Biết ái tình ở dòng sông Hương.

Sống no đầy là nhờ Cửu Long

Máu sông Hồng đỏ vì chờ mong.

I love the unending rivers

Knowing passion at Hương[10] River’s current

Living plentifully is thanks to Cửu Long[11]

The blood of the River Hồng [12] is red from yearning.

Người yêu thế giới mịt mùng.

Cùng tôi ôm ấp ruộng đồng ư đồng Việt Nam.

Làm sao chắp cánh chim ngàn

Nhìn Trung, Nam, Bắc kết hàng là hàng mến nhau.

You love a world shrouded in fog

Along with me brooding over the paddies and fields, aye, the fields of Vietnam

How to take wing as a bird in the sky

And see Central, South, North in a row, a row of affectionate neighbors[13]

Tôi yêu bác nông phu, đội sương nắng bên bờ ruộng sâu.

Vài ngàn năm đứng trên đất nghèo.

Mình đồng da sắt không phai màu.

I love the elderly farmer, wearing mist and sun on the banks of deep paddies

A few thousand years standing upon impoverished land

Bronze body and iron skin[14] that does not fade

Tấm áo nâu! Những mẹ quê chỉ biết cần lao.

Những trẻ quê bạn với đàn trâu, bé ơi!

Tấm áo nâu! Rướn mình đi từ cõi rừng cao.

Dắt dìu nhau vào đến Cà Mau, áo ơi!

Brown shirt! The rural mothers that only think of labor

The rural youths, friends with buffalo, little ones, oh!

Brown shirt! Stretching oneself to go from the realms of deep forests

Accompanying each other into Cà Mau[15], shirt, oh!

Tôi yêu biết bao người

Lý, Lê, Trần... và còn ai nữa.

Những anh hùng của thời xa xưa.

Những anh hùng của một ngày mai.

I love who knows how many people,

Lý, Lê, Trần…and who else? [16]

The heroes of an age long past

The heroes of a tomorrow

Vì yêu, yêu nước, yêu nòi

Ngày Xuân tôi hát nên bài ư bài Tình Ca.

Ruộng xanh tươi tốt quê nhà.

Lòng tôi đã nở như là ừ là đóa hoa.

Because I love, love my country, love my people

This spring day I sing into a song, aye, a Love Song[17]

The paddies of my hometown are green flourishing

My heart has blossomed, aye, blossomed like a flower.

~~~~

Footnotes (oh my god there are footnotes)!

[1] the four thousand years refers to the culturally accepted length of Vietnam’s history

[2] mệnh nước nổi trôi - literally translates to will [of] water floating [and] flowing but here Phạm Duy is taking advantage of the double meaning ‘nước’ (water and country/nation) to compare the ‘mệnh’ (which also means fate or determination in context of fate) of the country to the ebb and flow of a river or sea

[3] tiếng lòng tôi - ‘tiếng’ can be used to mean simply a sound, or it can refer to a voice, or it can mean ‘language.’ In this instance and for most of the song I’m translating it as ‘voice’ as that is the most fitting in context. ‘Lòng’ is more literally translated as gut or innards but in poetic usage almost always is more equivalent to the English usage of ‘heart.’ Phạm Duy uses this instead of the actual word for heart most likely because the falling tone flows better poetically than the flat/non-tone of ‘tâm’ or ‘tim.’

[4] câu hò - I’ve translated this as ‘calling verses’ but the closest Western equivalent is probably yodeling. Essentially it’s a form of folk singing that was developed for the purpose of communicating across rivers (of which Vietnam has many). It has developed into its own musical and poetic form with a very unique sound.

[5] Truyện Kiều - or the Tale of Kiều is a Vietnamese poem based on a Chinese story about the titular character, who is a beautiful and virtuous lady, you can google it for the actual plot. It was originally written in an archaic Vietnamese script no longer in common usage.

[6] mặn mà, mà có duyên - ‘mặn mà’ literally translates to salty or flavorful, but in context as a figure of speech it refers to a unrefined manner. ‘mà’ by itself means ‘but’ or ‘yet,’ lending itself to the musicality of the line via repetition

[7] đất nước - has been translated as ‘country’ but means quite literally ‘earth [and] water.’ Other forms of the phrase are ‘sơn thuỷ’ and ‘sông núi’ which translate to ‘mountains [and] sea’ and ‘rivers [and] mountains’ respectively. Which pretty much sums up the geography of Vietnam.

[8] Dẩy Trường Sơn - ‘dẩy’ is a range or row, in this case referring to a mountain range. ‘Trường Sơn’ translates to ‘endless mountains’ and is the name of the primary mountain range spanning the length of Vietnam

[9] miền Tây - I translated this to ‘the West’ but really it’s ‘West region’ but that sounded clunky. In context it refers to the highlands of Vietnam, not Europe and America.

[10] sông Hương - a famous river in the Central region of Vietnam. Vietnam is geopolitically divided into three regions: North, Central, and South, each having its own cultural capital: Hà Nội, Huế, and Sài Gòn; as well as its own iconic river(s). Sông Hương flows through the city ò Huế, which was once the citadel of the Nguyễn Dynasty (yes, that Nguyen), and is famous for being a romantic location

[11] sống no đầy là nhờ Cửu Long - this line refers to the fertility provided by the Cửu Long river, aka the Mekong, aka the Nine Dragons (it splits into 9 smaller branches as it hits the Mekong delta), which dominates the Southern region. The Mekong delta produces so much rice yearly that it is sufficient to not only feed basically the entire country, but also produce rice for export. ‘Living with plentiful food’ is quite literally thanks to the Cửu Long river.

[12] sông Hồng - ‘hồng’ means red. ‘đỏ’ also means red. The sông Hồng is known for being distinctively red due to iron-rich sediment which makes its river delta also very fertile, though not nearly to the same scale as the Cửu Long. It is one of the major rivers of the Northern region.

[13] kết hàng là hàng mến nhau - the full context for this is very lengthy and begins with emancipation from French occupation and ends with Vietnam being split into Communist North and Republican South with atrocities committed by both sides as well as Certain Foreign Powers. There was a lot of grief and many of the songs from this period lament the division of the nation and the people. ‘Kết’ means to connect or tie together, ‘hàng’ means row, thus ‘kết hàng’ refers to the unification of the country, or rather a bird’s eye view in which political borders are erased. It is also, however, a wordplay! ‘Hàng’ in the second half of the line is referring to ‘hàng xóm’ aka ‘neighbors.’

[14] mình đồng, da sắt - literally ‘bronze body, iron skin,’ essentially describing someone who is very physically strong and resilient

[15] Cà Mau - traditionally considered the southernmost populated location in Vietnam, often paired with Ải Nam Quan, a mountain pass located on the northern border with China.

[16] Lý Lê Trần - these are both heroes of ages past and those yet to come because they are the names of historic Vietnamese Dynasties and figures like Lý Thái Tổ, Lê Thánh Tôn, and Trần Hưng Đạo, to name a few (most Vietnamese heroes are known for repelling Chinese overlords or invading armies). But they’re also super common Vietnamese surnames, which is why they will also be future heroes!

[17] Tình Ca - the title of the song is “Love Song” which makes it really fucking annoying to google because it’s a category of song, and this composer/songwriter wrote a shitton of love songs. However, it’s a very sweet title, as it’s basically saying that this song is a love song for all of Vietnam, its culture, history, geography, and most importantly the common people.

#it’s neither patriotic nor nationalist in tone #pancake translates #this guy was one of the most skilled and prolific songwriters of the golden age of vietnamese music

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