MUSICIAN TRINH CONG SON.

MUSICIAN TRINH CONG SON.

http://www.vietquoc.com/na040701.htm

XXX

Trinh Cong Son, an anti-war musician in the pre-1975 Republic of (South) Vietnam died on Sunday, April 1, 2001 at the age of 62. He was dubbed the "Bob Daylan of Vietnam" by American singer Joan Baez.

He has been author of more than 600 songs which are popular with Vietnamese youth, even those in North Vietnam. Many songs are about love, but the majority of his works were written with anti-war theme, in the late half of the 1960's when the Vietnam War came to its peak.

Born in the Central Highland province of Darlac in 1939, Son spent many years in the ancient imperial capital of Hue. Graduated from a Teacher's School of South Vietnam, Son served as a teacher for a short time then quit his job to begin composing love songs in the late 1950s. His has had a great love of music since his early childhood. His first song, "Uot Mi" (Tearful Eyelashes) was composed in 1957.

He attained a reputation for a number of his songs with melody and lyrics that some critics appreciate as the most popular songs.

He was somewhat a draft dodger who would have been trained in ROTC School if he hadn't found some loopholes in the conscription procedures to stay away from the South Vietnamese military service.

After the Communists defeated South Vietnam, most of his close relatives fled Vietnam, while he chose to stay with a hope that the new rulers would accept him and would rebuild a better unified nation.

A typical song of Trinh Cong Son would describe things such as "the sound of artillery reaches the city every night," or "whenever the war ends, the old mother would climb the mountain to search for her son's remains," or anything ranging from blood to tears of the innocent peasants shed by the civil war. Many of the songs implicate the destruction of lives and houses and crops done by bombs and shells of the South Vietnamese military and American forces. Only a few of his compositions lay blame on the Communists for their internecine killing and for instilling false animosity into the innocents to promote Communism.

His love songs' melody and lyric are so attractive as musical value is concerned. Their words sound like that in the sweetest poems written for a lover. But his one-sided anti-war songs earned him disdain and hatred from the anti-Communist Vietnamese, even today after 26 years the country is under the Communist regime.

Trinh Cong Son's songs were not banned in the pre-75 South Vietnam, although his anti-war musical works obviously parallel with the Communist propaganda themes were not allowed on state-controlled TV and radio broadcast. It's worth mentioning that his songs were not welcomed by the North Vietnam Communist rulers either.

His pacifist songs about the futility of war were even praised overseas. One of his most famous songs, ``Lullaby'' (Ngu Di Con), about the pain of a mother mourning her soldier son, became a hit in Japan in 1972.

The talented composer was not a true Communist party member or activist despite the allegation that he might have had some covert relations with Communist activities in the South. However much he might have appeared to be a pro-Communist artist, South Vietnamese authorities had not imposed any prison sentence on him while other overt Communist supporters were court-martialed and given a term of imprisonment.

The Saigon government did not exert any harsh suppressive action on him only because it had to prove itself a democratic regime. And Trinh Cong Son's case does strongly justify that during the Vietnam War, the South Vietnamese were living under a true democracy though a certain limit was enforced due to the life or death struggle against the most brutal and wily enemy from the North.

If Trinh Cong Son peace advocating attitude were endorsed by a large portion of South Vietnam population before 1975, he has damaged his reputation a lot afterward.

On April 30, 1975, right after the Communist army overran Saigon, Trinh Cong Son's voice was heard on Saigon Radio, calling the youth to welcome the Communist soldiers with his song "Noi Vong Tay Lon" (Join Hands in a Greater Ring) praising unification of Vietnam (under Hanoi control). His quick and complete devotion to the conquerors hurt the feeling of many people who had appreciated him as an attractive heart's songs writer.

After just a few months in favor of Communist authorities after April 1975, Trinh Cong Son was given unfriendly treatment by the new regime. He was sent to serve as a common laborer in some "new economic areas" along with others who had been serving the former RVN regime at low ranks. His pre-1975 songs were not permitted. He was under security surveillance for many years.

He was composing many new songs but only a few were passed by Communist censors although he did nothing wrong against the Communist regime. Meanwhile, his songs even the anti-war, are still widely performed and recorded in commercial CD's in the overseas Vietnamese communities.

Only since early 1990's have his songs been performed in musical events and entertainment's in Vietnam as the Communist regime accepted market economy reform. He had told AFP recently that Communist government surveillance had stopped a long time ago. However, he was never given any decent position as a popular songs writer. He also told AFP last year that he had written "nothing beautiful" in the decade after 1975 and had not published a single song.

On Sunday, April 1, Trinh Cong Son passed out at Cho Ray hospital. He had suffered a long time from diabetes that might be aggravated by his way of life. He was a heavy drinker and smoker - 5 packs a day. Medical authorities said that he died of liver and lung complications from diabetes.

His funeral drew a large gathering of many ten of thousands of his fans and other common people. But the news was not immediately reported in major party-controlled newspapers until 3 days later, probably the media had to wait for decision from the top party leaders.

Then the party-controlled media published a series of articles praising the late songs writer of his patriotism and musical talent. Local authorities sent representatives and flowers to his funeral. Two of Ho Chi Minh City's top officials, Saigon Communist Party Committee Secretary ***************** and Deputy Chairman of Saigon People's Committee Le Thanh Hai, visited the mortuary Tuesday where the singer's body had lain in state. Only two among the party top leaders, former prime minister Vo Van Kiet and his successor Phan Van Khai sent wreaths to his funeral, on behalf or their own families. The two are known as reformers.

Though Communist government allowed a large funeral service with tens of thousands of attendants, Trinh Cong Son was not interred at the Saigon's Communist martyr cemetery where composers and singers faithful to the Communist Party are laid to rest. He was buried at a common graveyard in Binh Duong province, about 20 km northwest of Saigon.

The honor granted to Trinh Cong Son by the Communist leaders, higher than to some other more faithful Communist Party members who had contributed better achievements to the party in the cultural front is unexpected and unprecedented. The honor, while burial in martyr cemetery was denied, could be an act of "psychological warfare."

After 26 years under Communism, people in South Vietnam (south of the 17th Parallel) are still acting and thinking as if they were living in a separate country. Prevailing in business management, in science and technology, South Vietnam are attracting more foreign investment than the North. Production and growth in Saigon reach higher rate.

Trinh Cong Son, whether he was a Communist or not, is still a symbol of the advanced South Vietnam, a musical talent having had no relations or services with the nationalist regimes. His funeral might have been taken as the lawful occasion to vent South Vietnamese dissatisfaction on the incapable but arrogant Northern leaders.

The Communist top leaders' decision to honor Trinh Cong Son might aim at taking advantages of his popularity of the people to calm down the disaffection that is burning in people's hearts especially when religious protests have been going on in the Central Highlands and other places, Hue and An Giang.

​

A mother's fate
Gia tài của mẹ
Trịnh Công Sơn
A thousand years of Chinese reign.
A hundred years of French domain.
Twenty years fighting brothers each day,
A mother's fate, left for her child,
A mother's fate, a land defiled.
A thousand years of Chinese reign.
A hundred years of French domain.
Twenty years fighting brothers each day,
A mother's fate, bones left to dry,
And graves that fill a mountain high.
Refrain:
Teach your children to speak their minds.
Don't let them forget their kind--
Never forget their kind, from old Viet land.
Mother wait for your kids to come home,
Kids who now so far away roam.
Children of one father, be reconciled.
A thousand years of Chinese reign.
A hundred years of French domain.
Twenty years fighting brothers each day.
A mother's fate, our fields so dead,
And rows of homes in flames so red.
A thousand years of Chinese reign.
A hundred years of French domain.
Twenty years fighting brothers each day.
A mother's fate, her kids half-breeds,
Her kids filled with disloyalty.
(Refrain)
VIET NAM REVISITED
Tôi Sẽ Đi Thăm
When my land has peace
I shall go visiting,
I shall go visiting
Along a road with many foxholes.
When my land is no longer at war
I shall visit the green graves of my friends.
When my land has peace
I shall go visiting
I shall go visiting
Over bridges crushed by mines,
Go visiting
Bunkers of bayonets and pungi sticks;
When my people are no longer killing each other
The children will sing children's songs
Outside on the street.
Trinh Cong Son
"I Shall Go Visiting"
in Don Luce, John C. Schafer, and Jacquelyn Chagnon
We Promise One Another (1971:92).
​

Hương rừng thơm đồi vắng
Nước suối trong thầm thì
Cọ xoè ô che nắng
Râm mát đường em đi

To Ngoaytai: Please don't try to translate Vietnamese songs (Trinh Cong Son's songs) into English. It's really funny. English words and phrases can not transfer the meanings, the soul of the songs which are expressed in Vietnamese.
You can write everything about him in English but translate his songs.
BADGIRL

yup, agree with badgirl
to ngoaitay : did you translate them ?? for what man ?
=--=

She did not translated those songs . Did you see those who did at the end of the posting?

​

Hi!
I was impressed by Milou article. I'm sure that Milou is a fan of TCS music. I also love TCS music very much for a long time. When i was small, I listened to TCS music a lot because my father is really a great fan of TCS music.
Many people say that people who really love TCS music are all romantic and highly emotional. Do you think that?
I think that it's partly true. A few people can understand the words of TCS's songs and very few people can love these.
Have you read :" TCS - mot nguoi tho ca, mot coi di ve " ? It's very interesting. We can know more about TCS'life, a secret life.
Why don't we set up TCS music fan club where we can share our ideas and remind us about a great special musician?
I do hope that it may come true!

hì hì! Gor mới vừa tìm thấy cái bài này thì gặp bác đã gửi trên này rồi! Gor đang làm 1 bài về Trịnh, những bài mà Ngoaytai gửi rất có lợi, vì ko có translation như thế, ghi vào bài làm mình, có ma mà hỉêu nhạc Trịnh là phản chiến tranh. Bây giờ Gor chỉ có 1 bài thêm nữa là I had a lover. Nếu bác Ngoaytai tìm dc bài nào nội dung phản chiến tranh mà bản tiếng Anh nữa thì post lên gium Gor với nha, merci ạ!
Bên này ko có sách nào về Trịnh cả, mỗi 1 cuốn We The Vietnamese( voice from Vietnam by Francois Sully), có ai biết có sách nào ghi về Trịnh( 1 xíu cũng dc những gì ma bên này tim dc thì cho giùm Gor cái title, năm xuất bản. thanks nhiều nhiều ạ)
Nguyên
I'm not like them, but I can pretend.
The sun is gone, but I have a light.
The day is done, but I'm having fun.
I think I'm dumb or maybe just happy...think I'm just happy.