Even gravestone can feel painful

Date: 12/6/2020, source: clovered.net

Trinh Cong Son is my favorite Vietnamese composer – songwriter. The first thing I love about his songs are the lyrics, but for some songs like “Diem xua”, “Ha trang”, “Doa hoa vo thuong”, “Mua hong”… the music is admirable for me too.

“Diem xua” is one of the most famous songs by Trinh Cong son. For many Vietnamese people, it is the mother of all love songs, the lyrics brings us the exquisite mysery of being in love. The original title “Diem xua” can be understood by different ways: “Bygone Diem” (with “Diem is a Vietnamese name for girls, some articles said the girl named “Diem” is Trinh Cong Son’s love-interesting), “Old Charm” (“diem” means “beautiful” / “charm”), “Old Flame” (some people thinks “diem” meaning is “flame”). The song also has a Japanese version, “Utsukushii Mukashi”, sung by Yoshimi Tendo (this song is the main theme song of NHK drama “Saigon, came from his wife and daughter” – 1978, and also incorporated into the Vietnamese culture courses of Kwansei Gakuin University).

I think Trinh Cong Son’s lyrics are really difficult to translate from Vietnamese to English. They usually have a lot of symbolism and metaphors that only the writer can truly understand. The lyrics are so beautiful in Vietnamese, not just the meaning, but also the way they sound, the way Trinh Cong son arranges the words.