The story behind the pen name Dinh Tram Ca and the song 'Lullaby for Old Love'

Musician Dinh Tram Ca is famous in the music world with more than 300 poems and nearly 100 songs, many of which touch people's hearts such as: Lullaby for old love, River of hometown... In particular, famous singer Khanh Ly performed Lullaby for old love very successfully, but not everyone knows the behind-the-scenes story of this song.

In the 1960s, an impressive name appeared in the Vietnamese poetry scene: Dinh Tram Ca. His poems were loved by readers and were copied by hand in large numbers. In 1967, he became known as a musician when the song Lullaby of Old Love was performed by many singers and became famous through Khanh Ly's voice.

That was also a big turning point in Dinh Tram Ca's writing journey. This song made Dinh Tram Ca's name known in the Vietnamese music world. With a sad Boston melody, the lyrics are like beautiful verses: " Three years have passed since I became a widow/Sitting and rocking my child like a lullaby of sad love.../Oh, three years have passed, my heart has not yet calmed down from the storm.../Where are you far away, do you have any complaints?" .

Musician Dinh Tram Ca, musician Nhu Phuong, author Phung Hieu and musician Vu Duc Sao Bien (from left to right)

PHOTO: TL

Why not Ding but Ding?

His real name is Mac Phu, but his pen name is Dinh Tram Ca. There are many interesting anecdotes surrounding this strange surname: many people do not know whether it is Dinh Tram Ca or Dinh Tram Ca? I also wondered about this, so when I had a chance to have a drink with him, I asked: "What does the word Dinh mean, uncle? Why did you choose this surname for your pen name?". He smiled and explained: "Actually, my mother's surname is Dinh, but to "react" to a contemporary dictionary maker from Quang Ngai who kept changing all the letters i (short) to y (long), I wrote it backwards for fun. Then my friends and colleagues found the surname "Dinh" strange and interesting, so they wrote it over and over again, but the letter "Dinh" (i) is correct."

About Lullaby of old love , the birth of this song is associated with a rather interesting anecdote that the literary world often tells each other: In the mid-1960s, on the road from Ha Lam intersection to Tieu La School of a small town in Quang Nam province (old), there was a high school girl who carried her bag back and forth twice a day on the small street. Her name is Ho Thi Thu, the people in the countryside often call her Thu Chuan (because her father's name is Chuan) to distinguish her from other people named Thu. The beautiful female student Ho Thi Thu with an oval face, long silky hair, white-pink skin and sparkling eyes like the waves of an autumn lake made many village boys fall in love. And the young man Mac Phu secretly loved the female student with the song Lullaby of old love .

And that girl named Thu appeared beautifully in his poetry through the poem "The Guitar of Memories" : " The day I carried my guitar across the old school/Who was like you standing at the end of the hallway/Who was like me sitting dreaming behind the classroom door/Could it be that you are still there, Thu? ...". This poem was hand-copied and recited by many students, so his name became famous from then on.

Musician Dinh Tram Ca plays the guitar and sings a song he just composed at a friend's house in Tan Binh District (HCMC) in 2002.

PHOTO: PHUNG HIEU

At that time, I knew many of his love poems by word of mouth and handwritten. Through the language of poetry, I guessed he wrote it before 1975. On one occasion when I met him in Saigon (at that time he followed his wife to the West, only occasionally coming to Saigon), I asked about the circumstances of the birth of these poems, but he almost did not remember: "I do not remember when I started writing poetry, I only know that when sadness and sorrow were overwhelming, when pain and suffering were suppressed, then poetry burst out. At that time, there was no money to print poetry, so the poems I composed were just copied into notebooks, then lost without knowing. Sometimes someone else picked them up, they read them, I heard them familiarly, and suddenly remembered my poems. It was not until 1969, when I was nearly 30 years old, that a poetry and music lover sponsored the funding to print my first poetry collection, Night Eyes . This collection of poems was written in 1958, and was introduced by a researcher as one of the five typical poetry collections of 1969 in the South", musician Dinh Tram Ca confided.

Poetry is the first lover, music is the lover that brings ultimate sublimation

Sharing about his career, poet Dinh Tram Ca said: "Poetry is the first love and that lover follows us throughout our ups and downs in life. Music is the lover that brings us the ultimate sublimation. It is not surprising that many poets call me a musician, and vice versa, musicians call me a poet. I can do both things in this life. I was not destined to live and work in a professional artistic environment, but my creative consciousness arose strongly while I was still in school. At that time, the poems I wrote were popular among my friends, and I wrote music just for fun, but I did not expect it to be loved by the community."

After Lullaby of Old Love, a series of his other famous songs were written in the 1990s. During this time, he brought his wife and children to the West to live. Here, he had the opportunity to experience and have time to travel throughout the provinces of the Southwest. The charming river scene and the vast plains of the West made the musician's soul overflow with emotions and creativity; and the songs Hometown River, Sadness of the Starling, Husband and Wife Melody, By the Bridge Missing People was born from there. In particular, the song "River of Homeland" has been performed by dozens of singers, with lyrics and melody that easily penetrate people's hearts.

Around 2010, Dinh Tram Ca brought his whole family back to his hometown in Quang Nam to live. Here, he opened a garden cafe in his house, which attracted a lot of customers, and artists who worked in the Central region also visited him. The cafe was the main source of income to support his whole family. Occasionally, he went to Ho Chi Minh City at the invitation of friends, but the trips gradually decreased due to his health.

Musician Dinh Tram Ca (in white shirt) and artists attend a music press conference

PHOTO: PHUNG HIEU

Since he and his family returned to Quang Nam, we rarely met each other. Only when I went on a business trip to Da Nang would I visit him or occasionally once every 1-2 years he would go to Ho Chi Minh City to visit friends. When he met me, he said: "I am old now, in my seventies, I have returned to my hometown to hide and take care of the family's ancestral graves. As a son, I have the duty to burn incense for my grandparents. Besides, my health is now weak, I can't 'play around' like before, now I get drunk after a few glasses of wine". Then he said: "If you have the opportunity to go on a business trip to the Central region, come visit me. You are still young, you have to try to take care of your work, don't get too absorbed in poetry, or you will suffer if the muse takes advantage of you". Holding his hand, I was really moved when I saw the wrinkles and white hair on the musician's head...

Farewell to you, a talented poet, musician, a son of Quang Nam whom I always respect.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/chuyen-sau-but-danh-dynh-tram-ca-va-bai-hat-ru-con-tinh-cu-185251201204824901.htm