"Listening to the boat singing at night, I miss Uncle Ho"

“A deep folk song of the homeland/ Lam River night with rippling waves/ Echoing the ferry carrying simple human love/ Immense longing and lingering fragrance in life”.

During his lifetime, musician An Thuyen said: In 1973, when he was only 24 years old, he was an officer of the Nghe An Department of Culture. During a trip to collect folk songs in Uncle Ho's hometown (Kim Lien, Nam Dan), he accidentally heard an old woman in Sen village say: "In the past, Uncle Ho also often went to listen to the singing of the fabric guild." The image of the great Uncle Ho, a world cultural celebrity but very simple, loving his country and the traditional culture of his homeland, inspired him to compose.

And, “Listening to the ferry singing at night, missing Uncle Ho” was born in a night when An Thuyen wrote while shedding tears of longing for Uncle Ho: “Uncle Ho’s childhood has gone/ Along the length of the ferry singing/ Uncle Ho’s childhood has lived/ Along the breadth of the folk song/ And from then on, Uncle Ho sought a way to save the country”.

Through the "ferry singing" tune to praise Uncle Ho, An Thuyen also included a verse, a dam song, making the work imbued with the traditional sound of the homeland. The song ends with the sentiments of the entire people grateful to Uncle Ho - the one who brought independence, freedom, happiness and preserved traditional cultural values for the nation: "In the past, I followed the troupe to listen to the singing/ Now Uncle has given us life/ Oh the song of independence and freedom/ That now all of us sing loudly/ The old wish/ Has come, oh so bright/ Now singing the ferry song/ Seeing the immense beauty of life/ I miss Uncle Ho even more, I miss him deeply and deeply in my homeland".

Musician Nguyen An Thuyen (1949 - 2015), from Quynh Luu, Nghe An. He is a Major General, former Principal of the Military University of Culture and Arts; Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Musicians Association, 7th term. He is also famous for the songs "Heroic Vietnamese Mother", "I choose this path", "Nine levels of love", "Neo doi ben que"... Musician An Thuyen was honored to receive the State Prize for Literature and Arts in 2007 along with many noble awards from the Ministry of National Defense , the Vietnam Musicians Association and other ministries, branches and localities.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/dem-nghe-hat-do-dua-nho-bac-702675.html