Diem by Trinh Cong Son

For many days and months of that time, that girl still walked beneath the camphor trees. Many sunny and rainy seasons passed by. In the sunny seasons, cicadas chirped, opening their summer songs in the leaves. In the rainy season of Hue , that girl walked by, fading into the rain between the two rows of hazy camphor trees...” (Diem of the Old Days - Trinh Cong Son).

Diem of yesteryear, Diem of days gone by – that very Hue girl has remained anchored in the minds of Trinh Cong Son's music lovers for decades. Diem resonates in the realm of memory and in every melody with the most exquisite, graceful, pure, and poetic emotions. Now, Diem no longer belongs solely to Trinh Cong Son, but to all delicate souls, easily moved and appreciative of beauty. She enters his musical compositions in a pristine, pure, and deeply haunting position, almost dominating the composer's aesthetic sensibilities when writing about the woman in most of his later works. She is "your long arms, how many seasons have your pale blue eyes," "the leaves fall silently on your footsteps," "it's still raining this afternoon, why don't you come back," "how do you know the stone monument doesn't feel pain"...

Musician Trinh Cong Son. Photo: Internet

According to researcher Buu Y, a close friend of musician Trinh Cong Son, around 1962, Trinh Cong Son's family faced economic difficulties. Their large house on Phan Boi Chau Street had to be sold, and they rented a ground-floor apartment in a newly built building at the beginning of Phu Cam Bridge in Hue City. Every day, Diem crossed Phu Cam Bridge, walking under the camphor trees in front of the Hue Archbishop's Palace to get to school. Little did she know that the poor musician in the small apartment always watched her from above, "listening to the autumn leaves rustling in the rain, wearing down her delicate heels." In Buu Y's memory, Diem possessed a delicate, charming face and a gentle demeanor. Diem's captivating beauty left a lingering, yearning memory in the heart of the young musician Trinh Cong Son at that time.

From that day on, Trinh prepared to embrace in his heart the image of a young woman that would never fade throughout his life—the image of Diem Xua—and this song became immortal.

"Diễm xưa" tells the story of a beautiful but unfulfilled love, a blend of reality and dream. Diễm, fragile and pure like the first rain of the season, stirred the melancholic and sensitive heart of the poor musician Trịnh Công Sơn. The song is imbued with the artist's very real feelings, a mixture of regret, reproach, and love. For those who appreciate it, they sense in "Diễm xưa" the image of a young man yearning for the silent footsteps of a girl, "It's still raining this afternoon, why don't you come?" A reproach, yet a persistent longing for her. The love story between musician Trịnh Công Sơn and Diễm is recounted as something of "love already felt within, but outwardly still hesitant." The image of a frail, delicate girl, like mist and smoke, floating here and there, then vanishing, is subtly melancholic... And strangely, this sorrowful, troubled love that permeates the song is not tragic or sentimental, but rather beautiful in an ethereal, almost otherworldly way.

Trinh and Diem, their dreamlike love, continues to stir the hearts of those just beginning to feel affection, and those who have already experienced all the ups and downs of love. There's a touch of pity, sorrow, and regret because of the invisible barriers that prevented the young couple from being together. Later, no matter how many women passed through Trinh's life, Diem remained a desolate void that no one could fill. Diem is an unfinished poem, a poignant memory, an unanswered sound. Diem enters Trinh's memory as an allegory of a beautiful yet haunting and unforgettable love.

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