Diem by Trinh Cong Son

Many days, many months of that time, that girl still passed under the camphor trees. There were many sunny and rainy seasons that also passed. In the sunny seasons, cicadas chirped, opening up the summer song in the leaves. In the rainy season of Hue , that girl passed faintly in the rain between two rows of hazy camphor trees..." (The Beauty of the Old Days - Trinh Cong Son).

Diem Xua, Diem of the old days - that very Hue girl has been anchored in the minds of Trinh music lovers for the past decades. Diem resonates in the memory or in each melody with the most gorgeous, graceful, pure and poetic emotions. So now Diem no longer belongs to Trinh alone but to all delicate souls, easily vibrating and loving beauty. She enters his music with a pure, clear position, "haunting" deeply and almost dominating the musician's aesthetics when writing about the beauty in most of his later songs. She is "how long have your arms been, your eyes have been pale", "on your footsteps, leaves silently fall", "this afternoon it's still raining, why don't you come back", "how do you know the stone stele doesn't hurt"...

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 encountered economic difficulties, the large house on Phan Boi Chau street had to be transferred to someone else and an apartment was rented on the first floor of a newly built building at the head of Phu Cam bridge in Hue city. Diem crossed Phu Cam bridge every day, walked under the camphor trees in front of the Hue Archbishop's palace to go to school. Little did she know that there was a poor musician in the small attic who always followed "listening to the autumn leaves rustling in the rain, wearing down his small heels". Diem in Mr. Buu Y's memory had a delicate, charming face and a gentle appearance. Diem's captivating beauty left a lingering nostalgia in the heart of the young musician Trinh Cong Son at that time.

Also from that day, Trinh prepared to take into his heart an image of a young woman that would never fade, that was the image of Diem Xua, and this song became immortal.

“Diem Xua” tells the story of a beautiful but unfinished love, in reality there is a dream, in dream there is reality. Diem is as fragile and pure as the first rain of the season, stirring the sad and sentimental heart of the poor musician Trinh. The song contains a very real feeling of the artist, both regretful and reproachful, loving. For fans, they feel in “Diem Xua” the image of a young man wearily waiting for the silent footsteps of a girl “this afternoon it is still raining, why don’t you come back”. Blaming but still waiting for a figure. The love of musician Trinh Cong Son with Diem is told as “love inside is like already, the outside is still shy”. Pervasive in “Diem Xua” is the image of a thin, fragile girl, like mist and smoke, floating there and then disappearing there, faintly sad... But strangely, the sadness full of hardships throughout the song is not tragic, not pathetic, but on the contrary, beautiful in an illusory, ghostly way.

Trinh and Diem, that dreamy love forever touches hearts that are beginning to vibrate and those who have gone through all stages of love. There is a bit of sympathy, pity, and sadness because of the invisible barriers that prevent the young couple from coming together. And then, no matter how many beautiful women pass through Trinh's life, Diem will always be a desolate void that no one can fill. Diem is an unfinished poem, a lingering memory, an unresponsive sound. Diem enters the memory of Trinh's lover as a metaphor for a beautiful but forever haunting, unforgettable love.

High Branch

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/van-hoa-du-lich-van-hoc-nghe-thuat/202503/diem-cua-trinh-cong-son-11708f3/