Dinh Tram Ca: Fly away the raindrops on thousands of miles of each other's lives

Đynh Trầm Ca - Ảnh 1. — Musician Dinh Tram Ca - Photo archive

Audiences often mention Dinh Tram Ca as one of the few talented musicians of Quang Nam. His typical songs are Ru con tinh cu, Song que, Trai tai gai sac, Ve tren co la ngam ngui ...

Especially with Lullaby of Old Love , the lyrics resonate through many generations: "Three years have passed and I have become a widow/Sitting and lulling my child to sleep like a sad love song/Please spend a lifetime regretting and loving each other/Please spend a lifetime sleeping peacefully in the past...".

Or the song Fly Away the Drizzles: “ Fly away the raindrops on thousands of miles of each other's lives/Fly away the old memories on the banks of the old phoenix flower city/The stream of regret and sorrow for the lavish vows/In the afternoon of the old street you returned.../And the song suddenly became a lullaby of oblivion/Fly away the raindrops that divided thousands of lifetimes of love/Fly away the old memories that were green with tears of resentment/The passionate love has been divided/The person has been separated forever/And the tears have flown into rain tears in the sky …”

His passing leaves a huge void for those left behind. He was a talented artist. No talented person passes away without us feeling sorry and lost.

Poet Phung Tan Dong (Hoi An)

Dinh Tram Ca never said a word of regret.

Dinh Tram Ca is a musician who is "both talented and timely" and a poet who is "spirited and self-respecting", according to the feelings of his junior musician Tien Luan (70 years old, Ho Chi Minh City). When Dinh Tram Ca was still living in Ho Chi Minh City, they used to know each other, support each other, write and record songs together during difficult times.

As a member of the next generation, musician Tien Luan admires musician Dinh Tram Ca because his music is full of poetry, his lyrics are very good and profound, and he has the influence of Southern music in the story structure.

According to Quang Thinh - son of musician Dinh Tram Ca, after a stroke a few years ago, the musician could not speak and could not leave a last message for his family. In his career, he only had one music album in the 1990s.

Đynh Trầm Ca - Ảnh 2. — Musician Dinh Tram Ca

During his lifetime, he never had a "decent" music program of his own. But that is what his artistic friends regret, but "he never expressed regrets".

Besides music, musician Dinh Tram Ca also has a poetic soul. He started writing poetry at a very early age, at the age of 12-13, and at the age of 15, his first poem was published in a magazine. Taking his own life as a source of inspiration for his writing, the musician is a man of few words and lives a quiet life.

After leaving Ho Chi Minh City to live in Quang Nam after a life of wandering, he opened a coffee shop to hang out with friends. Every morning, he drank coffee with old friends. He liked reading newspapers and books, living a simple life day by day before falling ill in old age. He still kept in touch with his artistic friends in Quang Nam, Da Nang, Hue...

"In life, joy and sadness always go together, but his most active period was from 1990 to 2000 when he lived in Ho Chi Minh City, collaborating with Rang Dong company, achieving many successes. Songs such as Song Que, Noi Buon Chim Sao... were born" - his son said.

He told him that he "lived a poetic life, not the most beautiful or happy life, but he experienced all the flavors of humanity."

Poet Ngan Thuong (living in Hue ) is 3 years younger than musician Dinh Tram Ca. They met in Hoi An, sat at a cafe, sipped drinks, and sang together. For Ngan Thuong, he always remembers the song "Ru con tinh cu" by Dinh Tram Ca, sung by singer Le Thu. This is the song that Le Thu once said she had sung many love songs, but only when singing "Ru con tinh cu" did she cry.

"He composed music based on his life, very real, his songs were his heart" - Mr. Ngan Thuong said. Now he has passed away at the age of 83, poet Ngan Thuong bids farewell to his friend: "I miss him, a talented and humble man".

The generation of poets who wrote poetry at the same time as Dinh Tram Ca did not publish many poetry collections. But the spirit of those seniors was like a seed sown in the souls of our generation, urging us to do art.

Writer - poet Nguyen Nha Tien (Da Nang)

Phi Nhung & Quang Le sing Song Que - Video: QUANG LE

Love of the countryside is always imbued in his works.

Poet Phung Tan Dong confided that poet and musician Dinh Tram Ca was a senior to many artists from Quang Nam. "Now hearing the news of Ca's passing, I remember the times we spent together; the times he returned from the South, the trips; and the times we met at funerals to see off friends and relatives," Mr. Dong confided, "now it's our turn to say goodbye to him."

Đynh Trầm Ca - Ảnh 3. — Cover of the song Lullaby of Old Love - one of Dinh Tram Ca's most beloved songs

Mr. Dong read and listened to Dinh Tram Ca's works before 1975. "Right from that time, while many people followed the beaten path or had a pre-war feel, Dinh Tram Ca chose his own path with free verse and a strange, very special and unusual but extremely beautiful language," he said.

Phung Tan Dong said that Dinh Tram Ca's poetry does not depend too much on rhyme. Instead, he focuses on expressing his thoughts on youth, life and current events as well as his desire for freedom and peace.

He was a man who was always worried about youth. He once had a haunting poem, Spring and the Question Mark: "Why not be someone else, someone else/ Live with a path and at the end of the road there is spring/ I am alone like a person who missed the flight/ Standing lonely in the vast sky, the sad train station has drifted away and everything is strange/ There is only spring and a million question marks in my soul".

In the impression of poet Phung Tan Dong, Dinh Tram Ca is a gentle, simple person who is always attached to his hometown. He is a person who does not like to talk about himself and the folk material and love for his hometown are always imbued in his works.

In particular, Dinh Tram Ca loved Quang Nam land very much. The feeling of being far from home became a familiar topic during the years living far from home.

"Even during the period of living in the South, working as a teacher and doing many jobs to make a living, Dinh Tram Ca never lost the mindset of an artist and shared his nostalgia for his homeland, his old mother, his children, his neighbors, and his close friends," Mr. Dong commented.

Dinh Tram Ca never said a word of regret.

Love of the countryside is always imbued in his works.

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