(QBĐT) - Musician Trịnh Công Sơn passed away on the first day of April (2001). At this time, according to the lunar calendar, although there was still a period of Qingming Festival before the beginning of summer, golden sunlight was already everywhere, like a gentle lullaby connecting spring to summer: "You enter summer with sunlight shining high above / And spring, bewildered by new love" (I lull you to sleep).
Life is finite, death is unpredictable. Living in this turbulent world, Trinh Cong Son surely did not know, nor prepared for, the day he would leave this world. But the fact that he passed away unexpectedly at the spring equinox makes me believe that he was simply on a long journey to ascend to higher realms to illuminate his immortal songs, continuing his life as a wandering minstrel, "singing the inspirations" from dreams steeped in humanistic themes of love, human destiny, homeland, and peace , as he once confided to everyone.
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Like other Vietnamese people, I have always empathized with Trinh Cong Son's music, because in my emotions, I find in his songs allegories, gentle and heartfelt philosophies, yet no less passionate and heartfelt about life. With my limited understanding, I can only listen to, empathize with, and admire Trinh Cong Son's music, not comment on it; however, his music is happily and sublimely "marriage" with something I know: lyrics, along with his masterful use of lyrics in his music.
Most researchers and art friends of musician Trinh Cong Son believe that the lyrics in his songs are themselves wonderful, complete love poems. Accordingly, besides the title of respected musician, they also affectionately honor him as the poet of the 20th century (1). Moreover, musician Van Cao even called him a singer-poet. And it is these poetic lyrics that I can rely on to express some shallow feelings about a certain aspect, for example: Sunshine in Trinh Cong Son's songs.
In the lyrics of singer-poet Trinh Cong Son, the symbol "sun" appears very often, "densely in 52/288 songs, accounting for 22.8% and becoming a distinctive artistic symbol with multiple meanings" (2). Musician Trinh Cong Son skillfully used the vocabulary of "sunlight" in the lyrics of his songs, with its many grammatical functions, in a very soft and natural way: combining it with nouns (sunlit river, sunlit old garden...), with adjectives (full sun, lonely sun...), with verbs (hasty sun, jealous sun...)(3)... These are diverse metaphors, similes, personifications... contributing to creating unique and distinctive musical values and effects, making the symbol of sun in Trinh Cong Son's lyrics also have all the emotional nuances of love, hate, joy, anger like people, full of moods, but still very optimistic about life: Even though tears fall, my heart is not very sad/I wake up suddenly, oh, the sun is rising (Beside a Lonely Life).
Simply statistically analyzing the symbolism of "sunlight" directly present in Trinh Cong Son's lyrics from a reference perspective, in order to compare and link it with other natural phenomena abundant in his songs as cultural symbols: the sky, the sun, rocks, mountains, the sea, rivers, days, seasons, etc., is a necessary and valuable scientific operation for linguists. When listening to Trịnh Công Sơn's songs from an emotional and appreciative perspective, most of his songs that I know, whether gentle or intense, radiate sunshine to the listener, sunshine for life, even though these songs don't refer to physical sunshine but rather he has "sun-ified" his yearning for love: "Sometimes the late night sun hasn't risen yet, but a flower suddenly turns purple" (Walking Alone Through the Street in the Evening), or: "Every day I choose to sit quietly/Looking clearly at my homeland, reflecting on myself/I suddenly know why I live/Because the country needs a heart" (Every Day I Choose a Joy).
We have heard a lot about the circumstances of Trinh Cong Son's song "Legend of Mother". The image that inspired the musician to compose the song "Legend of Mother" is the photograph of Mother Nguyen Thi Suot, a heroic mother from Bao Ninh "the vast sand dunes under the midday sun of Quang Binh" (To Huu), displayed in the Provincial General Museum, with her hair blowing in the wind, "not afraid under the rain of bombs" , proudly rowing a boat to take soldiers across the river, which the musician saw for the first time (4).
Naturally, the legendary image of the mother that the author later spent nights "burning the midnight oil recalling stories from the past" to create in this famous song is the result of generalizing from the lives and examples of heroic Vietnamese mothers who silently sacrificed their lives for their husbands, children, the people, and the country. This is condensed into lyrics and melody, radiating boundless sunshine and stirring the hearts of countless generations of listeners: "Mother is the wind that swirls around / Silently in my life / In peaceful songs / Mother is the gentle breeze / Mother is the abundant water / Washing away my sorrows / So that life remains pure / Mother is submerged in hardship…"
It seems that, besides the optimism, strength, and symbolism of sunshine in Trinh Cong Son's songs, we also sense a hint of Zen philosophy in many places. Each lyric sounds very close to the Buddha's teachings on how to live: A person with good character is like the sun that can illuminate all directions; a person's character is warm and kind, only then can they benefit life and others. This is also a natural and relatable connection to the majority of Vietnamese listeners of Trinh Cong Son's music.
To date, eighteen years have passed since musician Trịnh Công Sơn embarked on his long journey to the heavens, yet his music continues to resonate warmly and intimately around us. It seems that the further the musician goes into eternity, the more his music shines and becomes irreplaceable. Recently, on the occasion of Trịnh Công Sơn's 80th birthday (February 28, 2019), Google search in Vietnam respectfully honored the musician on its homepage as a musician who made significant musical contributions to the community and to humanity, with a portrait sketch of him alongside his familiar guitar, full of charisma.
Composer Trịnh Công Sơn is the first Vietnamese person to appear on the familiar logo of one of the world's largest information search tools. This honor is a joy for those who love Trịnh Công Sơn's music, but it's not too surprising, because we already knew he was the first Southeast Asian to be awarded the prestigious "World Peace Music Award" by the United Nations (2004), his songs have been translated and widely disseminated abroad and are well-received by the public; in addition, some European countries such as Italy, Canada, and Germany have even built Trịnh Công Sơn libraries… He is truly a Vietnamese composer with a very wide international influence.
Therefore, I suddenly realized that, in addition to the purely Vietnamese musical values of composer Trinh Cong Son that each person, in their own way, passionately enjoys and feels, perhaps from now on, I should also learn to listen to the contemporary aspects in his timeless songs.
(1) Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong, Prof. Hoang Ngoc Hien, Prof. Duong Viet A….
(2),(3) Bich Hanh: “Trinh Cong Son, a speck of dust in the realm of eternity” - Encyclopedia Publishing House - 2011.
(4) Musician Dan Huyen, "Dan Tri" newspaper , issue 7, March 8, 2014.
Source: https://baoquangbinh.vn/van-hoa/202504/len-cao-thap-nang-2225323/
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