Thinking about father in life and art

(PLVN) - Have we ever wondered: Why do we call the people who gave birth to us father, mother, dad/dad, mama? Those affectionate names have their roots in forming a family.

Parents two words love

According to folklore researcher Nhat Thanh, the titles of father and mother, father and mother, have existed since ancient times. The “Hong Bang” legend in the book Linh Nam Chich Quai recorded that: Whenever people were in need, they would call out to King Lac Long: “Bo, no matter where you go, will come save us.” Below that sentence, the author noted: “The Southern people call their fathers “bo” from that time on.” The word “bo” (same sound as “dad”) is still used today, as “bo lao” is an elder equal to an old father.

The book "Imperial Annals of Vietnam" records: In the year Tan Vi (791), Phung Huong, a native of Duong Lam (now Phuc Tho district, Son Tay province), rose up against the Tang Dynasty's colonial government. After his death, the soldiers appointed his son as their successor. Out of admiration for him, they built a temple to worship him and honored him as Bo Cai Dai Vuong, considering him as a great and important person like a parent.

“The word “father” means “father” and the word “daughter” means “mother” have gone through dozens of centuries, and are still full of vitality in Vietnamese language and literature,” researcher Nhat Thanh affirmed. Our proverbs say: “The wild child is the mother” or “In September, red tangerines grow/In March, the young ones come back” (the young ones mean mother and child).

In addition to calling father and mother, father and mother, many localities also call father and mother "teacher" in the Red River Delta, "father and mother" like the people of the South, "ba me" like the people of Phu Yen . In the book "Dat le que thoi", researcher Nhat Thanh said that father and mother were also called "cuu mo". A fashionable trend from the feudal period to the Westernization movement that appeared in Vietnam in the early 20th century: "In the past, the employees in the mandarin's houses and the people used to call the sons and daughters-in-law of this class "cuu mo aunt", then the children of the rich boys and girls followed suit and called their parents "cuu mo aunt" and in those families people were proud and liked it like that. Gradually, this custom spread, starting from the civil servants (during the French colonial period, many civil servants had ranks no less than high-ranking mandarins) and then even to the merchants in the cities.

The two words "uncle and aunt" were rising like a kite, wanting to overwhelm and replace the two words "parents", but suddenly disappeared, secretly and fearfully, quickly retreating into silence at the same time as the bureaucratic regime ended in August 1945. From then on, the two words "uncle and aunt" were returned to their pure old meaning: "uncle" is mother's younger brother and "aunt" is uncle's wife", Nhat Thanh expressed his opinion.

Nhat Thanh also emphasized that the affectionate call of “parents” although expressed differently in each locality, is still dear in the Vietnamese family tradition. Those who leave their parents to go to the city to study and make a living still look forward to the day they return to their parents to be comforted. For children, parents always consider them foolish even though their hair has turned gray.

“Throughout the vicissitudes of life, the words “father” and “mother” are still the official ones. Folk proverbs, literature, and poetry rarely have room for other words. “A child is better than his father, the family is blessed”; “A father eats salty food, the child is thirsty”; “A mother raises her child with the sky and the sea/A child raises his mother and child, counting each day”/“A child, a mother’s child, but a daughter-in-law, a daughter-in-law like that” (Le Quy Don - Poem: A Mother Advises Her Son When He Goes to Her Husband’s House)”, Nhat Thanh concluded.

The proverb "August is the death anniversary of the Father, March is the death anniversary of the Mother" has been passed down to this day and still holds its full value. It reminds each of us of the annual death anniversary of King Bat Hai and King Hung Dao in August and Princess Lieu Hanh in the third lunar month. The beauty of cultural beliefs - where both mother and father, both goddess and god are sincerely respected by the people.

Scene from the movie Bicycle Thieves. (Source: ST)

"Loving father but great ambition not achieved"

“In the past, father sat drinking wine, mother sat knitting/Outside, in winter, the banyan tree's leaves fell…/In the past, beside father's bed, mother sat far away/Looking at father, feeling sorry for him, his great ambition was not fulfilled…” (Tran Tien - My Mother)

These lyrics are very familiar to me. I think of my father, when he planned to go to Eastern Europe. He went to Hanoi to wait for a long time, but then the bloc collapsed and my father considered himself unemployed and returned home to farm. Life at that time was too hard, my mother had to work as a street vendor in addition to teaching, my father went from being a cadre to farming, too bewildered. The family's difficult life at that time made me realize the meaning of the song "love your father, great ambition failed".

A song written by musician Tran Tien about mother, but the image of the father is silent. The image of him sitting and drinking wine of a man in power, but beside him is still a woman knitting a sweater, bringing him warmth, although the great ambition of a man is broken, he still wants to be a support for the family, but the times make people go astray. As Tan Da said "High talent, low fate, depressed spirit/ Wandering around, addicted to playing, forgetting the homeland". This is a song in which the image of a father in power is sung with the deep affection of a family clinging together, relying on each other in difficult times.

A great film of the world was released in 1946 - Bicycle Thief, directed by Vittorio De Sica still moves viewers until now even though it has become a classic. It is the story of Ricci - an unemployed man in Rome, after a long time finally found a job as a poster boy with the condition that he must have a bicycle to go to work.

This forced his wife to sell many things in the house to be able to buy a car. However, while he was putting up posters on the street, someone stole his tools to make a living. He and his son Bruno had to run around in a huge city with hundreds of thousands of hungry people like them to find a car.

And finally when he caught the thief, he was protected by a crowd so he could not find the bike. In a moment of desperation and confusion, he stole another bike but failed... The journey to find and steal the Ricci family's bike revealed a part of the history and society of Italy at that time. The bike in the movie conquered the world. This is always considered a typical film for the realist film trend and received the Oscar for "Best Foreign Film" in 1949. It was voted the best work of all time.

The film left a deep sadness, lingering about their miserable fate, when they fell into a dead end, abandoned and unable to find their future. However, deep in their hearts, the father and son were still full of love and optimism for each other.

The work I recently watched is the movie That Mountain, That Man, That Dog by director Jianqi Huo, China. An inspirational film about father and son love. A story of resilience, trust, and inspiration of a father and son who worked as postmen for people in the mountains of Hunan, China in the 80s of the 20th century.

Scene from the movie Bicycle Thieves. (Source: ST).

A lonely old man sat at the main door of his house on the mountainside. He waited for the postman to bring a letter from his grandson who had left home a long time ago and for some unknown reason never returned. He cried until he was blind from missing his grandson. In fact, there was no letter from his grandson for him. The postman understood his longing and wrote a letter without words, and read it to the old man. Every time he heard the letter, he cried and put the letter on his heart. And when the postman and his son left, he still sat there, hoping that one day they would return... It was a scene that haunted me.

The father was about to retire and the son followed in his father's footsteps. His first mail delivery was accompanied by his father, and also his last mail delivery. A dog named Lao Nhi was his companion. Three days of delivering mail through villages, they crossed fields, forests, valleys, steep slopes... the father taught him how to work, meet, greet, and deliver mail. The story seemed monotonous, but following in his father's footsteps, his youth learned many things.

That is the principle of "the mail delivery route must be the mail delivery route", do not take the bus but must walk to be accurate. Each letter is the eagerness and response of the recipient, so you must be very careful, not to lose or forget. In the movie, there is a scene where the letter is blown away by the wind, the father panics. He understands that if the letter is lost, the recipient will lose contact, lose connection, lose the expectation of information from each other...

The son learned from his father, and he saw his youth when he saw his son playing with the girl in the mountains. He married the girl in the mountains at one meeting. He said he loved his wife who had to wait for him all her life, because of work he kept going away... He also saw his son grow up and take on the job he had devoted his whole life to.

He did this job patiently, without asking for a promotion, he wanted his son to continue his work, he told his son to find joy in his work: "This job is also hard, but when you travel a lot, meet people, the work seems normal, life seems very easy."

These are outstanding works of literature about fathers. Fathers who are not successful, rich or famous. They are people who are out of date, poor, unemployed or have ordinary jobs, but their love and great sacrifice for their family is always great and sufficient. So that the call “Dad” in the family always resounds no matter what the circumstances.

Tuan Ngoc

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/nghi-ve-cha-trong-doi-song-va-van-nghe-post551754.html