I love the sound of the rooster crowing at noon...

- I love these lyrics so much!

- Me too! "Leisure" is worth a thousand gold, my dear!

- Yes, I just now vaguely understand. I was too hasty before...

The story between me and the young musician continued, as the messages of time passed through two generations like gamma rays, and then seemed to string our two souls together on an overlapping axis. The generation gap seemed to disappear before the beauty of eternal time.

Among the millions of people in this city, perhaps many, many people have a hometown that they long to return to during these approaching Tet holidays.

There are songs, just one random line in it is enough to make us think, contemplate, haunt and cherish for a lifetime. It seems that its beauty surpasses all rational analysis. It is as beautiful as a flower that has just bloomed, like the first ray of sunlight shining immediately without having to ask why. Just feel it through the soul, through the full sweetness and bitterness of a human life, so that the "peace" in the lyrics will permeate like a candy melting gently in the mouth.

And every time spring comes, there is another "candy" that keeps seeping into my soul:

"With smoke drifting over the river, the rooster is crowing at noon by the river,

A sunny afternoon for many souls"

In the middle of a crowded city with endless streams of vehicles, I don't know where you come from, where your hometown is, have you returned home to celebrate Tet yet... But I guess you came from that place, the place where "with smoke drifting over the river, roosters crowing at noon by the river...". Among the millions of people in this city, perhaps many, many people have a hometown that they long to return to during these approaching Tet holidays. Me too.

I miss the Tet holidays in the countryside so much. But what I miss most is the feeling after the loud firecrackers, after the reunions, after the New Year greetings, when I lie in a hammock under a coconut tree and listen to "the sound of the noon rooster crowing by the river". It feels so strange, it is terribly disturbing, terribly sad, but terribly beautiful! The beauty of a sound, though lonely, is extremely peaceful. After all the fun and laughter, we are forced to face ourselves in the middle of a quiet noon with only the sound of chickens and the coconut trees rustling in the wind.

The sound of a rooster crowing at noon - the beauty of a sound that is lonely but extremely peaceful

Strangely, the sound of the rooster crowing at noon penetrates deeply into our memories, creeps into our souls, and follows us as we wander through endless roads, endless careers, and endless lives. And then, when Tet is near, the lyrics of that song are like a match that ignites the nostalgia for a beloved homeland:

“With smoke drifting over the river, the rooster is crowing at noon by the river”

I love Van Cao's First Spring in my own way, like the way I look at a beautiful flower without knowing where it is grown or in what circumstances. Sometimes the leaves evoke emotions in me, the petals make me feel nostalgic, the pistils make me feel nostalgic. Each line of the song has its own beauty that I feel is perfect when standing alone, without necessarily having to be attached to any circumstance:

"Then spring gently follows the swallows home

The normal season, the happy season has come"

Or like:

"Then spring gently follows the swallows home

The mother looked at her children who had returned.

Just that much is enough to make us excited, very "spring"!

What is the first thing we do when we return to our hometown in the days before Tet? It is to see our mother, our old mother (I am really sorry to those who no longer have a mother...). How happy we are that this Tet we still have our mother. Sometimes we don't need a lot of cakes, jams, strong wine or friends to entertain us, just being with our mother is enough to make this spring satisfying. Whether this Tet is prosperous or full of difficulties, that's okay! The waltz of life, after winter, spring comes again. But there is only one mother!

The beauty of The First Spring is, first of all, in the lyrics. How leisurely, profound, and natural it is, like breathing. Until now, people have often listened to this song with the habit of searching for the context of why Van Cao wrote this song, forgetting the beauty of these lyrics - it transcends the circumstances of its birth, to become eternal beauty. Eternal because that river, that noon rooster crowing, that love are always unchanging values ​​in any circumstance, only we are pushed and turned upside down in the endless cycle of life:

"From now on, people know each other's homeland

From now on, people know how to love others.

From now on, people know how to love each other"

Obviously, through the Covid-19 pandemic, through the current world situation, we can appreciate Van Cao's heartfelt lyrics even more. Because love is never enough, but is increasingly lacking, scarce and more luxurious than ever, in an era where the greatest illusion is the hope that AI also has love.

The First Spring (composer: Van Cao, singer: Nguyen Thao, arranger: Vo Thien Thanh)

There are songs that have the same fate as a person: a difficult beginning, experiencing many adversities, but in the end, beauty reaches its destination. Anyone who has ever loved this song knows its "difficulties". But there is a very strange thing that The First Spring somehow became popular in the former Soviet Union before it became famous in Vietnam! Perhaps its beautiful and profound melody reminds us of Barcarolles so that Russians can sympathize with it. It is possible! Because in 2013, I arranged and invited Nguyen Thao to sing The First Spring , it is as beautiful as a Russian Barcarolle . It also reminds me of the deep Moscow Afternoon . This is similar to how the Japanese love Trinh Cong Son's Diem Xua . Because the human soul, even in different countries, still has the same frequency. That frequency is love.

Like the third beat of Spring and Youth, The First Spring has also gone through many different arrangements and singing styles since it became famous. But to me, it is not a waltz, not the kind of happy, joyful, elated, bursting or jumping for joy, but the happiness contained deep within, in serenity, in transcendent contemplation - beyond ordinary joys, to become the beauty of eternal time:

“With smoke drifting over the river, the rooster is crowing at noon by the river

Just a sunny afternoon today is immense"

These days my heart is so restless, let's try listening to the sound of "the rooster crowing at noon by the river" with Nguyen Thao's voice. That is also the sound of my heart.

(*): Love Song - Trinh Cong Son

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/mua-xuan-dau-tien-yeu-sao-tieng-ga-gay-trua-185240117161836527.htm