Put your heart into the metaphor...

(Baonghean) - “Oh, whoever knows whether the Lam River water is clear or turbid/ Then knows that living a life of shame or glory…” Is someone singing, in this faraway place, or is the song rising from within my heart, a child far from home, a child who has gone through many vicissitudes, whose hair has turned white in a lifetime, but who still misses me endlessly? Oh, are you “going up the mountain to pick a sim fruit” or are you rowing a boat along the river, have you seen me? I - a bareheaded boy, with patched clothes, splashing in the Lam River water every afternoon. The boy sitting on the dike, inhaling the wind, waiting for his mother to return from the market on a long journey. The boy sitting by the oil lamp every night “taking care of my books and clothes and food” according to the song of his grandmother?...

The program "An tinh vi, giam" of the Association of Former Students of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted (Vinh City) was held in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: AN

I thought it had settled with time, the excitement, the longing, the sorrow, the expectation. So why did just one verse suddenly come flooding back? Who has white hair but thinks he is young? Who has gone up and down rapids but still hesitates to say love? Are we looking at the reflection of the river in that verse to meet the homeland far away on the horizon. What salty and sour pickles, what fiery sun and pouring rain, but with protection and affection "When a daughter gets married, the whole neighborhood is happy with betel" (Nguyen Sy Dai). There is ourselves, frivolous but also very deep "if you love, love for sure". There is the girl I love in my youth, waiting for me with so much anxiety: "The shadow of the moon is like a lamp/ The shadow of the storm is like the shadow of your boat drifting"... As it was hundreds of years ago, until thousands of years later, those who stay still have strong faith, those who leave do not forget the way home...

I will always remember, in a small attic, in a Hanoi afternoon, I sat with the talented musician from Nghe An - musician Nguyen Tai Tue. The two of us, tapping on a wooden table, sang a melody to “Mo que”. “Mo que” - a piece of music from his heart, heavily influenced by the sounds of the folk songs of our homeland. The two of us, at that time, had the same dream… In the homeland “beyond the sunset”, Rang market or maybe Bong market, Veo market, Lam river or maybe Dinh river, Bung river…, we left behind many promises. Telling ourselves “let’s go home, let’s go home”, why are our steps so heavy with nostalgia for our lives?

Is it true that we - "the mandarin" grew up from sweet potatoes, cassava, from the hard work and sweat of our mother, that "the mandarin in long dress, the mandarin on the river far from home"? So that every time we miss him, we have to put our hearts into a song? Like the river that has shallows and depths, silting and erosion, like our fate with many hardships, we rely on the song to remind ourselves not to forget our loyalty and love, at every turn, we know how to choose the clear stream to continue our journey...

We have traveled to the ends of the earth, but we still have not finished the old saying: “Whoever knows whether the Lam River water is clear or turbid knows how to live a life of shame and glory”. Isn’t that right, that old saying is our soul, our root, has grown green and casts a cool shade over our lives…

Thuy Vinh