Trinh Cong Son and the love story through just over 300 letters that few people know about

Ngo Vu Dao Anh is the younger sister of the beautiful Ngo Vu Bich Diem and the young love of Trinh Cong Son.

Writer Nguyen Dac Xuan once told about Bich Diem: "Every day Trinh Cong Son stood upstairs watching the female students cross Phu Cam Bridge, walk along Nguyen Truong To Street to Dong Khanh School. Among that group of young people was Ngo Thi Bich Diem - daughter of Mr. Ngo Doc Khanh - from Hanoi, teaching French at Dong Khanh School and Quoc Hoc Hue School. Bich Diem resembled her father, tall and slender, with a delicate face, walking leisurely and gently. Diem's ​​personality was very suitable for the name Diem and also suitable for Trinh Cong Son's sensitive soul. Son loved Diem madly. The days when he did not see Diem pass by, he was extremely miserable. He saw the road in front of his house "so long that it made his eyes look deeper".But due to the separation from Bich Diem's ​​family, they could not come together and Trinh could only express his feelings through this masterpiece.Old Beauty.

After studying at Quy Nhon Pedagogical School and then going to B'lao town (present-day Bao Loc - Lam Dong) to become a teacher, in the loneliness of the highlands, Trinh Cong Son received a letter of comfort from the little girl Dao Anh. During the days when he was still passionately in love with Bich Diem, Trinh Cong Son did not pay attention to the little girl who often ran around her, but in the first letter sent to Trinh, the little girl Dao Anh had become a young woman and was a student at Dong Khanh School - a school famous for its "beautiful and evil people" in the capital city of Hue. Through letters and messages, the two developed feelings, a beautiful but vague feeling.

Trinh's joy in the highlands was receiving letters from Dao Anh, letters that Trinh read by heart, every punctuation mark and comma. In the letters replying to Dao Anh, Trinh wrote: "It was a little strange to him that during the days he came here, he often dreamed of Anh. Anh was very peaceful, walking through the unfamiliar roads of a past summer where the royal poinciana flowers were still bright red. It seemed like a storm had just passed, so the road looked desolate. Anh wore a brown shirt, her hair was soft as clouds, and she had a light brown bow tied up, very mysterious. He still remembered that the whole way there, the air was suddenly extremely warm. He woke up in the lingering emptiness here.".

Then in another letter, Trinh Cong Son wrote: “He read Anh's letter yesterday afternoon. Just like last August, Anh's letter was still the first letter in his weary days here. He had read the letter many times. And to celebrate those letters, he put on a warm coat at night, got drunk alone, then returned to sleep holding the letters that still had that familiar scent. The candle burned silently in his sleep."…

With Dao Anh, Trinh Cong Son only opened his heart through letters. Trinh often shared with Dao Anh about a book he had just read, a newly composed song, his feelings in the early morning, afternoon or late at night, when the weather and nature changed. Dao Anh's letters were a longing, a companion, a source of spiritual life for Trinh Cong Son during the years he taught in Lam Dong.

Dao Anh was the inspiration for Trinh Cong Son to write many songs such asSad Stone Age, Pink Rain, What Age Is Left For Me, Like Flying Herons, Holy Sad Words, Alone in the Afternoon Walking Through the Street, Lulling Me to Sleep with Each Warm Spring Finger... Trinh once shared: “These days he has done nothing but waste long hours sitting smoking and staring at the sky in front of him. He has finished writing a song for Anh.".

But like a bird that has been “shot by an arrow once, it is always afraid of a bent branch”, Trinh still carries the pain of the past breakup and in his letters to Dao Anh, Trinh still doubts about the happy ending of the love through the letters. Even though Dao Anh later went to Saigon to study, Trinh Cong Son rarely met her and only opened his heart in his writings, writings that were always filled with the ambiguity of the breakup.

In 1967, Trinh took the initiative to break up with Dao Anh because he thought he could not bring the happiness his lover wanted. After a while, Dao Anh got married and moved to America. However, the two still maintained a close relationship and respected each other.

In 1993, after nearly 20 years apart, when Dao Anh and Trinh Cong Son met again, Trinh wrote the songPlease pay your debtDedicated to his lover Dao Anh. The last letter to Dao Anh was written by Trinh while lying on his sickbed. Although he could not hold a pen to write, Trinh still remembered Dao Anh and asked someone to type the letter. That was about 3 months before Trinh left the "Temporary World".

More than 300 love letters from Trinh to his lover Dao Anh were collected by Tre Publishing House and printed into the book “Trinh Cong Son - Love Letter to One Person”. The book was published in 2011, exactly 10 years after Trinh’s death. From the letters, Trinh’s lovers can find the deepest part of the talented musician’s soul, associated with a time of “Flowering and Blossoming” with immortal songs about love and fate that Trinh dedicated to life.

And on one of Trinh's death anniversary, Ms. Dao Anh - Trinh's lover through letters sent a letter to Trinh's family, in the letter there was a passage that said: "It must be 1/4 in Vietnam now. Incense sticks lit and a sip of wine on the lips, Anh of the past is the same as Anh of today, missing you today is like missing you in the past days, months, years, and the coming days, months, and years. Visiting the whole family".