WE [PROMISE ONE ANOTHER / TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN / Don Luce giới thiệu.

Lời dẫn:

    ' WE PROMISE ONE ANOTHER /  poems from an Asian war'  /  do Don Luce  dịch,  tuyển chọn, giới thiệu  cuộc chiến Việt Nam, gồm đủ  3 thành phần:  nhà văn, thơ, nghệ sĩ   Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa , Việt Nam Cộng Hòa và Giải phóng miển Nam .    Ban tuyển chọn , dịch thuật gồm chủ soái Don Luce ( tên việt Đoàn Lân ) ,  Jacquelyn Chagnon và John  C. Schafer.  Chàng  Schafer ,  giáo sư Anh ngữ ( professor of English  ( Emiritus)  Humboldt State University  Arcata, California ) , từng  là  dịch già  ' The curious memoirs of the Vietnamese composer Phạm Duy '( 4 tomes)  , nhưng  ta không  biết chàng dịch   bài thơ nào trong tuyển thơ  xuất bản  gần 40 năm trước.  Tuy vậy, vẫn rất  tin cậy  bản  chuyển dịch anh ngữ đạt chuẩn của Don Luce, Schafer, Chagnon, vì chắc chắn  họ dịch  không  phản nguyên tác, như khá nhiều người từng  làm .
      Lần này,  THẰNG PHẢI GIÓ 'S  BLOG giới thiệu phần  nói về TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN , trích dịch từ tuyển thơ  xuất bản ở Washington ,  D.C.  năm 1974. 
  Thếphong.
                             
                                                Trịnh Công Sơn 
                                             The heritage of our Mother Land
                                                               The sad country of Việt Nam .  


           Trịnh Công Sơn  live with his mother, two brothers and five sisters in Huế, near the bombed out shell of the Phú Cam Church.   Formerly an elementary school teacher, he now spends most of his time writing songs ands encouraging other young songwriters and singers. 
           At thirty-two, he is considered to be one of the most popular folk singers in  South Vietnam during the past decade.   He has been especially popular with Viwetnamse young people.    Students sings his songs at meetings and demonstrations.   Tapes of his songs by Khánh Ly , a well-known female vocalist, or by Trịnh Công Sơn himself, are played in coffee houses all over Việt Nam and in the night clubs of the larger cities.   During the monsoon rains students sit in coffee houses listening to his songs, waiting for the rain to end and for peace to come to Việt Nam.
           Trịnh Công Sơn's songs were banned by the Ministry of Eduaction in 1968 on the grounds that they weakned the will of the people to resist.   The ban has not been strictly enforced, however, and tapes of his songs circulate freely among the population.   He has refused invitations of the South Vietnamese Army's Political Warfare Department to cooperate with them in the propaganda efforts.   Despite the consistent anti-war mood of his songs, in recent years he has come in for criticism from new quarters .    Many of the more radical students say his song are too passive   and do not emphasize the necessity of active struggle to bring down the Thiệu regime.   These students change the line of his song ' Heritage of Our Mother Land', which read ' Twenty years of civil war' to' Twenty years of American Imperialism .'
           But Trịnh Công Sơn is still very popular.    He is respected for his modesty and his refusal to capialize financially on his popularity.   Thousands of his most popualr collections of songs,' Song of the Golden Skinned People'  and ' Prayer for Việt Nam ' , have been  sold  but he receives little money himself.  Tapes of his songs are widely sold but he receives no royalties.   Frail and unassuming, he accompanies himself on an old guitar worn and chipped around the edges.   He rarely sings in public now for fear of provoking the Thiêu government into taking some violent action  against him.   But in the crowded cities and tense villages of South Việt Nam , one still hears his songs singing of a heritage of sadness and hope for a brighter future. 

            THE HERITAGE OF OUR MOTHER LAND 

                        A thousand  years slaves of the Chinese ,  
                        A hundred years dominated by the French ,
                        Twenty years  of civil war,
                        The heritage of our Mother Land ,
                        To leave for her children ,
                        The heritage of our Mother Land ,
                        The sad country of Việt Nam.

                         A thousand years slaves of the Chinese ,
                         A  hundred years dominated by the French ,
                         Twenty years of civil war ,
                         The heritage of our Mother Land ,
                         A mountain of graves  .

              Teach the children the sound of truth  ,
               For the mother hopes her children won't forget their race ,
               Their ancestors who built the old Việt Nam ;
               She waits for her children to come home ,
               She waits for all her children  who are far away ,
               For all her children who have the same father ,
               Wherever they are
               They must forget how to hate  .
           
                A thousand years  slaves of the Chinese . 
                A hundred years dominated by the French ,
                Twenty years of civil war ,
                The heritage of our Mother Land ,
                 Rows of burned houses .

                 A thousand years  slaves the Chinese ,
                 A hundred years  dominated by the French ,
                 Twenty years of civil war ,
                 The heritage of our Mother Land ,
                  People not true of their race ,
                  The heritage of our Mother Land ,
                  A land where honor is betrayed .

                              LOVE SONG OF A WOMAN
                                 MADNESS BY THE WAR 

                   I had   a  lover who died at the battle  of  Pleime ,
                   I had a lover who died at Battle of Zone ' D ' ,
                   Who died at Đồng Xoài ,
                   Who died at Hanoi ,
                    He died far away on the distant frontier .

                    I had a lover who died in the battle of Chu Prong ,
                    I had a lover whose body drifted along a river ,
                    Who died in the  dark foerst ,
                    Whose charred body lies cold and abandoned ..

                    I want to love you, love Việt Nam ,
                    The day when the wind is strong
                     I whisper your name and the name of Việt Nam ,
                     We are so close, the same voice and yellow race .
                     I want to love you, love Việt Nam ,
                     But as soon as I grow up my ears are accustomed
                     To the sound of bullets and mines ;
                     My hands are now free but I forget from now on the human language .

                      I had a lover who died at Ashau ,
                      I had a lover whose twisted body lies in a valley ,
                      Who died under a bridge , naked and voiceless ,
                      I had a lover who died at the battle of  Ba Gia  ,
                      I had a lover who died just last night ,
                      He passed away in a dream with no feelibngs of hate .

                            I SHALL GO VISITING

                       When my land has peace
                       I shall go visiting ,
                       I shall go visiting
                       Along a road with many foxholes ,
                       When my land is no longer  at war
                        I shall visit the green garves of my friends ;
                       When my land has peace
                        I shall go visiting
                        I shall go visiting
                       Over bridges crushed by mines ,
                        Go visiting
                        Bunkers of bayonets and pungi sticks ;
                        When my people are no longer killing each other
                        The children will sing children 's songs
                        Outside on the street .

                               When my land has peace
                                I shall go and never stop
                               To Saigon, to the Center ,
                                To Hanoi, to the South ,
                                I shall go in celebration
                               And  I hope I will forgwet
                               The story of my country.
                    
                       When my land has peace
                        I shall go visiting ,
                        I shall go visiting
                        The many sad graveyards
                        To see the epitaphs on the tombstones
                        That have sprung up like mushrooms .
                        When my land is no longer at war
                        The old mother will go up into the mountains
                         And search for the bones of her son .
                         When my land has peace
                         I shall go visiting ,
                         I shall go visiting
                         Villages turned into pariries ,
                         Go visiting
                         The forests destroyed by fure ;
                         When my people are no longer killing each other
                          Everyone will go out on the street
                          To cry out with smiles  .
                             []

                         TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN ..
                 
                 ( from  WE PROMISE ONE ANOTHER , poems  from an Asian war '
                     selected, translated by  DON LUCE,  JOHN C. SCHAFER,
                     JACQUELYN  CHAGNON .  ( p.  87 -  93 ) - ( Washington, D.C, 1974 ).