Love Songs - The Beauty of the Tay and Nung Ethnic Groups

Cao Bang has 8 ethnic groups living together such as: Tay, Nung, Mong, Dao, Kinh, Lo Lo, San Chi, Hoa... Each ethnic group has its own unique culture, creating a colorful flower forest. Nature has favored Cao Bang with a beautiful landscape that is both majestic and poetic, captivating people's hearts. That charming land is the source of captivating folk songs, sincere and full of affection.

Love song of the Nung An ethnic group. Photo: Document.

The Tay and Nung ethnic groups are basically similar in language, lyrics, and folk songs such as sli, luon, nang oi, phong slu... and also have similar idioms and proverbs, and for one reason, when I was young, I also witnessed young men and women of the two ethnic groups interacting and learning to sing love songs with each other. Love songs are not only performed during the free time of farming, but also during holidays, New Year, going to the fields, going to the market, and weddings to congratulate the family on welcoming the new bride, wishing the young couple a hundred years of happiness.

At the same time, in order to preserve and promote cultural values, departments, branches and localities often organize folk song competitions - love songs, thereby contributing to promoting the cultural, artistic and patriotic emulation movements of all levels and branches, promoting the strength of the great solidarity bloc of ethnic groups in the area. As I sit down to write this article, somewhere still echoes the song of my former student, which was adapted from the poem of teacher Hoang Thi Khuyen:

"I invite you to come to Cao Bang,

To see flowers on the mountain top.

Immerse yourself in the distant folk song,

She lingered, waiting for him to come home.

Perhaps I will never forget when on quiet nights, or market days, in the fields... I heard the luon nang oi (luon nang oi) and sli (sli) singing of the brothers and sisters. Every time like that, my mother would mumble and whisper, "There is another boy from another village coming to flirt with the girls of our village", then my mother would listen to each song and comment, "This boy speaks well, cleverly and deeply". When my mother was young, she was famous for singing luon well, many people loved her, so many women often came to ask her for advice. At that time, I was about 10 years old and did not understand the meaning of the song, but I was curious and found it interesting, so I often ran to where the singing was to see which men and women were getting to know each other. Under the dim moonlight, some women were sitting on the floor singing down, some men were sitting on the street singing up, their sweet, passionate voices conveying the love and longing of the boys and girls.

Once, when I was returning from Nam Nhung market through Keo Yen, I was also engrossed in the singing of the "co" (brothers) and "che" (sisters) returning from the market. Their singing echoed in the mountains and forests, lingering in my footsteps as they parted ways to return to their villages. Once, I wondered when I couldn't understand a man's song: "The fields are green and lush, has anyone given out any fruit yet?", then later when I grew up, I understood that it was a way of asking questions when they were getting to know each other through the song.

The beauty of the love songs of the Tay and Nung people of Cao Bang is that no matter the occasion, they can sing at night when young men go to the village to find girls to get to know, or on weddings, festivals, market days, or housewarming... Whenever there is an occasion where there are young men and women, the songs will be sung. The performance space is also very rich, not fixed in any place, they can sing when going to the fields; sing on the hill; sing when saying goodbye to each other; sing by the fire; sing on the porch, on the floor....

Singing love songs is not about songs that are already available or prepared, but based on the context, based on the words of the other person, based on feelings to find appropriate words. Because the response is immediate, it requires both men and women to respond flexibly and have a way to lead the story to create a response between men and women. Through the lyrics and the response, they understand each other, know what kind of person the other person is?

The love songs of the Tay and Nung ethnic groups are similar to the Quan Ho singing style, the love songs of the lowland people also use a lot of metaphors, comparisons, and similes... Often they compare with objects, landscapes, pets, and even the concepts of the mountain people. The lyrics express the level of affection, the ingenuity in finding the words is deeper, making the other person's heart captivated, unable to leave, so the later the night, the more passionate the singing, the more love is absorbed in the sweet voice. Many couples become husband and wife through love songs.

"The body is sometimes salty and sometimes dreamy

The single leaf has a blanket and a blanket.

The old man was very weak.

The old man kept saying "I'm going to be fine"

Pandemic:

You are like plum blossom, apricot blossom

Love is not a wandering butterfly

Love each other like a bowl of water pushed

Love each other like fish racing in the long river.

Usually, the Nung people sing love songs with luon and sli melodies more often, while the Tay people sing luon and nang oi melodies, and rarely sing sli. Although the melodies of sli, luon and nang oi melodies are different, and each genre has a different way of singing, they all have in common the gentleness, singing as if from the heart, very soulful, easily reaching the hearts of listeners.

The Tay and Nung people in the eastern region have a slightly different way of singing love songs than other regions. Although the sli and luon tones are almost the same, the way the lyrics between men and women always start with the sentence: "Em oi tren troi co may vang..." or "Anh oi tren troi co may hong" and then the following sentences begin to express their feelings. In the love songs of the Tay and Nung people, the boy always speaks first, taking the initiative to open the conversation and suggesting for the girl to continue.

The opening is the young man's proposal in a space from the village to the market with bright sunlight as if also rejoicing with the young man when seeing a beautiful girl, dressed neatly to go to the market. In the past, boys and girls went to the market not only to trade but also as an opportunity for boys and girls to meet each other, to play the flute, sing sli, and get to know each other. The young man in this song gave the girl sincere compliments, showing the respect of the boy for the girl, and also expressed his admiration for her, so he won her heart right from the beginning because being praised as a beautiful and hard-working girl is the happiest thing.

In the girl's intention, she already liked the boy, so she let him know that she was not married yet, along with a joke but with the intention of opening the way for the boy to come to her. The boy was also very clever when he let the girl know that he was not married, on the one hand, he told her about his situation to arouse her sympathy. The lyrics of the love song remind us of the folk song "I don't have a wife yet, my mother hasn't sewn up yet". The boy in the folk song is similar to the boy in this love song, however, the boy in this song is in a more pitiful situation as he is an orphan, living alone. The lovely thing here is that he doesn't say that he loves the girl directly, but asks the girl to be a matchmaker. This way of asking is both lovely and clever, on the one hand to ask the girl's intention, on the other hand, so that if the girl doesn't have feelings for him, she won't be hurt.

Through the love song, we can see the rich soul and deep feelings of the Tay and Nung people of Cao Bang in particular and the Vietnamese people in general. The lyrics are subtle and preemptive to test the other person's heart, which is also a very familiar way of expressing love of the ancient Vietnamese. Besides, we can also see the boldness, daring to express feelings, and the cleverness of the girl to guide the boy to overcome his inferiority complex and shyness to express his feelings to the girl.

The last lyrics are both a love confession, a sacred oath and also the desire for happiness of many couples. The response lyrics create a response, as if the two are leading each other in the same direction, one person finds a way to open the way for the other to express their feelings so that they have a happy ending. The love songs are always the songs with the most beautiful and best meanings, however, love does not always have a happy ending. There are many reasons why boys and girls cannot come together, they have missed their appointment and then carry a lingering pain with the torment of not being able to choose.

Although many years have passed, although society has changed with the needs of enjoying music as well as the way of expressing feelings of the young generation that has truly integrated with the world, somewhere in parties, or on stage, the singing of sli and hat luong still resounds, still sweet and soulful.

Writing here, I remember Mr. Pham Long, lecturer of the Literature Department of Thai Nguyen University of Education, when he set foot in Cao Bang, he wrote: "Someone's voice is so passionate in the valley/As if accidentally giving a farewell message".

The sound of the flute seems to hold the footsteps of tourists when they come to Cao Bang, then immerse themselves in the love song of a Tay and Nung ethnic girl and forget whether they are going or coming "Suddenly forget whether I am going or coming/Because Cao Bang always remains in my heart".

I believe that the teacher's feelings speak for many people when they come to Cao Bang, where there are passionate love songs. And I also believe that the teacher must have been stunned by the soaring singing voice of a Cao Bang girl from the valley that moved the old teacher's emotions, bringing him back to his twenties. The singing voice and lyrics are the soul of a person, a simple but meaningful quality; very affectionate, subtle but no less daring.

Hoang Hien/Cao Bang Newspaper

Source: https://baophutho.vn/hat-giao-duyen-net-dep-cua-dan-toc-tay-nung-221264.htm