Sunny…

There are many songs written about rain, but very few songs written about sunshine. The sunshine here is morning sunshine, beautiful sunshine, the kind of sunshine that everyone needs in life... sunshine!

I also had days waiting for the sun. The song “Nang len hamlet ngheo” by the late musician Pham The My left an indelible mark on me: This is the “sunshine” that a poor hamlet desperately needs, warming the children herding buffaloes, people no longer bothered by the rain. The sun peeks out from the clouds, fruits seem to have a chance to breathe, young shoots emerge, the countryside seems to awaken… that is the image of the countryside of the old years far away from the city, lying quietly and desolate but not lonely, peaceful since 1950 and there many village cultures were born, and customs were formed.

“Nang len xom ngheo” has a Rumba melody, but people are used to singing it to Bolero rhythm, which is not wrong, because that is the habit of “country” people who like Bolero!

In the beginning, in the Prélude (opening piece; self-composed piece): “The sun is up! The sun is up! The sun is up! The sun is up, my brothers!”... Musician Pham The My made the listeners pay attention, it seemed that the poor neighborhood had been plagued by gloomy weather, the sun had set for many days, now that the sun was shining, people were shouting: The sun is up!

The song was released in 1950, published by Tinh Hoa Mien Nam, it seems you sold the copyright to Tinh Hoa? During the days I visited you in District 4, I forgot to ask you, and there weren't many original copies left, so I borrowed a photocopy.

“Sunshine on the Poor Neighborhood” is so beautiful! Back then, as well as now, it would be difficult to find a similar song? Try singing it again, listening to it again, and try to imagine the poor neighborhood where everyone once had a time of happiness together under the morning sunlight, afternoons watching birds fly back to their nests, rainy nights sitting by the lamp studying… those years seemed peaceful and happy throughout life: “Here is my poor hometown neighborhood when the sun rises/ The sweet scent of rice makes the love of the countryside more affectionate.

A pair of yellow butterflies fluttered about in affection/ And a village girl absentmindedly dreamed of love…” (Sunshine over the poor neighborhood). And a sunny Boléro by Lam Phuong, that is “Beautiful Southern Sunshine”, a love song that touched the hearts of people during the war: “Here the sky is vast, the morning sunlight peeks over the cliffs/ Gradually spreading to the green fields…”.

And it is also difficult to compare “Sunshine in the Poor Neighborhood” and “Beautiful Sunshine in the South”. Each poem has a different beauty, but in general, there is the presence of rice plants. “Sunshine in the Poor Neighborhood” is a “scenery description” essay wrapped in a neighborhood, while “Beautiful Sunshine in the South” “describes the feelings” of a fertile Southern land that brightens up with a dawn that dispels the darkness: “… Thousands of shadows of night have faded/ The sun rises to illuminate life/ Our village is now radiant…”.

Musicians of the post-1954 armistice period often wrote their first compositions about rice plants, and in fact, it was the music of rice plants that made the villagers appreciate music and love the rice plants that they had plowed and hoeed deeply. And after peace , old and new musicians searched for other topics that they thought were more attractive and interesting than the poor countryside, rice plants, buffaloes, fields and gardens... where some people were born and sometimes they "killed" their hometowns just because the name... wasn't nice?

And there is a song that only has a little bit of sunshine in it, but it creates the beauty of the rural girls in small villages during the war: “… There are afternoons/ The sun tilts towards the top of the mountain/ The sun shines down on the village, making your cheeks more crispy…” (The Way Back to the Small Village - Trinh Hung).

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