Every surprise that happens in life, when you think about it, sometimes has a deep, mysterious cause. My old colleague, Tran Minh, is a photojournalist. But more importantly, to me, Tran Minh is a quan ho singer. And the song he sings best, so well that it makes me cry, is “An o trong rung”. Regarding quan ho folk songs, I like this song the most, because of the lingering sadness of the small human fate, drifting like duckweed on the water, like a rudderless boat, in the middle of a deep river with many storms…
Because I wanted to write something about Quan Ho, I listened to many old songs again, and remembered Mr. Tran Minh. 3 years ago, he had left Quan Ho early and gone to the land of white clouds. Occasionally, those of us who used to listen to him sing, still remember him not only as a colleague, but also as a Quan Ho artist.
I was absent-minded, remembering the fun with my literary friends back then, often with poet Do Trung Lai, poet Nguyen Thanh Phong, painter Phan Cam Thuong..., everyone wanted to hear Tran Minh sing.
Tran Minh is from Bac Giang , a gentle man with a sad and nostalgic feeling like the old Quan Ho songs, and a kind and caring person who loves his friends very much. He sings well and loves to sing, living a wandering and carefree life. He can sing many "voices", but the most touching is when you hear him sing "An o trong rung" - an old Quan Ho song with "small voice", with the same melody as the songs "An o duoi thuyen" and "An o duoi do".
The old Lien Anh Lien Chi singers often composed antithetical lyrics for the Quan Ho singing game, such as the pair of songs “Ngoi yeu song dao” and “Ngoi yeu man thuyen”. Perhaps, all three Quan Ho songs “An o trong rung”, “An o duoi thuyen” and “An o duoi do” were songs that were born thanks to the antithetical singing style of the Lien Anh Lien Chi singers. There may also be another song, forming 2 pairs of antithetical lyrics consisting of 4 songs, that I do not know about yet.
Quan Ho folk songs are the heart's throbbing voice echoing from the depths of the human world, formed long ago and permeated, spreading in the flow of folk spiritual life, developing many original quan ho villages in the Kinh Bac cultural region, formerly including Bac Ninh and Bac Giang. In addition, some quan ho melodies are also spread to some places in Hanoi , Hung Yen, Lang Son..., following the flow of deep thoughts, that each person, when encountering a melody, wishes to keep it in the bottom of their heart.
I remember one time Mr. Tran Minh organized for our group including poets Do Trung Lai, Chu Hong Tien, Truong Xuan Thien and many friends to visit Diem village, where there is the Temple of the Goddess of Quan Ho. That day, a family of artists from Diem village welcomed us with an ancient Quan Ho singing session, then treated us to a feast with typical crab rice cake - the Quan Ho feast for guests.
That day, Mr. Tran Minh sang many songs with the Quan Ho artists, but as usual, everyone was most moved when he sang "An O Trong Rung". The song has sad, poignant lyrics about the fate of a girl who has lost her way in life, wandering alone to raise her child in a remote, deep forest.
I have a habit, whenever I know an old quan ho song, I will look up the lyrics of the song to read and understand first. “Eating in the forest” is a voice of one’s fate:
“Three or four years living in the forest
Birds chirped, gibbons sang, half happy, half worried.
Accidentally stepped down onto the side of the boat
The river is deep, and a short pole cannot reach it.
The wind blows gently in the afternoon
A flock of white swallows fluttering on the mountain
On a frosty winter night, the ape is still there, begging to lull its baby to sleep.
Many times I have tried to find out where the song “An O Trong Rung” originated from, but only found the lyrics, song lyrics and recordings. I remember Mr. Tran Minh said several times that the song “An O Trong Rung” by Bac Giang originated from Bac Giang, not Bac Ninh . I guess he is from Bac Giang, and because he loves his hometown, he took part of it for his hometown. But he is probably right, because Quan Ho is a folk song of Kinh Bac region, including Bac Ninh and Bac Giang today. Quan Ho villages, up to now, are in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, and some neighboring provinces also have them. A statistic up to 2016 shows that the whole country has 67 Quan Ho villages included in the preservation list, of which 23 are in Bac Giang province, the most is Viet Yen district with 19 villages, and 44 Quan Ho villages in Bac Ninh province.
But the most interesting thing when I searched for the origin of “An O Trong Rung” was that I heard two songs with the same melody. Actually, I couldn’t tell which one came first and which one was the opposite. And here are the lyrics of “An O Under the Boat”:
"Three or four years living on the boat
Deep river steers a new region
Double-flow fertilizer
The stars of heaven are so skillful in tying the knot.
The red thread of fate
Good people are so good at betraying each other
The deep river has many ups and downs.
A white swallow flies into paradise
Missing you, promise in the underworld - fate of bamboo and plum.
The lyrics of the poem "Eating and Living on the Ferry" also depict portraits of drifting, drifting lives:
"Three or four years living on the boat
Drifting water slowly going somewhere
The water is a deep blue color.
The waves lapping the bridge tease...
I read the lyrics, listened to the songs over and over again, on a spring night that was as cold as winter, imagining the deep sadness in the eyes of the brothers and sisters, singing until the end of the night, not wanting to leave, on those distant winter nights in the cold North...
“Eating and staying forever, forever in the forest, for three or four years/Eating and staying forever, forever in the forest, is that place in the forest/The birds chirp, oh oh ah ah is calling, the gibbons sing, oh oh, oh oh, oh huh, ...
And then the antithetical couplet "Eating and living on the boat" also rose up in sorrow:
“…You are a good person, how could you bear to betray me? ì hi, la ôi hự, ì hự hụi hữu la ôi hợi hữu/ To betray me is to betray each other, but in the deep river, ì i oi hụ said, ì oi hụ hụ.../ The river is a deep river, who can entrust me to it, there are many sorrows…/ One, ì hụ, I am just a white swallow, ì hi, la ôi hụ, ì hụ is hụi hữu la ôi hợi hữu/ To fly in is to fly into Thien i Thai, but to miss someone, ì hi oi hụ said, ì oi hụ hụ.../ Who do I love, let's make a promise, a promise in Tuyen à Dai/ Fate is bamboo, bamboo, plum…”
Quan họ, some say it appeared in the 11th century, some say it appeared in the 17th century. In any case, both of those times are very far from us, so they are called ancient folk songs. Like the song “An trong rung”, my friend Tran Minh once affirmed that it was from Bac Giang, not Bac Ninh, but speaking in secret of Minh, I think, whether it is from Bac Giang or Bac Ninh, that is not too important. “An trong rung” - a good song in the treasure trove of ancient quan họ - that is enough.
I am not a native of Quan Ho, but I always feel love and feel the deep and meaningful melodies. The deep and profound voice of the heart, in the vicissitudes of the world, of people from generation to generation, has connected with each other with sincere human love. Has quietly gathered together the quintessence of their own intelligence, blended into the unique folk culture, creating the "words - food - manners - living" of Quan Ho people. That heritage, through many centuries of change, is still lingering and imbued until now, so that we can be infatuated, remembered, and loved...
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