I can smell the scent in the music...

There seems to be a close connection between the April sky and the lilies. The pure white flowers, with pale yellow pistils, and the gentle fragrance that appears and disappears in the soft April sunshine and wind. It is not the bright colors and strong fragrance like roses or chrysanthemums that are attractive, but the gentleness that creates the intense attraction and allure of the lilies.

Is that why April flowers make so many marks in poetry, music and painting?

My first impression of lilies was the lively song about lilies by musician Pham Tuyen. The song that every kindergarten child knows by heart because of the vivid image of flowers “blowing the trumpet of victory”. The flowers help adults tell children about the day of national reunification. The innocent songs of children but the surprisingly beautiful and interesting images “Hearing the scent in the music”, help children see their minds imagine beautifully about the singing flowers.

Lilies do not stand out because of their color or fragrance, but in the words of today's youth, they are probably due to their "temperament" and "aura". When painter To Ngoc Van painted a young girl with a lily (also known as a lily), he probably did not think that his painting, the image of a young girl in a white ao dai leaning over and holding a white lily, would become a mark of Vietnamese painting, lasting through the years. That talented artist captured the "aura" of the girl and the flower, so that through many generations, many sensitive people when facing them, not only love the beauty of a flower, of a beauty, but also love the culture of playing with flowers that has existed since ancient times.

The picture of a young girl with lilies I cut out from a magazine and pasted in my tiny attic of less than 6 square meters when I was a middle school student. Because I loved the flower in the picture, I sometimes saved my breakfast money to buy a branch of lilies with a thin stem and a tall neck like a graceful dancer and placed it in a small vase. I am a person who remembers every detail. Even now, after decades, I still remember the romantic melodies of songs from old cassette tapes; remember the shapes and colors, even if they are just from the flowers printed on the magazine, or the small lilies I saved up to buy with the breakfast money of poor children... but enough to add a bit of romance to give wings to my dreamy years.

My birthday is early April, the season when lilies are at their most beautiful. The southern city where I live does not have flower carts or flower baskets that carry lilies every April. The lovely bouquets of lilies often touch my heart when they are sent by a close friend on my birthday with the message: “I’m on a business trip so I brought them back from Hanoi”; or: “Hey April girl, here’s a bouquet of lilies for you, I had to rummage through Ho Thi Ky flower market to find them”. And as always, I often keep the habit of arranging flowers and moving them from a large vase to a small one; cherishing them from when the bouquet is still lush until they gradually wither, leaving only a few last blooming flowers. At this time, the vase only has a tall, thin branch, strangely cute when it reminds me of the habit of skipping breakfast to buy a branch of flowers in the past.

"The white hand you hold

A flower branch connects spring and summer”

…

"The flower season passes quickly

The scent of the flower has not been given to me yet.

This morning, a woman over 40 suddenly remembered the poems of poet Ngo Quan Mien that she copied in her twenties, remembering a season of flowers that, though they came and went so quickly, were still enough to leave a stirring mark calling summer back.

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202504/nghe-trong-tieng-nhac-co-ca-mui-huong-1b45d5b/