Remembering a Quan Ho person…

Every surprise that happens in life, when you think about it, sometimes has a deep, mysterious cause. My old colleague Tran Minh, a photojournalist, 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 brings tears to my eyes, 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, floating 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 left Quan Ho early and went to the 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 and nostalgic person like the old quan ho songs, and kind, indulgent and very loving to his friends. He sings well and loves to sing, living a wandering, carefree life. He can sing many "voices", but the most touching is when listening to him sing "An o trong rung" - an old quan ho song with "small voice", with the same melody as "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 created 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.

Then the Quan Ho singer helped the guest try on Quan Ho costumes.

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 have also spread to several places in Hanoi, Hung Yen, Lang Son..., following the flow of deep thoughts, that when each person encounters a melody, they all wish to keep it in the bottom of their heart.

I remember one time Mr. Tran Minh organized a group of us, 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 Banh Duc Rieu Cua - the Quan Ho feast for guests.

Goodbye Diem village. In the photo, Mr. Tran Minh - gray shirt standing in the back row (photo taken in 2009).

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, drifting 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 to the side of the boat

The river is deep, the pole is short and cannot reach the place.

The wind blows gently in the afternoon

A flock of white swallows fluttering on the mountain

On a frosty winter night, the gibbon 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 I only found the lyrics, the song lyrics and the 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 the part for his hometown. But he is probably right, because Quan Ho used to be a folk song of a 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 song came first and which 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 clever that the red thread is so complicated.

The red thread of fate

Good people are so good at betraying each other

Deep river with many ups and downs

A white swallow flies into paradise

Missing and promising in the netherworld - the fate of bamboo and plum.

The lyrics of the poem "Eating on the Ferry" also depict the portrait of drifting, wandering lives:

"Three or four years living on the boat

Drifting on the water, where is it going?

The water is deep blue

The waves lapping at the bridge teased...

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 distant winter nights in the cold North...

“Eating and living in the forest forever, forever in the forest forever, three í i four five i/Eating and living in the forest forever, forever in the forest, is that place in the forest ì/The birds chirp a oi a a la, the gibbons chirp ii la oi hừ, oi hừ hừ heo huh la oi hoi hoi i/, half happy half tearful half worried, I accidentally stepped in oi hừ that hừ oi huh hừ, my foot fell, I accidentally stepped in, I accidentally stepped on the boat…/The river is deep a oi a a la, deep, the pole is short ii la oi hừ, oi hừ hừ heo huh la oi hoi hoi i/, can't measure it can't measure it, when you get there, the wind is gentle í i oi hừ that hừ hừ, hiu ố is gentle the wind blows gently when you return in the afternoon ì…”

And then the antithetical couplet "Eating and living under the boat" also rose up in sorrow:

“…You are a good person, how could you bear to betray me, oh oh, oh oh, hoi huh, oh ...

Quan họ, some say it appeared in the 11th century, some say it appeared in the 17th century. Anyway, both of those times are very far away from us, so they are called ancient folk songs. Like the song “An ở 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 ở trong rung” - a good song in the treasure trove of ancient quan họ - is enough.

I am not a native of Quan Ho, but I always feel love and feel deeply the meaningful and sentimental melodies. The deep and profound voice of the heart, in the vicissitudes of the world, of people from many generations, has connected with each other with sincere human love. Has quietly gathered together the quintessence of their own intelligence, blended into the unique source of 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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