Impermanence in trịnh công sơn ca

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES GRADUATION PAPER IMPERMANENCE IN TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN CA Supervisor: Phùng Hà Thanh, Ph.D Student: Nguyễn Thị Huyền Linh Course: QH2016.F1.E29 Ha Noi, 2020 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGƠN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HỐ CÁC NƯỚC NĨI TIẾNG ANH KHĨA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP VƠ THƯỜNG TRONG TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN CA Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Phùng Hà Thanh, Ph.D Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Huyền Linh Khóa: QH2016.F1.E29 HÀ NỘI – 2020 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Huyền Linh, 16E29, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Acknowledgements Abstract i ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Statement of the Research Problem and Research Questions Theoretical Perspective and Mode of Inquiry Overview of the Chapter 6 CHAPTER 2: IMPERMANENCE IN DIFFERENT TRADITIONS OF THOUGHT Brief Review of Impermanence in Different Traditions of Thought Impermanence in Mainstream Buddhism 10 Eastern Classic Zen-inspired Poetry: A Naturalistic Aesthetic of Impermanence Zen: Pointing Directly at the Mind 14 The Nature and Zen’s Impermanence Aesthetics in Eastern Poetry 17 Wang Wei’s Tang Poetry: No Worth Grieving over a Flower Falling 19 Matsuo Basho’s Haikus: Impermanence of a very Moment 21 CHAPTER 3: IMPERMANENCE IN TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN CA Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Cultural and Socio-political Background: Existentialism and Buddhism Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Humanistic Impermanence: An Aesthetic of Love 24 25 From the Distance of Meditation: Delicate, Transient, Unfulfilled, Beautiful, and Tolerant Love 25 Impermanence of Love through the Poetics of Space and Time 27 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 34 REFERENCES 36 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Dr Phùng Hà Thanh for being my guide and counselor I want to say thanks for all her kindness, understanding and beautiful tolerance to me Having her as my supervisor, what I can get from the previous tough time is much more than a research experience She once said to me that to research is to unfold a single thing until you find a whole “vast area” On the way to get there, it is so happy to have her guide my steps I should have said more than just “thank you”, but I think that will work, since she will know To Phương Anh, the most wonderful companion I have ever had in my life Indeed You have opened up to me a part of that “vast area” with both your Buddhist knowledge and your caring patience To my dearest friends who keep telling me that I will be good no matter how the result might turn to be To Nhi, who is always there sharing silly warm stuff to cheer me up To Hiệp, the kindest man who never interrupts my grumpy rantings in our talks To Thành, for the gray days that I have you beside Always I want to say thanks to my father who often “accidentally” turns some Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs on by his speaker, to my mother for a ton of her caring questions And to the Impermanence I might encounter in this life i ABSTRACT This paper explores the nuance of Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca as a distinctive aesthetic defining the composer’s contribution to the Vietnamese culture It touches upon Impermanence, the changing and undetermined nature of things, as addressed in various traditions of thought and focuses on Impermanence in Buddhism, where the problem is tackled most radically and comprehensively as a central issue To provide points of comparison and contrast for the characterization of Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca, the study describes Impermanence in Zen, Zen poetry, Wang Wei’s Tang poems and Matsuo Basho’s haikus Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Impermanence is found to resonate the subtlety of Buddhist Zen and Western Existentialism harmoniously combined It is centered on human love Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Impermanence is thus an aesthetic of love Trịnh Công Sơn Ca builds up a Zen atmosphere of love covered with a distinctive ambience of sorrow and despair From a meditative distance, love is delicate, transient, unfulfilled, beautiful and tolerant The poetics of space and time also contributes to the formation of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s aesthetic of Impermanence ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Though it was such a huge inspiration to me when Trịnh Công Sơn, on his 80th birthday, was honored by Google search engine homepage with a temporary logo (also known as Google Doodle), my very primitive idea about carrying out a research project on this influential Vietnamese artist started forming earlier It was sketched in my head from my younger days enjoying, with all delight and confusion, Dad’s CDs filled with the melancholic melodies of Hạ Trắng (White Summer), Ngẫu Nhiên (Fortuitous), Tuổi Đời Mênh Mông (Beautiful Vast Age), etc every night at or late 10 pm I struggled to figure out the meanings of those pieces of “music as poetry” (Vo, n.d) Since the dawn of his musical career, Trịnh Công Sơn has composed over 600 songs In collaboration with Khánh Ly, during the 1960s and 1970s, Trịnh Công Sơn started what can be called “the Trịnh Công Sơn phenomenon,” a term used by Schafer (2007) to denote the widespread influence of Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs in Vietnam until present The songs written during this golden decade feature three main topics, love, humanity and anti-war, and a distinguished tone of poetic lyrics They not only proved their ability to sway the South but also became popular in the North and even beyond Vietnam’s boundaries Trần Tiến, a well-known romantic musician in the 1990s, when retelling his story of “southward career expansion,” admitted that in the eventful 60s, the whole Southern society was dominated by the only name of Trịnh Công Sơn and Khánh Ly, a perfect match appearing as an unbreakable wall in the contemporaneous music scene to any newcomers like him Till this day, the enchantment of Trịnh Công Sơn’s song has never vanished from Vietnam’s musical life His legacy has become, as his close friend Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường (2013) commented, “something called the Trịnh Công Sơn culture.” Trịnh Công Sơn’s musical legacy has become part of the collective memory of the Vietnamese, from which many younger people like me grow up I think John Schafer was right when regarding Trịnh Công Sơn as a “phenomenon” during the late 20th century Vietnam’s history of music saw him as a famous figure during the in-war and post-war time with works of art making a sensation among the public Noteworthily, as Schafer wrote with an eye to the historical background surrounding the composer’s life, it was Trịnh Công Sơn’s anti-war songs that made the predominant contribution to his exceptional popularity, despite the undeniable attraction of his early love songs and humanity songs later Trịnh Công Sơn was regarded as a “Vietnamese Bob Dylan” for such bitter and strong lyrics: Một ngàn năm nô lệ giặc Tàu Một trăm năm đô hộ giặc Tây Hai mươi năm nội chiến ngày Gia tài mẹ, để lại cho Gia tài mẹ, nước Việt buồn (Throughout one thousand years enslaved by the Chinese One hundred years dominated by the French Twenty years of a civil war struggling day by day What has mother got left for her kids? What mother’s got left: a mournful Vietnam.) - Gia tài mẹ (What’s mother got left), my translationThe North got upset with Trịnh Công Sơn’s depicting the war as a civil war The South suppressed anti-war songs It’s worth considering that in the period of 1954 -1975, anti-war music in Vietnam was also marked with other names such as Phạm Duy, Trần Long Ẩn and Tôn Thất Lập Some of their songs were considered even sharper and more terribly depressing: Em hỏi anh, em hỏi anh trở lại Xin trả lời, xin trả lời mai mốt anh Anh trở lại chiến thắng Pleime, Hay Đức Cơ, Đồng Xồi, Bình Giã, Anh trở anh trở hàng nghiêng ngả Anh trở về, có hịm gỗ cài hoa, Anh trở băng ca Trên trực thăng sơn màu tang trắng (You asked me when I’d be back I reply that day would be not so far Perhaps from the triumph in Pleime And Đức Cơ, Đồng Xồi, Bình Giã I would walk along the falling tree lines Or perhaps I’d be back in the flower-pinned casket On a brancard delivered by the helicopter painted in white.) - Kỷ vật cho em (Memento for you) – Phạm Duy, my translation Due to the Southern government’s fear that those sorts of sentimental lyrics might sway and discourage the army in wartime, all the songs expressing “wartime sorrow” were banned in the South of Vietnam That explains why they are not well known in the current stream of music and how many young people, including me, are unfamiliar with the notion of Trịnh Công Sơn as an anti-war music writer Trịnh Công Sơn’s most popular songs today, to name just a few: Diễm Xưa (Diễm of the Past – this song was introduced in Japan in the 1970s and immediately made a big hit), Đóa Hoa Vơ Thường (The Flower of Impermanence), Một Cõi Đi Về (The Land of Come and Go), etc., are not anti-war songs Thus, I argue that while the anti-war songs might have been essential in initiating the Trịnh Công Sơn phenomenon, they are not the answer to the extraordinary endurance of Sơn’s popularity in Vietnam For me, the credit goes to his love and humanity songs Love and life in Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs usually comes with despair and non-fulfillment, yet the audience resort to them when they encounter problems and/or want to savor a kind of contemplative beauty (Bửu Ý, 2003) It is in the atmosphere of many teahouses in cities around Vietnam that the vitality of his songs simmers like a subtle but long-lasting charm I recognize that Trịnh Công Sơn is not only a part of the Vietnamese culture but also a culture by himself The songs create a particular atmosphere that resembles a space of Zen To capture what Sơn’s songs about love and humanity are centered around, I think “impermanence” (vô thường) is a helpful word The author himself has used the word several times in his songs Một chút vô thường theo phút cao sâu (Faint impermanence rises with each passing minute) Đóa Hoa Vơ Thường (The Evanescent Flower, translated by Gibbs, 2013) Em bỏ lại đường Bờ xa cỏ dại vô thường nhớ em (The road you left behind Impermanence unknown to you) Em Đi Bỏ Lại Con Đường (The Road You Left Behind, translated in Nguyễn, n.d) Impermanence refers to the idea that nothing in life stays forever “Anything could happen in the path of life” – the subtlety of Impermanence breathes with the fresh musical and poetic patterns of the songs The delicate sense of change is depicted by sharp contrasts throughout the passage of time, evoking a sense of lament: Mười năm xưa đứng bên bờ giậu Ðường xanh hoa muối bay rì rào Có người lịng khăn thêu Mười năm sau áo bay đường chiều Bàn chân phố xa lạ nhiều Có người lịng nắng qua đèo (Ten years ago near the hedge Salt-flowers sough on the road Heart’s bright like new handkerchief Ten years later on same town Walk and dress flies so strange Heart seems sunshine over hill) Có Một Dịng Sơng Đã Qua Đời (A River Has Passed Away, translated by Nguyễn, n.d) Impermanence carries a Buddhist sense Buddhism has been influential in Vietnam for more than a thousand years Particularly, during the 1960s and 1970s, as the governments of South Vietnam suppressed Buddhism, Buddhist movements emerged and gained traction for their activism In Vietnam, Buddhism has always maintained a space between engagement and reclusion Sơn must have been exposed to Buddhism and received its influence His works of art, are, however, not mere illustrations of existing ideas of Impermanence in Buddhism In this thesis, I will argue that they demonstrate distinctive senses of Impermanence Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Cultural and Socio-Political Background: Existentialism and Buddhism According to Schafer (2007), the “Trịnh Công Sơn phenomenon” dated back from his “Songs of the Golden Skins” (1966), comprising twelve famous anti-war songs published underground Yet his prolific music career has started and got flourished much earlier before with the first released song of “Ướt Mi” (Wet Eyelashes) and “Nhìn Những Mùa Thu Đi” (Watching the Fall Go by) Describing different phases of his career might be helpful for us to see the cultural and socio-political backgrounds from which his works emerged From his biographical information, I have also seen a correspondence between phases of his career and phases of his life However, this section is not to synthesize a comprehensive biography of Trịnh Công Sơn I will only offer some contextualization of Trịnh Công Sơn’s Impermanence This contextualization suggests that Buddhism and Existentialism in Trịnh’s living atmospheres contributed to his work on Impermanence Trịnh Công Sơn was born on February 28th 1939 in Đắk Lắk Province, Vietnam, not so long before moving back to his father’s hometown in Thừa Thiên - Huế His childhood was showered with the Buddhist sonority from his family tradition, as revealed in one of his interviews: I was born into a Buddhist family When I was a little boy, I used to go to pagodas to enjoy the quietness there During the days and nights on my sickbed, my mother always had me go to sleep in the peace of the prayer recited by a Master Perhaps it is my youth with a great luck to go through the gates of Buddha that built up what I am and have today; besides the cross-cultural knowledge of humankind I saved for myself, there were a few lines of scripture lying somewhere in my mind (“Nhạc sĩ Trịnh Cơng Sơn nói Phật giáo,” 2019) As a childhood nurture, the influence of Buddhist thoughts leaves a significant footprint with distinctive meditative colors on his world view and arts In 1951, he attended the Lycée Francaise and Providence School After passing the exam for his baccalaureate, he entered the Chasseloup Laubat in 24 Sai Gon Being in Sai Gon gave him a chance to get along with other influential intellectuals There opened a new world of Hollywood stars and romanticism, tea-room music and spotlights, quiet towns and empty street corners, Sisyphus and the flourish of Existentialism This change in atmosphere was the cradle for a bunch of his very first and fresh songs, which showed distinctive sense of melancholy and nostalgia towards love, such as Ướt Mi (Wet Eyelashes) and Diễm Xưa (Diễm of the Past) The high education environment, along with the brand new urban lifestyle of cinemas and coffee, enabled Trịnh to be exposed to Western thought waves, among which Existentialism was a major one Regarding the increasing cruciality of Existentialism among Vietnamese intellectuals during that period of time, Gakar-Wilcox (2014) resorts to two main explanations: its resemblance to the traditional Vietnamese cultural heritage and its role in helping the intelligentsia in South Vietnam identify themselves in such a “chaotic and ambiguous” wartime Gakar-Wilcox (2014) argued that such an existential philosophy provided South Vietnamese the tool to refuse both capitalist and communist political positions and claim that they had a genuine "modern culture.” Trịnh Công Sơn himself, in an interview, pointed out the interesting similarity between Buddhism as practiced by the Vietnamese for centuries and Existentialism, the exotic state-of-the-art ideology from the West (GadkarWilcox, 2014) According, the Buddhist notion of “suffering” is parallel with the status of “nausea,” and Sartre’s “being-in-self” is related to “samsara.” Also, the two traditions of thought share their opinion on Impermanence as characteristic of lives Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s aesthetic of Impermanence resonates with both Buddhism and Existentialism More importantly, it contributes a distinctive set of senses to the sensible of Impermanence Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Humanistic Impermanence: An Aesthetic of Love In contrast to the nature-centered tendency in the Zen-inspired poetry discussed in the previous chapter, Trịnh Công Sơn Ca focuses on the world of 25 human love and life While the nature plays a part in constituting the space for human love and life, the human is the center Nevertheless, Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s peculiar humanism does not fall into the trap of qualitatively distinguishing human beings from the nature The composer usually compares human beings to non-human beings In line with Buddhism, human beings are just among the things of the world They can feel as a fall falls Nhiều đêm thấy ta thác đổ Tỉnh có cịn nghe (Some nights find me as fall falls Wake up feeling still be) Đêm Thấy Ta Là Thác Đổ (Find Me as a Fall in Dream - 1971), Nguyễn Quang Thanh’s translation (Nguyễn, n.d) Em đóa hoa lan hay quỳnh hương trắng Thơm ngát từ đất đai quê nhà (You and the orchids other flowers Perfume of this motherland) Tuổi Đời Mênh Mông (Beautiful Vast Age - 1982), Nguyễn Quang Thanh’s translation (Nguyễn, n.d) It is not clear from the songs whether there is a natural order to which everything submits Trịnh Công Sơn does not rule that Impermanence is the rule of life He just makes it visible, particularly through portraying love Placing love on an equal footing with human existence and at the same time denying the importance of anything else, Trịnh Công Sơn spends his lifetime writing about love For him, to love someone is to embark on a trip to an unexpected destination on a not-at-all-plain path, where there is no guide, since “our eyes all turn blind once passing the realm of love” (“Và có khơng kẻ bị chọc mù đơi mắt qua tình yêu”) (Trịnh, 1998) Impermanence recurs in the transience and unfulfillment of love Trịnh Công Sơn Ca brings about an impression that the lyrical subject is not only involved in love, but somehow also keeps a distance to observe and “listen” to it Thus, Trịnh Công Sơn Ca exemplifies a meditative practice The lyrical subject reflects on what has happened and is happening to love and to him because of love In the process, beauty appears and life becomes immense 26 From the Distance of Meditation: Delicate, Transient, Unfulfilled, Beautiful, and Tolerant Love Trịnh Công Sơn has a strange way to love As Bửu Ý (2003) commented, it was a kind of distant and subtle love that is very “Trịnh Công Sơn” It floats on the surface of life with a small, still and indiscernible sound, and like an “ice cube in a cup of water”, it shivers among the flow for a while before deliquescing into the ever-life I find a shared nuance between love in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca and the infatuation often seen in the “troubadour’s love”: they are both based mainly on the ground of idealization and spiritual engagement To them, a fine love is as exquisite as the vibration of the heart, and the adored one is very close to the divinity For Trịnh, love can be portrayed in the one who is loved In his songs, the lyrical subject is a seeker looking for an unclear gorgeous figure that is sketched with just some basic lines and silhouettes: Tìm em tơi tìm Mình hạc xương mai Tìm non ngàn Một cành hoa khôi Nụ cười mong manh Một hồn yếu đuối Một bờ môi thơm Một hồn giấy (Seek you, I seek Embodied in a night heron's slender outline Seek upon mountain forests A flower most beautiful A fleeting smile A frail soul A bank of fragrant lips A soul's new leaf) Đóa Hoa Vơ Thường (An Ever-changing Bloom - 1972), Jason Gibbs’ translation (Gibbs, 2010) Indeed, every muse he sings about is beautiful in a very simple but glamorous way In Trịnh Công Sơn Ca, apart from himself/the first person/the lyrical subject, the other main character is “em” and sometimes “người”—a beloved female The female character addressed as “em” (a younger sister) by 27 Trịnh Công Sơn is depicted with various abstract and vague details and complex similes To Trịnh, everything belonging to “em” carries apparently unreal and dreamlike patterns She stands as a part of the nature, but she becomes the center of it She might fly across life like a breeze, giving life a wonderful flower (Hoa Xuân Ca), or float like a sad flow (Tuổi Đá Buồn) What he is looking for, a lover (người tình) or a love affair (cuộc tình), is an uncertainty Whether love or the beloved one, it comes into Trịnh Công Sơn Ca in the shape of a hoovering surreal image staying somewhere between the division of the dualistic world It is not so far yet not so close (“tình khơng xa không thật gần” - Như Một Lời Chia Tay); it might be as silent as a shade of the tree, yet rejoice like a sunbeam (“Tình trầm bóng cây, tình reo vui nắng” - Tình Sầu) Perhaps thanks to that waiver (or sometimes even refrainment) from specific reality, the space of love in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca was a “nhòe nhạt” (blurred) or “lai” (hybrid) atmosphere (as cited in Schafer, 2007), or in other words, the indistinguishable of real and unreal This non-dualistic pattern enhances the transient realm of human love Denying any absolute statements about love and whoever “mentioning love with affirmative sentences”, Trịnh Công Sơn builds up a Zen atmosphere of love As suggested by Đình Tồn (as cited in Bửu Ý, 2003), love in Trịnh Công Sơn seemingly has no happiness Comparing Trịnh Công Sơn and Bob Dylan on their outlook of love, Schafer (2012) commented that Dylan is the one who leaves, and Trịnh is the one who is left The tone in his songs, thus, carries a subtle feeling of melancholy and nostalgia Indeed, sorrow casts its patterns all over on the common collocations in Trịnh’s song titles and lyrics: Tình nhớ (Ever-longing love), Tình sầu (Sorrowful love), Tình phụ (Betrayal love), Tình xót xa vừa (Painful love), etc Melancholy is the dominant tone in his songs through the years, and the sense of being lovelorn (phụ tình) recurs It is echoed so often that Lê Hữu (2002) assumes unfulfillment creates the “distinctive ambience” (“khí hậu riêng”) in Trịnh Cơng Sơn Ca That ambience pervades over the space of nature as well as the mind, lamenting the lost and gone of “em.” 28 “Ngày mai em Thành phố mắt đêm đèn vàng Hồn lẻ nghiêng vai gọi buồn Nghe biển động buồn hơn” (“Tomorrow you will depart A city at midnight with amber lights A lone soul, shoulders hunched back, calling forth sadness Strong waves crashing outside, my sadness deepens”) Biển Nhớ (A Sea’s Yearning - 1962), Gigi Gibb’s translation (Gibbs, 2010) This is not to say the bright tune is ostensibly missing throughout the love ballads But even in the happy moments, there apparently brews and grows an inherent sense of painfulness and separation “Em bay đời dịu dàng gió Em bay đừng bỏ lại tơi mình” (“You keep flying in this life gently like a breeze Please keep flying but don’t leave me here alone”) Hoa Xuân Ca (The Springtime Flower’s Song - 1986), my translation The incompleteness of love is nature-like, like anything in this life: love rushes off like the sun (“Tình nắng, vội tắt chiều hơm” - Như Một Lời Chia Tay), love is gone headed for the sea (“Cuộc tình khơi” - Tình Xa), love vanishes like a shadow of a bird over the mountain (“Cuộc tình chìm mau bóng chim cuối đèo” - Tình Nhớ) Each of his lovers passing through his life brings a different tone of melancholy into the songs For that reason, many of Trịnh’s songs express an obsession with abandonment At the end of an affair, when everything is dim and dark, he is the one to be left behind with the old memories, the legacy of that love: “Bỏ mặc vui buồn, bỏ mặc Bỏ mặc chân không, bỏ mặc người Bỏ hoang vu nhỏ bé Bỏ mặc ngồi đời tôi” (“Leaving the sadness, leaving the joy Leaving the bare feet, leaving the mankind Leaving me desolated and puny Leaving me sit alone in my life”) Em bỏ mặc đường (The Road You Left Behind - 1995), my translation 29 Left after a chapter of love, the lyrical subject is put in a “precariously balanced” position, bewilderedly asking “Who am I?” The sense of being abandoned by love brings into view an individual as a very fragile and vulnerable creature balancing themself in the flow of Impermanence It is the unfulfillment of love that gives rise to the despair of love Love causes despair For such distant and reserved love, the despair is profound The despair of love was described in the shape of a person cowering in a very little space to feel the pain Lịng tơi có đơi lần khép cửa Rồi bên vết thương tơi quỳ (Sometimes my heart has closed I kneel beside the wounds) Đêm Thấy Ta Thác Đổ (Find Me As A Fall In Dream – 1971), Nguyễn Quang Thanh’s translation (Nguyễn, n.d) Từ ta nằm đau, núi đèo Một chút vô thường theo phút cao sâu (From then I lay in pain Oh mountains are like passes) Đóa Hoa Vơ Thường (An Ever-changing Bloom - 1972), Jason Gibbs’ translation (Gibbs, 2010) The lyrical subject is the one in pain At the same time, he seems to be separated from his own despair to watch it from far away Keen observation and worshipping (chiêm bái in Trịnh’s words) is a way of appreciating and cherishing Impermanence in love Trịnh Công Sơn said: “Hãy đến tận tuyệt vọng để thấy tuyệt vọng đẹp hoa” (“Getting to the bottom of despair, you see despair is just as beautiful as a blossom”) (Trịnh, 1972) Accepting imperfection and suffering and seeing these states as beauty is a gentle, generous, and divine treatment Trịnh Công Sơn Ca gives no place to anger, malice, or cruelty Furthermore, while unfulfilled love poses the question of “Who am I” to the lyrical subject, it also offers an answer Through love, one becomes oneself Có chút tình thoảng gió vội 30 Tơi nhìn tơi (A little love leaves like a hurried breeze, I suddenly recognize myself) Muốn lần tạ ơn với đời Chút mặn nồng cho (Want to thank life for once For granting me such ups and downs) Như Một Lời Chia Tay (Like a Word of Goodbye), my translation While the lyrical subject is abandoned by his beloved, he does not stop loving While “keenly” observing the loss and decay, he at the same time perceives it as an extraordinary event in his life to be thankful for It is also possible to say that Trịnh Công Sơn portrays the despair of love along with an act of forbearing tolerance Impermanence of Love through the Poetics of Space and Time: In the previous section, I have shown that Trịnh Công Sơn Ca exemplifies a meditative practice where delicate, transient, and unfulfilled love is revered, seen from a distance and hence becomes beautiful and tolerant Without doubt, Trịnh Công Sơn Ca opens up a distinctive meditative space This section aims to characterize how space and time are specifically constructed—the poetics of space and time—in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca as it is centered on the Impermanence of love Trịnh Công Sơn’s love is measured within very special references of space and time, which not parallel scientific space and time and but revolve around the subjective human Space in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca is usually quiet Whether vast or small, it presents an unbreakable silence caused by being abandoned Xin chờ rạng đông Đời im vắng Như đồng lúa gặt xong Như rừng núi bỏ hoang (Waits for the sunrise Life, so empty As rice field, harvested As mountain and forest, denuded) Ru Ta Ngậm Ngùi (Lulled In Companionable Sadness - 1970), my translation 31 Người soi bóng Giữa tường trắng lặng câm (One looking at one's own shadow On a white mute wall) Ru Ta Ngậm Ngùi (Lulled In Companionable Sadness - 1970), my translation Streets in his songs are rarely associated with crowds and tinkling noises but usually stand in empty stillness and lonesomeness The streets are often stretched along one dimension beyond the eyesight (“Đường dài hun hút cho mắt thêm sâu” – Diễm Xưa); the atmosphere is covered with a sense of gloomy uncertainty And when that uncertain sense is straightened along the path, the “em” figure becomes the focus of the picture, embracing all the quietness and depression characterized in space In Trịnh Công Sơn Ca, time does not present itself as a linear flow nor a vicious cycle It is difficult to understand time without understanding love A specific amount of time, appearing as a specific number of years, is actually a vague measure of love and life, during which things have changed Below is how a period of ten years is construed Mười năm xưa đứng bên bờ giậu Ðường xanh hoa muối bay rì rào Có người lịng khăn thêu Mười năm sau áo bay đường chiều Bàn chân phố xa lạ nhiều Có người lịng nắng qua đèo (Ten years ago near the hedge Salt-flowers sough on the road Heart’s bright like new handkerchief Ten years later on same town Walk and dress flies so strange Heart seems sunshine over hill) Có Một Dịng Sơng Đã Qua Đời (A River Has Passed Away, translated by Nguyễn, n.d) The change, loss and gone of life is the pattern through which Trịnh Công Sơn recognizes the passage of subjective time Time is strongly 32 associated with the perishability, thus helps unfold the sense of uncertainty in the way Trịnh shapes the space in his songs In Trịnh’s songs, with a humanistic sense of Impermanence, human stands in the center of space and time Trịnh Công Sơn Ca gives “age,” a measure of human time, tremendous generosity An age is not a limited amount of time but a space for doing and experiencing a variety of things Thus, age can become vast, as in “Tuổi Đời Mênh Mông” (Beautiful Vast Age) he writes: “Ôm sống tay bên đời rộng” (“Hug a part of life beside vast life”) Tuổi Đời Mênh Mông (Beautiful Vast Age - 1982), Nguyễn Quang Thanh’s translation (Nguyễn, n.d) By that way, the impermanent life is absolutely fulfilled by the role of human, and human time is granted with gorgeous immensity While the moon gets old, “em” remains in the vastness of youth 33 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION The thesis aims to portray Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca as a distinctive aesthetic I used to think about it like a code to decrypt, extract and exhibit from the context of his songs However, Trịnh Công Sơn Ca is not something hidden It has been with me throughout many years with all of its concreteness Re-conceptualizing Trịnh Công Sơn Ca as a cultural assemblage, I started over I have examined the cultural phenomenon in relation to relevant context I investigated the notion of Impermanence in different traditions My special attention has been given to Buddhist Impermanence, the most extensive and influential system of thought on Impermanence The Buddhist Impermanence (Anicca), put in the fusion with the Anatta and Dukkha doctrine, assumes that everything, including human, is the object of changing, alteration and the circle path of birth, death and rebirth People, once coming into this life, have to suffer the loss it brings forever life after life To Nirvana is the only way to escape from the problem of Impermanence Not until Zen is Impermanence treated as gently as caring a fragile flower Through analyzing the poetry of Wang Wei and Matsuo Basho, I have highlighted three characteristics of Zen aesthetic of Impermanence: meditation oriented, naturecentered and appreciative of transience and imperfection From my inquiry, Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Impermanence resonates the subtlety of Buddhist Zen and Western Existentialism harmoniously combined It is centered on human love Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Impermanence is thus an aesthetic of love Trịnh Công Sơn Ca builds up a Zen atmosphere of love covered with a distinctive ambience of sorrow and despair From a meditative distance, love is delicate, transient, unfulfilled, beautiful and tolerant The poetics of space and time also contributes to the formation of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s aesthetic of Impermanence Analyzing Trịnh Công Sơn Ca in comparison and contrast with Wang Wei’s Tang poetry and Basho’s haikus, we can see a variety of faces of 34 Impermanence Wang Wei accepts impermanence and encourages people to learn how to live harmoniously with it Basho perceives and cherishes it in the very momentous ephemeral beauty of nature Trịnh Công Sơn keenly observes, reveres, and tolerates it He offers a unique realm of Impermanence that I assume defines the value and contribution of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca to the Vietnamese culture and should be better known in the world The limitations of this study are defined by what I have chosen to focus on, which I have made relative clear in summarizing this thesis and what I can achieve with my language, which is unknown to me and is open to Impermanence 35 REFERENCES Aviman, G (2014) Zen paintings in Edo Japan (1600-1868): Playfulness and freedom in the artwork of Hakuin Ekaku and Sengai Gibon 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I find helpful to our understanding of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca To figure in distinctive senses of Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca, it is also necessary to see how Impermanence has been featured in. .. Moment 21 CHAPTER 3: IMPERMANENCE IN TRỊNH CƠNG SƠN CA Trịnh Cơng Sơn Ca? ??s Cultural and Socio-political Background: Existentialism and Buddhism Trịnh Công Sơn Ca? ??s Humanistic Impermanence: An Aesthetic... “being” comprising certain numeral interactions (Emptiness) Those interactions, or “interbeing” in Thích Nhất Hạnh’s words, intermingle with each other to build up every single “thing” we call