Tình đời tay trắng (Life's Love Empty Handed) - Đài Phương Trang (1972)

Biết em sang giàu còn anh trắng tay

I know you're rich and elegant, yet I have two empty hands
Đâu dám trèo cao tỏ bày cùng nàng

Don't dare climb up high to explain it to her
Dẫu em tỏ ra thương mến

Though you had expressed fondness
Dẫu mình đi về chung lối

Though we took the same way home
Em giang đầu anh cuối sông Tương

You're at the river's headwaters, I'm at the Xiang River's end

Biết em không màng giàu sang gấm hoa

I know you don't care for riches, floral brocades
Nhưng áo mặc sao khỏi đầu được nàng

But the blouse you wear must go head first
Có ai mẹ cha không muốn

If there's someone you parents don't want
Gả chồng con mình mai sau ai không tìm rể quý cao sang

They marry off their child later, who doesn't look for a honored, treasured groom

Đêm đêm chẳng ngủ được yên

Nightly unable to sleep at ease
Thao thức trở trăn gác lạnh một mình

Restless tossing and turning in my attic, alone
Thâu canh tiếng gà xao xác

Throughout the night and the rooster's hubbub
Em trong gấm lụa êm ấm, chỉ riêng mình anh giá lạnh thôi!

You're with relaxing brocades and silk, only I am alone freezing!

Ước mong sau này công danh rỡ ràng

Dreaming from now on, with a famed and celebrated name 
Thưa vói mẹ cha đến dạm hỏi nàng

Polite to her parents I came to her engagement party
Cúi xin trời cao thương xót

Bowing, imploring the high heavens for pity
Để chuyện sau nầy đôi lứa

So the next time a pair our age
Không muôn đời chia cách sông Tương

Are not forever to be separated at the Xiang River.

"Tình đời tay trắng" (Life's Love Empty Handed) written by Đài Phương Trang was one of four tracks that Chế Linh recorded on the Premier 3 audio cassette in 1972. The title and musical style is very similar to Vinh Sử song "Hai bàn tay trắng" (Two Empty Hands), sung also by Chế Linh on the same tape. "Tay trắng" literally means "white hands" but signifies bringing nothing and having nothing. Poverty. The narrators of both songs know that their hopes for love are being dashed by their empty hands.

Đài Phương Trang in his song describes a basis for the hopefulness that underlay this sad predicament. She had, after all, expressed fondness (tỏ ra thương mến) and the couple walked home together (đi về chung lối). The expression "chung lối" also implies a kind of reciprocal outlook and sympathy. Her parents are the impediment. They expect something better for their daughter. He holds onto a hope that the heavens can take pity on him and others like him. Đài Phương Trang also fancified his song a little with the mention of the Xiang River (Sông Tương), referenced in the 19th century popular literary work Chinh phụ ngâm signify the great distance that can separate two people in love (Chốn Hàm Dương chàng còn ngoảnh lại, / Bến Tiêu Tương thiếp hãy trông sang, / Khói Tiêu Tương cách Hàm Dương, / Cây Hàm Dương cách Tiêu Tương mấy trùng.]

Vinh Sử in his song focuses the immutability of the situation. He is poor, very poor, always has been and heaven is not coming to his aid. There is nothing fancy about his way of saying it. Of course, she's going with the rich guy. It makes total sense. 

In both songs, the woman's new favorable circumstances are represented by "gấm hoa", imagery that comes from a well-known folk poem (ca dao)

Chồng ta áo rách ta thương,
Chồng người áo gấm xông hương mặc người.

My husband's shirt is torn, it's him I love,

The husband of a women of brocade flowers and sweet fragrance, forget about her

The words gấm hoa of this couplet accompany a less authentic expression of love and fidelity. Even if the women who rejected the poor suitors cannot be blamed, there is a popularly understood lapse in morality understood on their part.

Gấm Hoa -- nguồn ảnh: Thế giới khăn bông