Rừng xưa đã khép (The Forest of Old Has Gently Shut) - Trịnh Công Sơn (1967?)

Ta thấy em trong tiền kiếp với cọng buồn cỏ khô,

I've seen you in a prior life with sad stems, dried grasses,
Ta thấy em đang ngồi khóc khi rừng chiều đổ mưa,

I've seen you seated, crying the afternoon forest rain pouring down,
Rừng thu lá úa em vẫn chưa về,

Fall forest foliage falls, you still had not returned
Rừng đông cuốn gió em đứng bơ vơ.

Winter forest whirling winds, you stood helpless.

Ta thấy em trong tiền kiếp với mặt trời lẻ loi,

I've seen you in an earlier life with the solitary sun,
Ta thấy em đang ngồi hát khi rừng về nhiều mây,

I've seen you seated, singing as the forest brings back many clouds,
Rừng thu thay lá mưa bay buồn rầu,

Fall forest leaves in flux, rain falls, woebegone
Rừng đông buốt giá mưa bay rạt rào.

Winter forest bitter cold, rain falls a deluge.

Ta vẫn mong ta chờ mãi, trên từng ngày quạnh hiu,

I've still waited, always waited, above each succeeding desolate day,
Ta vẫn mong em về đây cho đời bày cuộc vui,

I've hoped you'll return here so life's happiness is arranged,
Mùa xuân đã đến em hãy quay về rừng xưa đã khép, em hãy ra đi.

Spring has arrived, come on back, the forest of old has gently shut, come on out.

Mùa xuân đã đến em hãy quay về rừng xưa đã khép, em hãy ra đi.

Spring has arrived, come on back, the forest of old has gently shut, come on out.

nguồn: Trịnh Công Sơn, Tuyển tập những bai ca không năm tháng (TPHCM: Nhà xuất bản Âm nhạc, 1995).

My good friend Professor Tuannyriver made an excellent translation and wrote an excellent analysis of "Rừng xưa đã khép." Thankfully Trịnh Công Sơn's art easily invites many interpretations and viewpoints allowing me to add to what the professor wrote without any need to detract from his insights.

I interpret the lyrics like a legend or fairytale. "Rừng" - it can be translated as forest, woods or jungle - is a natural realm, beautiful, full of life. However, it may be devoid of human life / society. The "rừng" also inspires awe, fear and is a place where you could lose your bearings.

It's conventional, almost obvious, to see "em" as a young woman and to see "ta" as a man who knows and cares about her and is even in love with her. "Em" more widely means younger sister or brother. "Ta" more widely means we. It could be a community awaiting the return of a younger person who has lost their way. But I think most people take this to be a kind of love song, two people in a romantic attachment, one entangled in a metaphoric forest (emotions? trauma? indecision?), the other patiently waiting her out and to seal away her troubles.

But it's not that simple. This entanglement afflicted her (I'll follow the conventional gender) in a prior life. The verb tense of "thấy" (to see or perceive) is not absolutely clear, but to me a prior life is in the past placing the events of the forest in the past. But this past may also be metaphoric - he sees her currently wrestling with events of a past incarnation that she needs to understand and break free from to be with him/us.

While she should be a young woman, her experiences in the forest highlight the fall and winter seasons, seasons suggesting the ebbing of a life cycle. The narrator desires her to return to the world he inhabits which is the springtime with happiness arranged or set forth (bày).

Nothing good happens in her world of fall and autumn. It's either drought (cỏ khô), torrents of rain, or bone-chilling cold. Why is she there? If she can leave why doesn't she? Since it's a prior life, she has no choice, although there is always that possibility of deliverance in a later incarnation (today?).

Here is a crazier idea? The narrative voice "Ta" is situated above - "trên" (trên từng ngày quạnh hiu / above each succeeding desolate day) - not "trong" (during, within). What if "Ta" is a supernatural benevolent force (a saint, a guide?) trying to persuade "em" to come out from the forest, to accept a resolution to a predicament in life and return to happiness?

The song is constructed in three parallel verses. The first two verses lay out her predicament. They each end on a different scale degree. The first on the fifth scale degree, the second on the second scale degree. Performing artists have conventionally harmonized these note with a dominant fifth and the raised seventh scale degree of the harmonic minor scale (a note never present in the melody).  The second verse takes the singer to the highest note of the song at the syllable "lá" / leaf (Rừng thu thay lá mây bay buồn rầu). I don't know whether that is supposed to be the height of anguish (Fall forest leaves in flux, rain falls woebegone)?

Singers frequently do not sing Trịnh Công Sơn songs with the rhythms he notated. "Rừng xưa đã khép" frequently are presented in a slow rock 12/8 rhythm with an relaxing 1-2-3, 1-2-3 lilt. This is despite the the song being written in 2/4 time and one of the most repeated motifs of the songs are two sixteenth notes as pick-ups to a dotted quarter note. The rhythm of these sixteenth notes should figuratively snap a little, not lilt like a triplet. This rhythm happens with every iteration of "Ta" (Ta thấy, ta vẫn) on the fifth and sixth scale degrees - a minor, chromatic second. In a song that is mostly pentatonic (no minor seconds) this chromatic interval adds some poignancy. These two notes also appear as triplets with the lyrics "em vẫn chưa về," "em hãy quay về" and "em hãy ra đi" ("you still have not returned," "come on back" and "come on out"). 

In the first half of her recording, Thanh Xuân performs the sixteenth notes that Trịnh Công Sơn wrote. The second time through, the song slips into a slow rock tempo and this distinction is lost

He also wrote arpeggiated sixteenth notes followed by a dotted quarter note with the syllables "đang ngồi khóc" "đang ngồi hát" and "em về đây" (seated crying, seated singing, you'll return here). The first two instances are the only times in the song the she (em) has any agency, takes any action (sitting, crying, singing). The third is a hoped for action.

Another frequent sin singers commit when interpreting this song happens at the end with the syllable "rừng xưa đã khép" - written with scale degrees two-four-six-six. Most sing the third note (đã) with fifth scale degree, making a minor second from five to six. This is understandable because the third word "đã" has a broken rising tone (dấu ngã) that needs to rise to be intelligible. It's convenient to drop down a half step to accommodate, but it also unnecessarily repeats the "em hãy ra đi" motif.

Anh Ngọc made a very accurate version of "Rừng xưa đã khép" that was probably recorded for Hoàng Trọng's Tiếng Tơ Đồng radio / television program. Unfortunately, that recording is not available online as far as I can tell. I do unfortunately have to fault Anh Ngọc for, like nearly everybody else, not "snapping" his sixteenth notes.

Bảo Yến also sings the "rừng xưa đã khép" motif accurately. Like other interpreters, she opens the song like a recitative and then moves to slow rock. 

 

There is another version (not the version on of this song recorded by Giang Trang that I like a lot, but I can't locate that version online.

This song has few additional mysteries. As far as I can tell, it was never published as sheet music or in a songbook before 1975. It also is not among the 40 or songs by Trịnh Công Sơn that were recorded to vinyl before 1975. It's also difficult to understand why "Rừng xưa đã khép" was permitted to be performed publicly or recorded in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on September 12, 2014.