Không còn nhớ người yêu (I No Longer Miss My Lover) - Vinh Sử + Chế Thuyền Trần (1973)

Ngâm thơ

Biết nhớ em nhiều cũng thế thôi
Nhớ em em có nhớ gì tôi
Từ nay vui với đời sương gió
Vui với rượu nồng với chính tôi.

recited poem:

Knowing I miss you so much, it's just that

Missing you, do you miss me at all?

From now I'll be happy with a life of rain and dew

Happy with hard liquor, with me, myself.

HABANERA 

Tôi không còn thương nhớ người yêu.

I no longer care about or miss my lover.
Từ em cô dâu sính lễ qua cầu.

Since you, the bride with your wedding presents, crossed the bridge.
Nỡ quên kỷ niệm ngày thơ ấu, trò chơi "cưới hỏi" đầy yêu dấu, tôi chú rể em làm cô dâu...

How could you forget our childhood memories, our "engagement" toys full of affection, me, the groom, you, the bride...

Tôi không còn thương nhớ người ta.

I no long care about or miss somebody.
Tìm vui thâu đêm quán nhỏ tay ngà.

Search for happiness the long night at small taverns, ivory hands
Với ai chẳng lần mình quen biết, với ai chẳng cần gì tha thiết, tôi quên người quên cả chính tôi.

Whoever I'm with at no time will I know her, will I need sincerity, I've forgotten her, forgotten even myself.   

Thuở xa xưa, tôi ngây thơ nghĩ rằng, nếu khi vắng em rồi, chắc là tôi sẽ khó sống.

Long ago and faraway, I naively thought that, if you had left my life, probably it would be hard for me to go on.
Để bây giờ em cho tôi hiểu đời, tôi đã mất em rồi, thì tôi cũng vậy mà thôi.

So now you've showed me how to understand life, I lost you already, it's the all the same with me.  

Nên không còn thương nhớ đầy vơi.

So I can no longer care or miss any more or any less.
Giờ không ai yêu cũng chẳng yêu người.

Now no one loves me, I don't love her at all.
Chỉ vui với cuộc đời đây đó, chỉ vui với bạn bè sương gió, tôi không còn thương nhớ đến ai.
I'll just be happy with that  kind of life, a friend of mist and wind, I'll not longer care or miss any one.

Vinh Sử, "Không còn nhớ người yêu" (Sài Gòn: [Tác giả], [1973]).

The sheet music cover for "Không còn nhớ người yêu" is remarkable. A pretty young woman is in the midst of a striptease while in the lower left corner a dim face with what can only be described as a shit-faced smile is foregrounded. 

Is this the "đời sương gió" represented in the song lyrics? Sương gió - literally dew and wind - suggests exposure to the elements, meaning that one has experienced great hardship. In Lam Phương's song "Kiếp nghèo" "gió sương" describes a difficult itinerant life. The man on the cover of "Không còn nhớ người yêu" looks like he is feeling no pain.

A cute flashback to a couple of little kids acting out their future wedding engagement sets the song's scenario. The pair obviously knew each other well and felt friendship and affection for each other. We don't know why he lost her. Of course, feelings change over time. In other songs, the young woman could either be pressed into a marriage arrangement by her parents or tempted by a rich suitor. Or maybe she just fell in love with somebody else? There is also the possibility that the male protagonist of this song is just a bum. His subsequent life choices suggest that.

The lyrics of the song do portray his affection for her as having been sincere and losing her is a staggering loss. These words present his dissipation a little more subtly than the sheet music's cover. "Tìm vui thâu đêm quán nhỏ tay ngà." He looks for fun at small club, with "tay ngà" - ivory hands - i.e., the fairer sex. These are delicate, well-cared for hands. It takes money to "thâu đêm" / spend the whole night with a woman like that. Such extravagantly self-destructive behavior may have been autobiographical as this article suggests.

The hallmark of Vinh Sử's songs of this time is the overly dramatic reaction to life's setbacks. "Trời ghen má đỏ" shows a woman feeling lost and forlorn at the sudden death of her newly wed husband. In "Sao muốn giết người yêu," in his agony of losing the person he loves most imagines killing her. "Khi không" shows the despair that comes with a lover's sudden betrayal.

Vinh Sử credited Chế Huyền Trần as a co-author. One of his many pennames, the surname Chế suggests someone of Chăm ethnicity. Chế Linh introduced this song and many other Vinh Sử songs arguably launching and sustaining his career.