"Trời ghen má đỏ" (Heaven Is Jealous of Crimson Cheeks) - Vinh Sử + Linh Ngân (1972)

SLOW ROCK

Năm mười bảy tuổi em đi lấy chồng

At seventeen I left and married

Trong nhờ đục chịu phận gái sang sông

Pure owing to the murk of a girl's fate crossing the river  
Tưởng vui hết nghĩa tơ hồng, ngờ đâu sớm để tang chồng, trời ghen má đỏ môi hồng...

You would think it happy to complete the rosy silk bond of fidelity, who would suspect that I would soon mourn my husband, heaven is jealous of crimson cheeks and rosy lips. 

Năm mười bảy tuổi duyên em lỡ làng.

At seventeen my fated love was frustrated.  
Ba chìm bảy nổi một chuyến sang ngang.

Vicissitudes, sinking and resurfacing on the voyage crossing over  
Thủy chung gánh gãy giữa đàng, thuyền quyên trống trải vô vàn, từng đêm suối lệ tuôn tràn.

Loyalty shouldered, snapped in the middle of the road, a pretty damsel completely vulnerable, each night a stream of tears flowing 

Bao nhiêu bến mộng trong đời, mà em bến đục, tình em ngậm ngùi.

So many dream docks in life, but I'm at a murky dock, my love in grief
Tim em lá đổ trăm chiều, gió mưa tiu đìu, nghe xót xa nhiều.

My heart of falling leaves for a hundred evenings, of desolate wind and rain, feeling much torment.

Năm mười bảy tuổi tin yêu mất rồi.

At seventeen, love and trust are lost.  
Em về bèo bọc một kiếp đơn côi

I return like foam and duckweed, to a solitary destiny  
Nợ duyên gánh gãy ngang trời tuổi xuân chết rủ không lời, thời con gái cũng qua rồi.

Karmic debt, shouldered burden snapped at the horizon, dead in the spring of life, dangling wordless, the girl's time has passed.  

nguồn: Linh Ngân & Vinh Sử, "Trời ghen má đỏ" (Sài Gòn: [Tác giả], [không năm])

Giáng Thu recorded "Trời ghen má đỏ" on the Kim Đằng 1 tape, released in August 1973 - less than two years before the fall of the Republic of Vietnam. I have no information for who Linh Ngân is. The lyrics for this song are a little more poetic and complex than other Vinh Sử songs, so perhaps that was Linh Ngân's contribution? The song is alternately known (and maybe better known) by the title "Năm em 17 tuổi" (The Year I Turned Seventeen).

The subject of this song - the sorrow of widowed of a young woman - is an unusual theme for a Republic of Vietnam popular song. Although war in no way factors into the lyrics of the song, by 1973 there were many thousands of young war widows in the Republic of Vietnam. The state media of that time would have frowned upon a song like this and I think it was only commercially released because the Paris Accords earlier that year brought about the illusion of peace.

To understand this song, it helps to realize that rural Vietnam has a largely riparian countryside. Often the neighboring village was a short ferry ride across the tributary of a river. The term "bến mộng" comes out sounding odd in translation - the dock of dreams. But, traditionally, when a young woman wed she might have to set out with her new family across a river, the river dock becoming the threshold of her new life. That may not have been literally the case for the protagonist in this song or listeners who identified with the meaning of the song, but this "going across" (sang ngang) or "crossing the river (sang sông), was a popular metaphor for a young woman leaving her own family and natal village and becoming a member of new family and a new village.

This song appropriates well-known imagery from Nguyễn Du's classic novel-in-verse The Story of Kiều. Coming very early in this work, nearly all Vietnamese would be familiar with this couplet:

Lạ gì bỉ sắc tư phong,

Trời xanh quen thói má hồng đánh ghen.

It's not unusual that something is perfect in some ways and lacking in others

The blue heaven's have known the habit of striking down rosy cheeks in jealousy

This metaphor helps explain the vicissitudes of Thúy Kiều within the poem's longer narrative. A more enduring meaning applies to its invocation by generations of Vietnamese women over the years. The beauty of young, rosy cheeks may represent a form of perfection, however, there are invisible forces that punish women for their youth and beauty. 

The song also incorporates another line from the Story of Kiều.

Sợ khi ong bướm đãi đằng,

Đến điều sống đục, sao bằng thác trong!

I fear when touched by bees and butterflies, 

Those things living in murk, how can they compare to a limpid waterfall!

This poetry is very indirect, but also very well understood by Vietnamese. "Ong bướm" (bees and butterflies) is the subtlest way to refer to carnal activity. These insects are attracted to beautiful flowers, take what they desire and fly away. At this stage of the story, Kiều has been sold to a brothel and struggles to retain her chastity. She rejects đục (a word for murky, fetid water) for trong (pure, clear water). 

The application of this metaphor is a little complicated within the song. The narrator has apparently behaved properly in wedding her husband. It is no fault of hers that he is dead. It does mean that she likely had entertained his advances (bee/butterfly) but within the bounds of propriety. "Trong nhờ đục chịu phận gái sang sông" - her purity was owing to being sullied because of her fate to cross the river. My best explanation is that the song arises from the desperation from a recent loss. The misery is real but, within a longer perspective, perhaps over dramatized. She reasonably dreamed of a long, blissful wedded life and starting a family and at the moment of this narrative, that appears to be an impossibility. In retrospect, everything about getting married appears to have been ill-fated. 

"Bèo bọc" is another important metaphor that returns us to the river. Bèo is a weed-like plant that often is seen slowly drifting with the current. Bọc here is a regional mispronunciation of Bọt - the foam that forms on the river's surface that is also swept along. It suggests both insignificance and lack of control or agency.

The song hits its highest note in each of the three verses with an upward ornamental arpeggio at the words "hết nghĩa" and twice at "gánh gãy." In these cases the second syllable employs the ngã or broken rising tone - a tone that is difficult to employ in Westernized song. (I've discussed this a little bit in an earlier post).

"Nghĩa" is one of the most positive virtues meaning uprightness or fidelity. "Hết" means to finish or complete. "Gánh" is a burden or to carry a burden, literally bearing the burden of a pole with heavy objects at one or both ends. "Gãy" means that that pole has broken - a disaster for the person carrying the burden. The burden remains but there is no simple way to convey it now.

"Gánh gãy" is the inversion of a familiar image from a folk saying:

Trăm năm dốc nguyện đá vàng
Dè đâu gãy gánh giữa đàng khó toan

One hundred years pouring myself into a vow of burnished gold

Could I ever expect the pole to break along the way, it was inconceivable

This couplet further complements the meaning within "Trời ghen má đỏ." One hundred years stands for a happy marriage into old age. Golden vows are highly valued and sturdy. With this, the pole bearing the happy load that was supposed to last for the planned hundred years broke.

There was an American pop song by Janis Ian called "At Seventeen." It tells a very different story from a very different context. However, the seventeen could be seen as an age when it really hits home that childhood/girlhood is over. The popularity of "Trời ghen má đỏ" is perhaps more fully realized by the alternate title "Năm em 17 tuổi." The song is written as a "slow rock" following a 12/8 meter with a light, bluesy "swing" feel to it.

Almost all Vietnamese songwriters and lyricists have been men. Vinh Sử was adept at creating short emotional, melodramatic scenes. The worst thing in the world has happened and it needs to be stated using familiar imagery, what could be called hooks.