Ngỏ hồn qua đêm (Baring My Soul Through The Night) - Triết Giang [Hoàng Trang] & Hàn Châu (1966)

BOLÉRO

Chiều bàn giao cho vùng đêm đen biên giới.

Evening, relief came at the border's black night.  
Theo cánh quân anh đóng ven lưng chừng đồi.

Along the flank, I'm stationed hillside, halfway up  
Nghe muôn côn trùng than trong đêm trường sầu thương thế nhân

Hearing an untold number of insects moan through the long night sorrowing for mankind.  
Hồn rung tiềm thức quay trong vùng thương nhớ, len lén đưa anh qua bến mộng ngày xưa.

My soul, stirred unconsciously, turns back to memory's realm that seeps in, guides me past the dream docks of long ago.

Chuyện ngày xưa chia đều ra hai phe đánh.

Events long ago equally divided two fighting factions.  
Anh lấy cây làm súng bên em diệt thù.

I took up a stick as a gun alongside you to eliminate the enemy,  
Phe kia ngang tàng xua quân đốt nhà đuổi hai đứa ta

The other side arrogantly driving away soldiers, burning houses down, chasing away the two of us
Trò chơi tuổi xanh đôi bên cùng nhau đánh tương sát lẫn nhau như oán thù nghìn thu.

Children's games, two sides solemnly striking each other as if there was hatred and resentment for millennia  

Tháng tháng tiếp nối, thơ ấu ra đi anh giã từ cuộc chơi đó...

Month continues after month, youth has gone and I bade farewell to that game...
Đêm tiễn đưa anh, quay gót son mềm em đếm dài cây số thương

The evening you saw me off, your soft pink heals, calculating the long kilometers, feeling
Gói ghém quá khứ trong chiếc ba lô nơi tuyến đầu nằm thao thức

Packing up the past in a backpack at the front, laying awake
Giây phút suy tư, xanh giấc mơ gầy nghe trái sầu rụng nửa đêm.

Moments of reflection, hopeful slender dreams, I hear the sad fruit fall in the middle of the night.  

Nhìn hỏa châu lưng trời soi chia đêm tối

Looking the flares off in the sky, dividing the night's darkness
Anh ngỡ như ngày cưới hoa đăng ngập trời.

I imagine it was like our wedding, floral lanterns flooding the sky  
Xin em tin rằng đôi ta bây giờ dù xa cách nhau tình yêu ngàn năm không phai nhạt hương sắc

Please dear, believe that the two of us, although now far apart, fragrance of our thousand year love will not fade
Anh hứa yêu em trong suốt cuộc đời này.

I promise to love you all of this life.  

nguồn: Triết Giang & Hàn Châu, "Ngỏ hồn qua đêm" (Sài Gòn: Châu Kỳ nhạc tuyển, 1966)

Hoàng Trang was one of my favorite people in the Vietnamese music world. He was gracious, thoughtful and helpful in every way. He co-wrote this song a short time after he was wed. I know that he spent intervals of time during the 1960s among military units so he should have had a solid understanding of the psychology of the Republic of Vietnam soldier.

He describes the soldier's setting well -- a long night watch enveloped in an atmosphere of flares and an insect chorus. The thud of a falling piece of fruit breaks up the monotony. War songs are often about action, but it seems that the greater reality of soldier's life is that they spend a lot of their time waiting in remote locations with only sporadic sometimes terrifying action. Waiting leads to thinking, to an imaginary conversation with a soulmate, someone who would understand and comfort you.

Much of that thinking is nostalgia. Bến mộng / dream docks refer to the passage of his wife to his family, to their conjugal union. Bright explosions in the night recall the fireworks at their wedding. He firmly recalls the moment the parted and he entered his service. Midst the alternating worry and waiting of a foot soldier, he holds on tightly to his love for her, to their enduring mutual love.

The song poses a true riddle. Why do people of one nation fighting one another with the fervency and abandon of children's war games? The answer given is that they and their way of life have been attacked. The narrator can give no deeper understanding of the issues, but defense is a legitimate reason to take up arms. He is defending her and the future life they want to lead. The night insects appear less than satisfied with this outlook as they moan in sorrow for mankind.

Thanh Thúy sings "Ngỏ hồn qua đêm" recording on the Shotguns 27 tape in 1972.