Some Outlines on Vietnamese Ballads by Binh Pham

phản kháng trước những bất công trong xã hội cũng được thể hiện đậm nét trong những câu ca dao phản phong, phản đế.

Có thể nói, ca dao Việt Nam là một di sản văn hóa vô cùng quí báu mà cha ông ta đã trải qua bao thế hệ với tâm hồn lãng mạn và trữ tình, với khí phách quật cường mới làm nên và bảo tồn được để hôm nay trao lại cho chúng ta.

Đã là người Việt Nam, từ người dân lao động chân lấm tay bùn đến một vị nguyên thủ quốc gia, từ người dân sinh sống ở trong nước đến người dân định cư ở nước ngoài, không ai là không biết một vài câu ca dao Việt Nam. Bởi đó là chính là hồn phách, máu thịt của người Việt Nam.

Hi vọng rằng cuốn sách này giúp ích được phần nào cho bạn đọc.

Chúng tôi chân thành mong nhận được những góp ý của các bậc cao niên, các vị học giả về những khiếm khuyết không thể tránh khỏi trong cuốn sách này, để những lần tái bản sau cuốn sách sẽ được tốt hơn. 

Người biên soạn

SOME OUTLINES ON

THE VIETNAMESE BALLADES

I. THE CONTENT REFLECTED IN THE FOLK BALLAD

1. THE LOVE TO THE MOTHERLAND

In the folk ballad, the Vietnamese people’s love to their motherland is expressed very deeply with a great number of lines extolling the beautiful spots of all the areas from the North to the South together with their local folks and specialities. For example, the following lines :

- The road to the region of Hue is winding up and down

With lots of green mountains and blue rivers like a landscape painting

- The wind is swinging bamboo twigs gently

While The Tran Vo pagoda’s bell is tolling and Tho Xuong village’s cocks are crowing

In the mist arising and covering everything early at dawn

I can hear clearly the sounds of pestle strokes from Yen Thai village flying over the West Lake

- No chickens are better than the chickens of Cao Lanh

No lasses are as beautiful as the lasses of Tan Chau

As I love you, I  am not afraid of your family’s riches and fame

So I bring here some hundred grams of sugar-preserved persimmon and some kilos of tea as my gift of marriage proposal

2. THE PRIDE TO THE HEROIC HISTORY

The number of folk ballad lines extolling the historical

events, the glorious feat of arms and celebrities, heroes takes a fairly big part. Our national pride is hereby consolidated and handed down from generation to  generation so that today any of us can remember historic geographical names and ancestors through the following folk ballads :

- My child, sleep safe and sound

For me to carry water for cleaning the elephant’s howdah

Villagers, if you want to see it, please go up the mountain

Then you can see Female General Trieu ride on the elephant beating a gong

Women, prepare both brocade and silk purses

To contain betel quids for our husbands to join her army

- The Bach Dang river is a pass one

Whereas Ha Nam canton is a battlefield

- Oh, God ! Raise the wind as fiercely as you can

So that King of Pacification’s flags can wave over the capital

- My dear ! I should follow Lords of Tay Son now

So you should stay at home and do the farming work to take care of our old mother

 - There once appeared a valiant named Dinh Cong Trang

Who built up the Ba Dinh fort to resist against the French invasive army

3. YOUNG PEOLE’S  PURE AND FAITHFUL LOVE

Young peole’s love is the key subject in the folk ballad mentioned with many different tones from the longing and love to sulks and anger but prevailing over all is courting couples’ pure and faithful love. Many folk ballad lines on young people’s love have entered music to become very lyrical folk songs such as the following lines :

-  My darling ! Whenever I pass the communal house, I put my conical hat off to look at it more clearly

For my love to you is as the same as the number of tiles on its roof

- Darling ! Please put off your robe to change for mine now

And we may tell our parents that they were blown away by the wind when we were passing the bridge

- Oh, my darling ! We have taken the silkworm’s life

So we are still lying in cocoons though we have no more silk to let out

4. LOVE OF LABOUR

The Vietnamese working people often create folk ballads in the fields. Therefore, many folk ballads mention their trades and farming work expressing the Vietnamese people’s love of labour. It is very moved for us to read the following folk ballad lines :

- When ploughing the field at noon

The farmer’s sweat drops as continuously as rain onto the

furrows

People, do you know that in your bowl full of rice

Every single soft and fragrant grain is all produced from a lot of hardships !

- Dear buffalo, kindly take my advice

To go ploughing in the field with me now

For the farming is a farmer’s profession

You and I never hesitate to exert ourselves

Whenever riceplants still produce ears of paddy

There is still grass in the pasture for you to graze

And we also greatly respect the toil of the working people who have to work very hard in the field to produce rice and other cereals or in the waters to catch fish and shrimps for people’s living in the following folk ballads :

- Early in the morning I go to the field with a plough on the shoulder

One of my hands holds a straw wisp and the other holds a rope leading my buffalo

In the low field full of water and mud

I have to plough and harrow with my buffalo all day long

- While the parents are drawing and throwing a casting net, their  small children ish with rods

Meantime their eldest son is bailing the water out for their daughter-in-law gropes for fish

5. THE WILL OF RESISTING SOCIAL INJUSTICES

In the Vietnamese folk ballads, the will of resisting social injustices is mentioned a great deal for the working people, chiefly the woman were bound and compressed not only by the feudal kings and madarins’ greed and cruelty but also by many unsound customs in the old society. The people’s confidence of writhe when compressed, complaints on poverty or illogic love and will of resisting social injustices are entrusted in the plaintitive or drastic folk ballad lines as the following ones :

- Who is a beggar ? A beggar may be any of us

For being in rags and hunger, we’ll turn into beggars

- The king’s son will succeed to the throne

Whereas the pagoda’s warden’s son will sweep the banian leaves

When the mass raise a war fire

The defeated king’s son will go to the banian leaves at the pagoda

- Children ! Do remember this sentence :

Night robbers are enemies but day robbers are mandarins!

II. THE ART FORM IN THE FOLK BALLAD

1. GENRE :

Vietnamese folk ballads are often created in the six-eight footed style though beside it, there are the double seven and six-eight footed style, and the four-word style etc but not many. And they are often short : two lines, four lines, six lines or eight lines. There are some folk ballads having a greater number of lines but they are not numerous.

2. MODE :

  In The Vietnamese folk ballad, three main modes are often used. They are the mode of poetic essay, the mode of comparison and the mode of inspiration

The mode of poetic essay is to present and describe so that the hearer can imagine the issue that the author wants to refer to. For example, the following lines :

- The Nha Be river flows downwards with two affluents

Those who want to go to Gia Dinh and Dong Nai can travel by the waterway

- In Bac Can there are streams in which people can sieve sand for gold

There is also lake Ba Be and lassies in blue dresses

The mode of comparison is to compare so that the ballad lines are more delicate, lovable and pressing. The comparison can be direct as in the following lines :

- Oh, love ! Your wrists are as white as the ivory

Your eyes are as sharp as a knife cutting areca nuts

- Oh, lass ! I see you swinging like a conical hat without a

strap

And like a boat witthout a rudder or a woman without a husband

A married woman is like a person with a cang on the neck

An unmarried woman is like a wooden bed with loosened nails

Or indirect as in the following lines :

- Oh, God ! I think forth and then think back

How many times a spider lets out its thread

I am not sure which source of water is clear and which is turbid to choose and wait for

Like a withered flower, who can I rely on now ?

- Oh, love ! In the present life, I have to break our appointment

For the wharf with a banian tree on it is the former one but the boat is not

The mode of inspiration is to expose emotion due to  surroundings.  The surroundings are agents to make the author’s sentiment sprout. For example, the following lines:

- Oh, mountain ! Why are you so high

That you hide the sun and my range of vision from my darling

- My dear, our boat’s sail is small

And the wind is blowing gently

The hightide is appearing today

And it will appear again tomorrow

The river is deep and roughly wavy now

So we should wait until it calms down

Then we’ll turn the sail to the windward to navigate the boat

As we have placed our lives into the fisherman’s life

We should love each other to overcome all waterfalls and whirlpools

However, in the fact, these modes are often mingled together in the same ballad, rarely separated. For example, the following lines :

- My darling ! Whenever I go across the bridge, I put my conical hat off to look at it more clearly

For the more span it has, the more sorrowful I am

 (Both having the mode of poetic essay – line 1 and the mode of comparison – line 2)

- Oh, love ! I would rather not have known you than have

known you

For I have to cut off my love to you after having made your acquaintance

By the river one side of which is caved in while the other side is extended with deposits of silt

Several people drop their fishing lines to catch only one fish