MEMORABLE MUSIC: HOÀNG THI THƠ’S “LOVE IS WONDERFUL” (“TÌNH YÊU TUYỆT VỜI”), TRACK 1 ON SAIGON ROCK & SOUL

Saigon Rock & Soul: Classic Tracks 1968-1974 (2012) started a trend when it was released some ten years ago. The CD was the very first collection of remastered period recordings from the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam) and heralded a wave of similar CDs that have appeared in the decade since. Saigon Rock & Soul quickly attracted a large and devoted following, including fans that did not know Vietnamese. The CD is now out of print, though the recordings are widely available on the internet. Yet the lyrics to most of the songs have not been translated in full. The original CD only included brief liner notes but no translations. So in the next few posts, I’m going to translate some of my favorite songs from the collection.

The music featured in Saigon Rock & Soul reflected the unique culture of the RVN. South Vietnam was a cosmopolitan place that welcomed international influences, and its music drew on and contributed to global musical currents. Although the regime was not a full-fledged democracy, it did give songwriters and musicians considerable artistic freedom. The result was a diverse musical culture that expressed a range of political views and featured a variety of genres from traditional folksongs to rock. In contrast, North Vietnam stringently restricted artistic expression and was culturally closed off to the noncommunist world, and its music was more politically and artistically homogeneous. Yet even within South Vietnam, this cosmopolitan musical culture was specific to the cities and would have been alien to peasants in the countryside. The songs on Saigon Rock & Soul represented a very particular sector of wartime South Vietnamese society: urban, educated, middle- and upper-class youth who were familiar with Western-style music and enjoyed the freedom and leisure time to listen to their favorite artists.

Hoàng Thi Thơ’s “Love is Wonderful” (“Tình Yêu Tuyệt Vời,” year unknown) is the first track on Saigon Rock & Soul. The song celebrates romantic love and, somewhat conventionally, compares it to the beauty of flowers, clouds, dreams, and poetry. The liner notes translate the title of the song as “The Greatest Love,” but I have chosen to translate it as “Love is Wonderful” because the title phrase is a statement (ie “love is wonderful”) rather than a descriptor (ie “the most wonderful love [that ever existed]”). Also, I have translated tuyệt vời as “wonderful” rather than “great” or “amazing” because I think that English-speakers are more likely to use “wonderful” to describe flowers and clouds. The song is performed by the CBC band, arguably the most successful rock band in the RVN.