A love story! A love song! – by yuanyuan88 (first-hand story told by my song requestor suongthushi)
In Japan World Exposition of 1970, Vietnamese song writer and composer Nguyen Anh Chin (Anh9) and Vietnamese popular singer Khanh Ly were invited to attend The Exposition Concert. It was a great honor to have a chance to attend this international event. But the composer did not seem too happy. On the way back to hotel after the concert, the singer could not help noticing his blue mood and asked the composer if he was still missing his first love and if he was still thinking of her. Silence prevailed as these questions were evaporating into the air. The composer then started to hum a tune in the hotel elevator. When he got back to his hotel room, he wrote down a love song“Khong”that night.
One of my song listeners is a Vietnamese Chinese who knows both languages. She translated the song for me from Vietnamese to Chinese. From this direct unpolished translation, I seem to understand why the composer was sad in Japan World Exposition. Though the outside world was so glamorous, his inner world was gloomy. This is all because of love, an unfulfilled and unforgettable love which hurts generation to generation.
Translation from Vietnamese to Chinese by linfuyan123:
Không , không ,Tôi không còn, tôi không còn yêu anh nữa 不不,我不再,我不再愛你了.
Không , không,Tôi không còn, tôi không còn yêu anh nữa 不不,我不再,我不再愛你了.
Không ,không ,Tôi không còn, tôi không còn yêu anh nữa ,anh oi ! 不不,我不再,我不再愛你了, 親愛的 ...
Tình đời thay trắng đổi đen 世情易變卦
Tình đời còn lắm bon chen 世情多競爭
Tình đời còn lắm đam mê 世情多沉溺
Nên tình còn lắm ê chề 因此情還有許多挑戰
Tình mình có nghĩa gì đâu 我們的愛有何意義
Tình mình đã lắm thương đau 我們的愛經歷多少悲痛
Tình mình gian dối cho nhau 我們的愛是互相欺騙對方
Thôi đành hẹn lại kiếp sau 隻好相約來生在一起吧 !
Không ,không,Tôi không còn, tôi không còn yêu anh nữa不不,我不再,我不再愛你了.
Không , không,Tôi không còn, tôi không còn yêu anh nữa不不,我不再,我不再愛你了
Không , không ,Tôi không còn, tôi không còn yêu anh nữa, anh ơi ...不不,我不再,我不再愛你了, 親愛的 ...
In the year of 1954, Vietnam was split into two separate parts: the communist north and the democratic south. Thereafter, a series of conflicting events took place that led up to a full-fledged war between these two parties. Soon the Americans, Australians and a few other nations joined the war. The war lasted until 1963 with the assassination of Diam. Vietnam was reunited at that time. In the war, more than 2 million Vietnamese died. For those who survived the war has to deal with a country that was in tatters and an economy that was depleted. They were facing scattered land mines, unexploded bombs and other unknown dangers lurking in the shadows. Their marshlands and jungles were destroyed. Historical sites and buildings were mostly destroyed too, and millions of people were left homeless. With hunger, love counted for nothing. Materiality became reality. Girls seek marriage as a bridge to get a better life. A young composer as Anh9 himself could only feed himself as a musician. His true first love would not survive the reality. It sank into his heart as a painful memory and flew out as a sad melody. The song told a story of a time and was soon spread over from Vietnam to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. It was gaining even more popularity when Teresa Teng sang this song in Japanese version. Since then, this song was a popular song sung from generation to generation in Vietnam. However, when the song was broadcast in many Asia Pacific countries, Mainland China rejected all love songs at that time. My song requestor asked me to sing this song recently. He asked the composer to grant me the permission to use his piano solo as my companion music. The piano solo does not mean to be song companion music. It has a rhythm of its own. At the beginning, I did not promise to sing. But after I heard it several times, I was totally touched by the love story that the piano solo revealed to me. So I decided to give a try. I first recorded the Japanese version by learning from Teresa Teng. I got a warm round of applause from Japanese listeners.
Much encouraged by them, I decided to sing a Chinese version. There were two Chinese versions, one by 鄧麗君 and one by楊小萍(also a famous singer at that time).
鄧麗君版 （詞作家不詳）
你你你不要離開我
你你你不要拋棄我
你你我不能我不能沒有你, 情人
天涯海角茫茫, 情人你在何方
如今你離開我, 一切失去希望
曾誓地老天荒, 夜夜共看星光
一起往日歡樂, 悲痛充滿心房
你你你不能你不能離開我
你你你不能你不能拋棄我
你你你我不能我不能沒有你, 情人
楊小萍 版（詞作家不詳）
Khong Khong 我的夢已成空
Khong Khong 我的夢已成空
Khong Khong 你遠去在何處有你蹤影
就像黑夜裡沒有一線光明寂寞無依獨自哀鳴
又像大海裡一片浮萍 飄東又飄西誰來同情
Khong Khong 我的夢我的夢已成空
Khong Khong 我的夢我的夢已成空
Khong Khong 我的夢在何處有你蹤影
I do not like these two Chinese lyrics as they described hopeless women, so I decided to write my own as follows: Khong 你
Chinese lyric by yuanyuan88 園園 （作於7月2010年）
你你 告訴我你在哪裏
你你 告訴我你在哪裏
你你 告訴我 從此我怎樣去忘記你
曾經兩情相悅 雙蝶舞翩翩
如今無奈別離 剩下清冷孤寂
愛是痛 痛是愛 愛痛難分離
一生的承諾 飄散在風裏
你你 為什麽要讓我遇見你
你你 為什麽要闖入我心裏
你你 告訴我告訴我 你在哪裏在哪裏
你你 為什麽要讓我遇見你
你你 為什麽要闖入我心裏
你你 告訴我告訴我 你在哪裏在哪裏
曾經纏綿依偎 雙蝶舞翩翩
如今天涯分離 隻有星夜夢你
愛是痛 痛是愛 愛痛難分離
春夏秋冬裏 你都在我心裏
你你 為什麽要讓我遇見你
你你 為什麽要闖入我心裏
你你 告訴我告訴我 你在哪裏在哪裏
Finally, I challenged myself to sing Vietnamese version. Vietnamese is a difficult language to mimic. Their tongue position is very different than ours. But I tried. My Vietnamese friends gave me a high score as encouragement. From singing this song, I found the direct translation of lyrics has limitation. There always have some awkward parts. That is why people prefer to rewrite the lyrics instead of translation. (注：楊小萍的後半部是越南語，當我學了越南語歌詞後發現她模仿的不像, 這是句實話，沒有任何其他的意思，楊小萍是那個時代的名歌星，俺隻是個普通的網絡歌手，不在同一個層麵上, 但是實話還是實說了。)
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