Oh gosh spring, april....past, present, and future...

Friday, March 1, 2013

A POEM FOR PRE-1975 VIETNAMESE BOYS AND GALS: MEMORY FOR A PLACE THAT'S NO MORE NHO' VE^` NO*I CHO^'N CU~

This poem is reminiscence of the time in pre-1975 Saigon, when all the boys and girls of Vietnamese public high schools in my generation were still hopeful for love and service to their country. It was a time when romanticism meant coming of age, and when our big dreams were formed outside the gate of our secondary schools, our lost paradise.

...

Trời cũ, quê nhà nắng với mưa
"Nhũ*ng Cường, những Tuấn của ngày xưa"
Bỏ trường bỏ lớp vì con gái
Quên sách quên đàn đổ tại thơ

Trời cũ quê nhà đã vắng chưa?
Mà trong kỷ ức của ngày xưa
Biết bao lãng mạn thời con gái
Có khóc, xin về khóc với thơ...

Trời cũ quê nhà thôi đón đưa
Cố quên tất cả, tự. bao giờ
Có ai nhắc đến vàng son truo’c: 
"Cô ấy bên sông vẫn đợi chờ"

"Cô ấy bên sông vẫn đợi chờ"
"Những Cường, những Tuấn của ngày xưa"
Ở đâu trong cõi muôn trùng ấy?
Dù đã lâu rồi, thôi đón đưa...

DNN copyright Feb.2013




"Pensive -- Tra^`m Tu*"
DNN c2010 enamel & markers on paper

TRẦM TƯ

Trầm tư vì vắng người xưa, tình duyên ai thiếu, ai thưà, ai dư??? 


Biết ai là kẻ sẽ lên đường?
Những Cường, những Tuấn của quê hương
Non nước không còn tim Nguyễn Trãi
Đáy vực, dân nghèo mãi xót thương...`

Áo trắng, rồi thay áo chiến trường
Quần xanh, bạc phếch bụi phong sương
Những Cường, những Tuấn không còn nữa
Đã ngủ muôn đời với cố hương

Ta có còn chăng, non nước này?
Những Cường, những Tuấn của ngày mai
"Thương Nữ bất tri vong quốc hận …”
Sau cuộc phong trần, ai khóc ai?

Dương Như Nguyện copyright 2013

typed in the "House of DNN" convention:

Bie^'t ai la` ke? se~ le^n duo`ng?
Nhu*~ng Cu*o*`ng, nhu~ng Tua^'n cu?a que^ hu*o*ng
Non nu*o*'c kho^ng co`n tim Nguye^~n Tra~i
Dda’y vu*.c, da^n nghe`o ma~i xo't thu*o*ng...

A'o tra('ng, ro^`i thay…a'o chie^'n tru*o*`ng
Qua^`n xanh, ba.c phe^'ch bu.i phong su*o*ng
Nhu*~ng Cu*o*`ng, nhu~ng Tua^'n kho^ng co`n nu*~a
Dda~ ngu? muo^n ddo*`i, vo*'i co^' hu*o*ng

Ta co' co`n cha(ng, non nu*o*'c na`y?
Nhu~ng Cu*o*`ng, nhu*~ng Tua^'n cu?a nga`y mai
“Thu*o*ng Nu~ ba^'t tri vong quo^'c ha^.n…”
Sau cuo^.c phong tra^`n, ai kho'c ai?


"Returning to Earth"
DNN c2010 markers & liquid paper on cardboard

(This artwork was made on a piece of cardboard I found at the supermarket in Denver, CO. It was inspired by all the boys who had served their country by returning to Earth. They became the beautiful landscape that made up their country. Their burial ground was that which they loved, and for which they gave...) 

For April 30

SING WITH ME THE ENDING OF VU THANH IN ENGLISH:

To my city of birth
This burdened HEART of mine
is all I can give to you
this time

My beloved city...
of birth!

THEN END WITH AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA...

Mother of a Nation laid to rest: $115 million contributed to literacy programs. Hinh anh nguoi me quoc gia da an nghi ngan thu

https://www.yahoo.com/news/public-viewing-former-first-lady-barbara-bush-begin-053602949--politics.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/george-h-w-bush-honored-190326822.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/melania-trump-sits-next-barack-173725191.html

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/melania-trump-poses-former-presidents-first-ladies-barbara-bush-memorial-142657024.html

very clear what she wanted in a speech and what she stood for:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/clark-judge-recalls-former-president-000849202.html

wellesley speech:

http://www.wcvb.com/article/look-back-barbara-bush-s-controversial-wellesley-college-speech/19849070

one of the best renditions of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus by Bryn Terfel, and more...

Mozart and Christianity, via the voice of Barritone Bryn Terfel (he sounded very light here)

compare: Barritone Renato Bruson (big vibrato):

and compare further, Andrea Bocelli:

compare, too, prodigy boy soprano:

and then my little self singing with my pianist from a living room, must faster tempo, much less perfect or technically skilled, and all i was trying to do was to capture the divine beautiful melody and the Latin prayer: 

FOLLOWING CO KIEU CHINH OF SOUTH VIETNAM...THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPACE AND THE SELF...

The Hanoian beauty-actress, Co KC, posted on FB a beautiful picture of her former home office, a classic view of Eastern traditional interior design in sombre rosewood brown, with scenes of her acting career.   This makes me think about my own relationship with my space.

Following suit, I decide to reveal a little bit of myself in posting the following pictures (explanation follows). Thanks, Co KC, for showing us how our relationship with space can become recordation of life.

ABOVE:

--the view of a college days' workspace in what appears to be an apartment setting: perhaps this is what college days often look like for a humanities-and-fine-arts major: glass jars for flower vases, rugs, and big pillows on the floor!

--a view of the entrance to my little gallery in Denver, Colorado during my law professorship. There, I literally lived in my gallery in a gated building in Cherry Creek (the only Vietnamese who lived in that area,  so I had no choice but to celebrate my solitude away from "Vietnam town"!).  Yes, I lived in my gallery.  (Much of the artwork on display has since been lost due to interstate and inter-continental moves).

--me in between Matisse in Paris' museum and art scenery (There I stood, on flat shoes and in a bulky black wool coat, in my beloved Paris!)

--my studio work space in Paris (you can see two of my original posters and my notebook; this was where I wrote my mind-challenging and heartfelt article on legal measures against human trafficking (published by Seattle University) during my leave of absence/research residence in Paris.  There, in that stark space, I also painted "The Three Magnolias" "Dalat" and "Four Vietnamese women: Past and Future"), displayed in the bedroom reserved for the sweetest daughter I loved.  (In such a sparse environment, Paris is just...like any place in urban transient lives, but memory of neighborhood croissants, baguettes, and Charlottes and the sweetness of daughter-mother relationship is forever!)

-- my love for roses (there were roses from my own front and backyard in Texas, which have all died after my mother's illness due to lack of care. Care went to her, and no longer roses (This reminds me of the poignance of St. Exupery's Little Prince, the lonely traveller of space, forever young, forever pure, forever devoted, whose mission in life is to care for his one rose! I painted him, too, in his day and in his night, standing alone with his rose against the universe! My "Little Prince and His Rose was painted in 2015, after I had learned what it meant to care for your loved one, to whom you would readily give up your own life, and that is a privilege not all of us can have!  My mother, that is.).  I think all forms of love are the same, measured only by the boundless love between mother and daughter, as love is evidenced by giving and never by taking.

--my favorite red bud tree overlooking a tranquil little lake  in my backyard (I painted a version of my peach tree, based on the view of this red bud tree, just this week).

(Roses and Eastern red bud trees were brought into the settings for several scenes in my novel (remember Mimi was the woman who ate her rose during a romantic dinner, and Simone was the woman who woke up to her pink magnolia and red bud trees, and the silhouette of her aging mother walking among long-stem roses reminded her of the family mission of finding the magnolia tree of the past).

--a view of the breakfast area/glass table overlooking a side yard.

--a view of a piano in crowded space behind a "barricade" of "roses!"

(Lovers of contemporary mid-20th century visual art would recognize that the patterns and colors of the fabric chosen for the window valance came from several pieces of Picasso's cubism on women, and the fabric used for window decoratives actually match the colors from one of Van Gogh's most famous pieces (scene of an empty street corner, late at night, brightened by stars -- you know which piece I am referring to!).