flawless Asian (Korean) soprano singing Schubert

 

Song of Liberty VERDI and Ukraine-South Vietnam 47 years

 

three tulip dancers...but how many tulips?

 

My Vietnamese childhood and teenage days: From Vietnamese poetry recitals to Chopin and then Joni Mitchell

 Both sides now, and the circle game.  

Yes, that was part of my teenage days in Saigon, pre-1975.  There was a young, teenage Chinese actress who sang Joni Mitchell's Circle Game to me in a Chinese movie. 

Our house was near a cinema theater named Rap chieu bong Thanh Van, duong Le van Duyet Saigon gan cho Hoa Hung.  

Joni was so down-to-earth and sincere and expressive and meaningful.  She delivered songs of the heart: those beautiful notes and symbolic words, typifying the musical soul of contemporary America in transition: the latter half of the 20th century: the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, assassinations, hippies and beatniks, bell-bottom pants and long-sleeved T-shirts, dancing a gogo, etc. 

Yes, all those did get to a free South Vietnam, pre-1975. There was the countryside burnt with warfare, and divisiveness of the people, but there was also the hope of the middle-class...

 

one hell of a vietnamese woman: the multi-talented GS / Co^ Nguyen Kim Oanh of former Gia Long High School

 You can only know how talented she is in various Vietnamese arts by knowing her and seeing her at work. 

poetry for April

SOUTH VIETNAM-UKRAINES: 48 YEARS

©Nguyen Thi SaiGon

April 2022,

World, you’re all joining hands crying for Ukraine

We too were forced to leave our home the same,

on flimsy boats and cargo planes

We, too, lost our land

Then why 48 years ago you didn’t cry for us

48 years ago we alone pulled our hearse

Unlike Ukraine, we were called The Defeated

but not The Invaded

April 2022,

World, you’re all carrying your torch for Ukraine,

but 48 years ago, no torch for us

‘cause our war was brotherhood at battle,

yet Soviet was involved,

to have Marx installed

And China too, after Nixon’s trip

Tell me, then, about the international chip

that turned off the world’s light, and turned on our fate

So let me reach out to that Ukrainian,

whose sickly grandmother may be dying after too much weep

while skeleton grandfather keeps on living

in hopes of a reunion

but death already signals,

in separation

You, my Ukrainian counterpart, can’t rush back to take them with you

Promises no longer hold true

April 2022,

48 years ago, I crossed the ocean

I, too, left behind a sick grandmother

and the feeble grandfather, trembling his skeleton self

***

So, my counterpart Ukrainian, in memory we meet

On the last plane out, I did not look back,

and pretended I had no more slack

Before the airport was rocketed,

I heard a soldier had shot himself, to avoid being executed,

as invaders rolled in, tanks and armies in uniform,

The world ahead of me said no,

no invasion

So, no,

no intervention

The winners declared

April their Liberation

I am grieving for you, that Ukrainian

The wrenching moment when you depart,

you, too, must have a grandmother, whose tears pierce her heart

and a feeble grandfather who lives on to starve

When they die, only their souls fly to your side

Like me, you will learn to live through the night

So let me sing to you, Ukraine

the song of my defunct home:

I am that collapsed South Vietnam whose grandparents have long been dead

In the gap of 48 years, my wound’s still fresh

oozing still, behind emotional bandaid

You, Ukraine and me,

the child of liberty,

our right to be free

© Nguyen Thi Saigon 4/12/2022

SOLENE IS GREAT HERE; SHE IS SO NATURAL

 I can reach her high notes. But my vibrato is ruined.  She is almost dramatic coloratura. I had hi hopes that she is Vietnamese so i can be proud. but, she is NOT Vietnamese. 

Is she Vietnamese? This Paris-based opera singer, Ms. Le Van (now in the U.S.)

Please check her out:  

http://www.solenelevan.net/newspage

http://www.solenelevan.net/newspage

 I have listened to her sing.  She is the real thing. Operatic.  I can't say with conviction whether she sang her heart out, with soulful expression that touches people or that people understand her art, but she expressed the music, the text and the role -- what an opera singer should do in the repertoire.   AND, SHE DOES NOT NEED A MICROPHONE!  HER TRAINED VOICE, VERY PROPERLY USED, ROSE ABOVE THE ORCHESTRA. 

This is legitimately an opera singer. She appeared in roles with opera companies and on recital/operatic stage. 

In my work, life, and travels, I have met and listened to many real Vietnam-born classical and opera singers, including counter-tenors and dramatic sopranos.  Or, they are of Vietnamese descent either by their father or mother.  I have also known of Vietnam-born ballet dancers and modern dancers (members of the American Dance Company).  

While practicing law full time with major law firms, billing 2200 hours a years, and as a prosecutor for the U.S. government, I myself took up ballet, classical singing, musical theater,  operatic voice training, and appeared in American productions as a young adult, within 5 years after the fall of Saigon and going forward until age 42 (1999).  I just never had enough time to practice except when I auditioned or was cast.  In those incidents, I took leaves of absence without pay from work to do the art. 

Naturally I remain an amateur who only did what I could or enjoyed.  But, I can recognize performing art professionals when I see and watch them.  I can assess because I absorbed knowledge and learning from the places where I have been, no matter how short and often under great challenges because a person only has 24 hours a day and can only do so much. 

I become a better person.     

Toselli and Schubert: L'Art Brut presentation

 

DICH THO HO XUAN HUONG

 Ông Trần Giao Thuỷ viết như thế nảy: 

Tập thơ “Spring Essence The Poetry of Hồ Xuân Hương”, do Copper Cayon Press phát hành năm 2000, do John Balaban biên tập và dịch.

Balaban là ai?

John Balaban là tác giả của mười ba cuốn thơ và văn xuôi, trong đó có bốn tập đã đoạt giải Lamont của The Academy of American Poets, và nhiều danh dự khác. Năm 2008, ông được Bộ Văn hóa Việt Nam trao tặng huy chương về công tác dịch thuật và bảo tồn số hóa các văn bản cổ.

Ngoài viết thơ, tiểu thuyết và truyện phi hư cấu, Balaban còn là một dịch giả thơ Việt Nam và là cựu chủ tịch của Hội Dịch giả Văn học Hoa Kỳ và cũng là người sáng lập và giám đốc Quỹ Bảo tồn chữ Nôm Việt Nam.

Vắn tắt, đối với người viết thì Balaban ở bậc “thầy của thầy” trong phạm trù dịch thuật văn học. Trong cuốn, “Spring Essence” ông viết,

 “Sick with sadness, spring passes, spring returns, / A bit of love shared, just the littlest bit.”^[11]

Một đoạn dịch rất hay nhưng vẫn không thể như nguyên bản với những điệp từ, một nghệ thuật, với mục đích làm tăng cảm xúc của câu thơ (“con con” ) hay như một cách chơi chữ (“lại lại”, returns again)

 “Ngán nỗi xuân đi xuân lại lại, / Mảnh tình san sẻ tí con con.”^[12]

  

Ở một bài khác Balaban viết,

“Kind sir, if you love me, pierce me with your stick. / Caress me and sap will slicken your hand.”^[13]

Vẫn hay nhưng không thấm như

“Quân tử có yêu thì đóng cọc, / Xin đừng mân mó, nhựa ra tay.”^[14]

 

TÔI BIẾT ÔNG BALABAN LÀ AI, COI NHƯ ĐỒ̉NG NGHIỆP. 

XIN QUÝ VỊ ĐỌC PHẦN DỊCH CUẢ TÔI: 

“Ngán nỗi xuân đi xuân lại lại, / Mảnh tình san sẻ tí con con.”


Câu này hay nhờ những chữ nhiều nghĩa được lập đi lập lại, vì thế khi viết thành tiếng Anh, cũng nên dùng thuật ngữ nhiều nghiã, lập đi lập lại như vậy:



Boredom strikes, with foregone spring, bygone,
Fed up with spring time,
spring is now back, oh, back-to-back
A bit of love shared, a little, of such tiny bit DNN(c) 4/3/2022



“Quân tử có yêu thì đóng cọc, / Xin đừng mân mó, nhựa ra tay.”


Bản dịch cần đủ nghĩa nhưng phải thanh tao và phải có âm vần điệu ̣rhyme and musicality:



Hold me in place with your spear
as proof of your love: far too sincere
Don’t just touch and mold,
Beware of the sap, a simple handful DNN(c)4/3/2022