A peaceful landscape in the countryside. Photo by Pham Van Chai

But my friend doesn’t put the phone down. He starts with a husky voice as if he has just sobbed violently (Perhaps he sobs). “ You maybe find it strange but to me, homeland means tropical low pressure. Whenever I hear about storm in Vietnam, I grieve very much and homeland appears clearly in my mind. Why I don’t return home? It’s a long and hard story to tell. Anyhow, I will certainly come home” said him. Well, words can express many great metaphisical things but sometimes fails to depict human being emotion. That’s the reason of art birth and long-lasting existance. Music is usually the first option. Musician Giap Van Thach, in a moment of his entrancement, writes the song Homeland at a stretch, I believe. “Homeland is symbolized with a bunch of magic star-fruit…Homeland is incarnated in way to school… Homeland is depicted as an amazing kite…”. No one minds splitting hairs at the obscure words of the song. No one doubts whether the definitions is correct. Many singers sings this song but no one can arouse deep nostalgia like Bao Yen.  (Click here to listen to Homeland – music: Giap Van Thach, words: Do Trung Quan, singer: Bao Yen)

Nostalgia of far-away people is usually sweet. It probably means a melodious tune of a chanty, a fragance of ripe rice, a cluster of clouds, a sunbeam,etc. Sometimes, such a vague feeling can take us lost in our thought about the sweet memories and keep our mind wandering peacefully back-and-forth the past and the present. In such fantastic moment, musicians like Thanh Son, Vy Nhat Tao let their streams of feeling go freely with tunes of folk songs and then compose folk-style songs about homeland. Listen to the songs, you can imagine immediately pictureque scenery of the calling homeland. “…Bright moon light spreads all over evening dewed rice fields/ Sound of rice grind echoes everywhere/ How beautiful is the village in the harvest golden moonlight/ This melody is employed to express nostalgia/ Wherever you may go, you can’t forget your childhood. Whatever conner of the world you arrive, the nostalgia will go together with you all of your life…” (Click here to listen to A journey to homeland by boat – word: Vy Nhat Tao, singer: Cam Van; Reminiscence of the homeland – music: Thanh Son, singer: Thu Hien)

It is explainable for a person living far away his homeland to suffer the nostalgia but it is quite strange for a native who have been living in his locality to experience the homesickness. That’s true of one of my friend. Whenever Binh Dinh Province has a big event such as inauguration of Thi Nai Bridge, he suddenly feels homesickness although he still stands on Binh Dinh land. When I first made the acquaintance of him, I used to think he pretended to be the sufferer. After a long time of keeping contact with him, I realize my misunderstanding. He loves his homeland so much that his pride of the homeland can be ignited by the most trivial things. In fact, our love of the country always exists in our flesh and blood. It suddenly shows out in right moment. However, not everybody owns such great love of the homeland. We must grow to a certain age in our life and gain many practical experiences to realize such the nostalgia.

Musician Do Nhuan composes his song Vietnam-my homeland in another style. There is no nostalgia awakening our past memories. The song leads us to future. It prompts our ears and eyes for more optimistic vision of the country. It causes us to be more proud of the country, of our noble race. “Spring is coming to our peaceful country/ Sweet sugar-cane fields, verdant tea fields, cotton fields with white blossomed flowers covers huge hills/ Rice crops are waving in the wind/ Someone is singing lullaby/ The rice fields are so vast that stocks find / Water supply is reaching my villages…(Click here to listen to Vietnam-my homeland – music: Do Nhuan, singer: Trong Tan-Dang Duong-Viet Hoan).

I want to employ words of Homeland as the close of this writing. “Each person has only one homeland as he has only one mother/ If he doesn’t miss his homeland, he will never be mature…”

• Written by Kieu Phong
• Translated by To Uyen