VĂN HỌC NGHỆ THUẬT Liên Mạng

vhnt, số 74

3 October 1995

CHIỀU

thơ: Hồ Dzếnh

Phổ nhạc: Dương Thiệu Tước

Tempo di Habanera

Trên đường về nhớ đầy

Chiều chậm đưa chân ngày

Tiếng buồn vang trên mây,

Tiếng buồn vang trong mâỵ

Chim rừng quên cất cánh

Gió say tình ngây ngây

Có phải sầu vạn cổ,

chất trong hồn chiều nay,

chất trong hồn chiều naỵ

Tôi là người lữ khách

Mầu chiều khó làm khuây

Ngỡ lòng mình là rừng

Ngỡ hồn mình là mây

Nhớ nhà châm điếu thuốc

Khói huyền bay lên câỵ

Trên đường về nhớ đầy

Chiều chậm đưa chân ngày

Tiếng buồn vang trong mây

Tiếng buồn vang trong mây

oOo

BÓNG CHIỀU XƯA

Nhạc và lời:  Dương Thiệu Tước & Minh Trang

Một chiều ái ân

Say hồn ta bao lần

Một trời đắm duyên thơ

Cho đời bao phút ơ thờ

Ngạt ngào sắc hương

Tay cầm tay luyến thương

Ðôi mắt em nhìn càng say đắm

mơ màng nào thấy đâu sầu vương.

Một chiều bên nhau

một chiều vui sống quên phút tang bồng

Anh (Em) ơi nhớ chăng

xa anh em hát khúc ca nhớ mong

  (em) (anh)

Một chiềi gió mưa

Em(Anh) về thăm chốn xưa

Non nước u buồn nào đâu bóng

cố nhân lòng xót xa tình xưa (Fine)

Lâng lâng chiều mơ

Một chiều bâng khuâng đâu nguồn thơ

Mây vương sầu lan

Gió ơi đưa hồn về làng cũ

nhắn thầm lời nguyện ước trong chiều xưa

Thương nhau làm chi

Âm thầm lệ vương khi biệt ly

Xa xôi còn chi

Vô tình em nhớ mối duyên hờ

Tình như mây khói

bóng ai xa mờ

Một chiều ái...

oOo

ÐÊM TÀN BẾN NGỰ

Lời và nhạc: Dương Thiệu Tước

Moderato

Ai về bến Ngự cho ta nhắn cùng

Nhớ chăng non nước Hương Bình

Có những ngày xanh

Lưu luyến bao tình

Vương mối tơ mành

Hàng cây soi bóng nước Hương

Thuyền xa đậu bến Tiêu Tương

Lưu luyến thay phút say hương dịu buồn

Nhưng thoảng nghe khúc ca "Nam Bình" sầu than!

Như nức nở khóc duyên bẽ bàng!

Thấp thóang trăng mờ

Ai than ai thở đời vui chi trong sương gió

Ai nhớ thương ai

Ðây lúc đêm tàn tình đã lạt phai

Thuyền ai đưa ta tới đâu

Tìm trăng trăng khuất đã lâu

Sương xuống trên bến cô liêu thêm sầu

Bèo nước gió mây đêm ngắn tình dài

Có ai nhớ ai nơi giang đầu

IỊ Ai về bến Ngự cho ta nhắn cùng

Bến xưa non nước Hương BÌnh

Những phút tàn canh

Vương vấn bao tình

Ai rứt sao đành

Thuyền mơ trong khúc "Nam Ai"

Ai luyến ai tiếc khúc ca Tần Hòai!

Ôi vẳng nghe tiếng ai âm thầm trầm ngân

Như nhắn nhủ mối duyên thờ ơ

Sông nước lững lờ

Ai mong ai chờ đời vui chi trong sương gió

Ðây phút cô đơn

Ai oán cung đàn sầu vọng trần gian

Thuyền ơi đưa ta tới đâu!

Hồn thơ vương vấn canh thâu

Thương tiếc chi phút bên nhau thêm sầu

Bao kiếp giang hồ ly biệt thường tình

Có ai nhớ ai nơi Hương Bình.

oOo

KIẾP HOA

Nhạc và lời: Dương Thiệu Tước

Tango Habanera (Chậm và dịu dàng)

Trong vườn chiều êm nắng tươi

Ðàn buớm lượn bay tưng bừng

Mầu cánh vàng xanh trắng hồng

Rung rinh lướt êm lẫn cùng sắc hoa

Vui đùa lững lờ bên hoa

Bầy én lượn bay tưng bừng

Ngàn tiếng đồng ca vang lừng

Hầu như lãng quên tháng ngày dần trôi

Nhưng bên luống hoa

Kìa ai ngồi thở than

Thương cho đời hoa khéo sao sớm nở tối tàn

Mà sao giờ đây muôn hoa thắm tươi

hương theo gió đưa trong muôn sắc huy hòang

Ai có ngờ đâu khi ánh tà dương

lắng sau màn sương

Hoa lìa cành biếc hồn theo gió vương

Nhưng bên luống hoa Kìa ai ngồi thở than

Lo thay hồng nhan giống hoa sớm nở tối tàn

Trong vườn chiều êm nắng ...(Hát trở lại ban đầu)

... tàn 

Ðàn ai tơ vương Cho khuây mối sầu thương (FINE)

Dũng Nguyễn sưu tầm

Em Và Anh

đến với Mây Thu

Em, má đỏ, môi hồng, chiều dạo phố;

Anh lãng tử, xa nhà, ngắm ngẩn ngơ;

Rồi về anh viết vần thơ;

Tình còn chưa có, mà mơ mộng gì!

Em còn đang tuổi của xuân thì;

Anh đời chồng chất, tuổi già đi;

Tình nầy em sẽ được gì!

Ngoài con tim buốt, đậm ghi những buồn!!!

Quách Cường  
Calif. 10/01/95

Giai Nhân, Sương Khói Và Mùa Thu

3/10/95

Em là hình ảnh của giai nhân

Một sớm tinh mơ bước xuống trần

Mùa Thu sương khói giăng màu trắng

Phơ phất em mơ mộng Nữ Thần

You

  the image of beauty

     coming to this world

        one early morning

Autumn

    its misty white

      and you

         alone in your dream...

Luân Hồ Triệu 

Back Home 95
(Part 10 - continued)

Once the bus moved out of the gate of Miền Tây bus Station, it made a left turn onto Highway 1.  Along the right side of the road people stood waving trying to catch the bus.  The bus slowed down but didn't stop completely because it was not allowed to park on the narrow but busy Highway 1 without pulling over the side.  Unlike other buses elsewhere, beside the driver, this bus had at least 3 more bus assistants to help make the journey possible!  Two men were needed to guard the front and back door, one to climb on the roof for loading and unloading the cargoes, and a woman to collect money.

"Ay, ay, ay!  Move out!  Move out!" screamed one of the bus assistants, extending his hand and leg outward into the air.  "Ay ay ay!  Move move move!  Here, here, give me your hand!  Come!  Up.  Up.  Up." 

People came running along in panic as they tried to jump onto the bus.  Some got on from the front door, others, the back door.  Street sellers, mostly boys and girls, marched along side the bus windows desperately trying to sell something.  The bus moved on without waiting for the newly arrived passengers to settle down.  A woman couldn't steady herself at the suđen acceleration of the bus.  She came falling right on top of the people sitting on the floor.

"Heaven!  My leg!" said the woman. 

"Uh, sorry.  We have to move on.  Can't stay on the road too long," said the bus driver. 

"You have to move on even if you have to kill me?" 

"Sorry.  I said sorry."  

Before the bus could go a hundred yards further, it slowed down again to pick up more passengers on the road.

"Move out!  Move, move, move!" said the bus assistant.  "Where you go?  Cần Thơ?   Cần Thơ?  Get on!  No.  Not here.  No more room here.  Go to the back.  Go to the back door!  Driver!  All clear!  Proceed!" 

The bus accelerated forward pushing the mass of human bodies forward and then backward like the trees waving in the wind.  Soon there was no more room, not even room on the floor near the doors, for people to stand!  Although the bus was completely filled with people, the greedy bus operators kept on picking up people and pulling them onto the bus. 

Once we moved further away and out of Saigon city, there was no more passenger waiting along the road.  The bus picked up a speed of about 45 Km per hour.

Although the rice paddies along the road looked so beautiful, I couldn't enjoy the scenery with ease because I was sitting in the middle.  There was hardly room left for anything.  If it weren't for the wind constantly supplying us with fresh air, wéd be choked to death.  My bottom began to hurt terribly, and my legs, after a long time without movement, felt numb.  The back of the seat wasn't tall enough for me to rest my head either!  The only thing I could do to relax the stress was to stand up slightly and lift myself a few inches up above the seat.  Such a slight maneuver sometimes helped release the pain greatly but for only a short moment. 

The bus continued to move on at a steady rate.  There were very few bicycles or motorcycles traveling on the road.  Once in a while, whenever the bus was about to pass a bike rider, the driver honked and honked in order to give a warning.  The bike rider was forced to give up room for the monstrous bus.  Here, on the unpaved road of Highway 1 in Vietnam, the moral was neither the survival of the biggest nor the smallest but the fastest, and luck. 

Then all of a suđen it began to drip.  The wind carried the rain splashing into the bus.  All windows came down, trapping us inside with so little air which soon would deprive us of breathing.  Somewhere somebody threw up.  Somewhere a kid cried for lack of air.  And there were the complaints of all sort of things that only a depress person could think of!  The bus shook.  The glass windows were covered with a thin layer of fog which was produced by our warm breathing.  The scenery was flashing by the windows in a blurry image.  The smell was beginning to irritate me.  Some raised the windows up a little bit to get more air. 

Fortunately, the rain stopped shortly.  The sun came out shining brightly All windows were raised again.  Fresh air came in to our rescue. 

A few hours of sitting in the same position made every muscle in my body ached.  Soon, traffics began to thicken as we approached Bắc Mỹ Thuận Ferry which crossed the Me Kong Delta.  Faster vehicles tried to change lane to get ahead but slower vehicles refused to make room!  The race continued at the cost of many lives sitting in this bus.  I sat staring at traffics running frantically ahead while my ears were deafened by the sound of honking.

"Heavens!  Did you see that car lying on its back on the side road?" said the man sitting on my left near the window.

"Oh, uh, no I didn't!" I said.  "There was an accident?"

"Yes, I think." 

The bus made a turn and up ahead I saw people sitting on both sides of the road along the houses selling all kind of colorful fruits.

"All men please get off the bus for a walk!" said the driver. 

No one moved!  How could we with our bodies stuck together like that!  Before anyone could make a motion, street sellers came running up the bus.  I didn't know how they were able to move from one end of the bus to the other with a basket full of fruits! 

"Damn it!  Get the hell off my bus you street sellers!"  screamed one of the bus assistants.  "We try to get off and here you try to get on!  Ladies and gentlemen!  Pleasẹ  Get off!  The longer you stay on the bus the longer the delay.  Please.  We don't want to miss the ferry.  Once more for the sake of my great great grandparents, get off the bus please.  I beg you!" 

I wasn't sure if I wanted to get off but, what the heck, it couldn't be worse than this.  I tried to get up but I couldn't.  My backpack got stuck below the chair.  One of my sandals wasn't under my feet.  Where did it go?  I couldn't bend my head down to look.  I tried to move my feet backward, forward, and sideways all around trying to fish for one of my lost sandals but to no avail.  The girl on my right stared at me questioningly when my feet knocked into hers.

"Oops, sorry," I said.  "I uh I was looking for my sandals underneath.  Somewhere?"

"I got it," said the man on my right, holding it in the air. 

"Oh, thank you," I said, taking it but couldn't put it on until I was able to stand on my seat. 

The girls tried to make room for me to get out but it didn't make any difference.  There I stood, on my seat with my backpack in my hand, waiting for the men in the front to move off.  I had a hard time wading through the women sitting and the debris lying on the floor but made it anyhow. 

The minute I stepped off the bus, one of the bus assistants gave me a free ferry ticket to cross the river.  I looked at the bus one more time very carefully before I walked forward quickly.  There were two long lines of vehicles waiting with the engines still on.  I put the backpack on my shoulder and began to walk along the sidewalk under the low extended plastic roof of the row of stores. 

"Please rest here.  Come in for lunch."

"Longans here!  Longans here!"

"Drinks drinks drinks!" 

I walked on and on slowly enjoying the scene.  Then I saw a woman squatting on the floor in front of her basket full of guavas. 

"How do you sell them guavas?" I said. 

"Two thousand dong a kilogram," said the woman. 

"How much that one?" 

"This one.  Just one."

"Yes.  Just one."

"Here.  No need to weigh it.  Two hundred dong."

"Finẹ  Give me that one," I said, handing her five hundred dong. 

"Sorry.  No change.  Why don't you get this bigger one for three hundred?"

"Sure."

"Here's your change.  Two hundred." 

In Vietnamese currency, there was no one hundred dong or none that I knew of.  Thus a change of three hundred dong was impossible. 

I continued to walk with the 3-cent guava in my hand.  I tried to eat it but it was so big and dusty that I kept on looking at it in wonder.

"Hehehe.  You need a knife." said a girl sitting inside a house.  "Here.  Come.  I lend you a knife."

"Oh, yes, thank you," I said and approached her.  "Thanks.  I wouldn't know what to do without a knife!" 

I took the small knife which was not only old but dull and rust.  On the second thought, I wouldn't mind not having a knife.  Anyway, I continued to peel the outer layer of the guava as quick as I could. 

"Oh, heavens!  You almost peel off half of the guava!  Hehehehe," said the girl.

"Well, I could only finish half!  Hehehehe."  I said.  "This is my lunch."

"For heaven's sake!  Guava for lunch?  Hehehehe.  It will upset your stomach!  Why don't you come inside for lunch?  Here.  Sit on the table.  What you eat?" 

Gosh!  She was good!  However, I didn't want to lose my bus so I refused with a lot of discomfort. 

"Uh, sorrỵ  Sorrỵ  Maybe next time," I said and walked away quicklu.  "I gotta catch up with the bus." 

"Hey, what about my knife?" 

"Oh, uh, here.  Sorry.  I forgot." 

"No problem. hehehe." 

I continued to walk as I ate my guava.  I walked pass an office window which sold ticket for crossing the ferry.   A few feet ahead, a man in uniform was sitting on a chair collecting the tickets.  I gave him mine and walked on.  It was too early.  Thus I sat on the marble bench waiting for my bus to come by before I went down onto the ferry.  I didn't want to go neither too late nor too early for either way I might lose the bus. 

"Gum?" said a little girl, holding a box full of candies. 

"Corn here!  Corn here!" 

"Cigarette!  Cigarette!" 

Right in front of me, two police patrol officers were checking dentifications of those motorcycle riders whose bike's speed ranged over 100cc.  Unlike cars and busses, motorcycles and bicycles shared the same sidewalk with pedestrians!  

"This is not a legal identification," said one of the police officers. 

"Sorry.  I don't have the real one with me," said a man sitting on his large motorcycle with a woman behind him.  

"I need to see the real one." 

"But I don't have it here with me."

"Then, please stay aside until you can prove to me that you are licensed to operate this motorcycle." 

The woman got off the motorcycle and began to search for something in her purse.  Then she pulled the patrol officer aside for a brief exchange.  Out of the corner of my eyes I saw the woman squeezed the money into the officer's hand.  He, of course, took it happily.  They returned.  The woman climbed on the motorcycle. 

"Please drive ahead to make room for others," said the officer who accepted the money. 

There were more motorcycles lining up for inspection.  At that moment I saw my bus rolling along.  For the first time I noticed that on the roof of my bus tons of cargoes were loaded from one end to the other.  That much of a weight made me scare because if there were an accident to visit us, even a minor one, the bus would turn over on its side easily. 

The inner pedestrian gate finally opened and I followed the people crossing the bridge and down onto the cement platform which connected to the ferry. 

I just finished my guava and I felt a growl in my stomach.  The girl was right!  I got an upset stomach.  I waited for my bus to come down before I stepped onto the ferry and followed it. 

"Phở please," said a girl squatting on the side of ferry as I walked by. 

She was carrying at least 20 bowls of Phở all in three trays stacking one on top of the other!  The steams rose from the bowls sitting on the top tray.  There were people standing all over on both sides of the ferry.  Up front in the middle, motorcycle and bicycle riders sat on their bikes.  Behind them parked cars and buses and trucks.  Without further delay, I got onto my bus. 

There were many street sellers walking up and down the crowded bus selling all kind of fruits and drinks.  One thing I was impressed upon was that people knew where they originally sat.  Although the bus was crowded with people already, my seat was still not occupied!  An old woman stood next by. 

"Would you like to sit in my seat?" I said to the old woman, trying to be a gentleman which I later on regret!

"Yes.  Thank you.  That was very kind of you, son," said she. 

Thus, I found myself standing in the aisle with hardly enough room for me to sit.  It was so hot inside the bus that everyone seemed soakingly wet with tiny drips of sweat on their forehead.  I kept on wiping my neck with a towel but couldn't stop the leak. 

Up front, there was a big man, a giant Westerner, standing with his hands fondling the heads of little kids surrounded him.  They offered him cigarettes, gums, candies, newspapers, and all sort of things but he kept on shaking his head with a delight smile on his face for the attention he received. 

The ferry turned and moved very slowly, too slow that I could hardly aware of its movement without a reference.  Fifteen minutes later we reached the other side.  The drivers started the vehicles and all of a sudden the noise of the engines came alive.  The ferry bumped into the cement platform and shook a bit making a clanging sound.  In the miđle, vehicles moved off one after another.  On both sides, people marched off.  Back onto Highway 1 we went. 

"Here, Sir.  You sit here," said one of the bus assistants, pulling out a tiny chair out of nowhere.  "You sit here, Sir." 

I stared at the chair in shock.  It was more like a toy.  Anyway, I sat on it and the next thing I knew, I was buried among the people and boxes in the aisle up to my shoulder.  I wrapped my hands protectively around my backpack which lay safely in my arms.  There was nothing I could do.

(To be continued...)

Thank you for reading.
Lam T. Hy

MY OTHER JOURNALS:

   Back Home 91 (4 parts)

   Back Home 93 (15 parts)

   Back Home 95 (part 3 in progress)