Tây Tiến/ Westward Advancement – Quang Dũng
Far behind is the Mã River, Westward Marching troops! – Sông Mã xa rồi, Tây Tiến ơi
Still thinking of jungles and mountains is a staggering nostalgia. – Nhớ về rừng núi, nhớ chơi vơi
In Sài Khao, mist concealed the well-worn soldiers. – Sài Khao sương lấp đoàn quân mỏi
In Mường Lát, on a steamy night, the flowers returned. – Mường Lát hoa về trong đêm hơi
The upward slope was daunting and tortuous. – Dốc lên khúc khuỷu dốc thăm thẳm
Among desolate banks of cloud, gun muzzles sniffed the sky. – Heo hút cồn mây, súng ngửi trời
A thousand meters ascent, another thousand descent; – Ngàn thước lên cao, ngàn thước xuống
Someone’s house in rainy Pha Luông, far away. – Nhà ai Pha Luông mưa xa khơi
A weather-beaten companion halted, – Anh bạn dãi dầu không bước nữa
Slumping on his helmet and gun; he left life behind. – Gục lên súng mũ bỏ quên đời
In the evening there thundered majestic waterfalls. – Chiều chiều oai linh thác gầm thét
At night, in Mường Hịch, tigers teased the people. – Đêm đêm Mường Hịch cọp trêu người
Oh Westward March, with the scent of steaming rice. – Nhớ ôi Tây Tiến cơm lên khói
Her season of fragrant fields in Mai Châu, – Mai Châu mùa em thơm nếp xôi
The barracks brightened up for a bridal gala. – Doanh trại bừng lên hội đuốc hoa
Lo and behold, she was already dressed. – Kìa em xiêm áo tự bao giờ
Coy she was as the panpipe played a Man tune. – Khèn lên Man điệu nàng e ấp
Toward Vientiane, the music inspired poetry. – Nhạc về Viên Chăn xây hồn thơ
Those of you who left for Châu Mộc that misty evening, – Người đi Châu Mộc chiều sương ấy
Did you notice the spirit of reeds along river banks? – Có thấy hồn lau nẻo bến bờ
The allure of lasses in dugouts? – Có nhớ dáng người trên độc mộc
Floating on swift-flowing water like flowers – Trôi dòng nước lũ hoa đong đưa
Westward Marching troops went bald. – Tây Tiến đoàn binh không mọc tóc
Pale like leaves, we stayed fierce as tigers. – Quân xanh màu lá dữ oai hùm
With wide eyes we sent reveries across the border. – Mắt trừng gửi mộng qua biên giới
At night, we dreamt of Hanoi and its charming beauties. – Đêm mơ Hà Nội dáng kiều thơm
Scattered along the frontier were graves far from home – Rải rác biên cương mồ viễn xứ
Of those who left for battlefields without regretting their youth. – Chiến trường đi chẳng tiếc đời xanh
Shrouded in uniforms instead of reed mats, they returned to the earth. – Áo bào thay chiếu, anh về đất
The Mã River roared a solo-journey dirge. – Sông Mã gầm lên khúc độc hành
Westward Marching soldiers left without promises. – Tây Tiến người đi không hẹn ước
Their remote expedition meant in itself a separation. – Đường lên thăm thẳm một chia phôi
Those who joined the Westward March that spring – Ai lên Tây Tiến mùa xuân ấy
Had their minds set for Sam Nua, not the plains. – Hồn về Sầm Nứa chẳng về xuôi
The beauty of nature in the Northwest
The Northwest is nostalgic to play with.
As a romantic and flamboyant soldier, he departed at the call of the Fatherland, deeply attached to the Northwest land. With his comrades here when he recalled the Northwest, he remembered the battlefield. All his memories from the past rushed back to the poet. We see nostalgia pervading from the beginning of the poem: Ma River is far away, Tay Tien!
Remembering the mountains, remembering far away Sai Khao, covering the tired army with Muong Lat flowers, coming back in the night. The words “remember” “remember” and then the two voices calling Tay Tien, dear, sounded familiar and earnest. The use of exclamation and personification, especially the image of the Ma River, appears at the beginning of the poem.
This is no longer a mere river of nature, it is now a river of emotions, mood, and inspiration. We know the Ma River is a river that flows along the Northwest, that’s why Tay Tien soldiers marched along this land, so the Ma river became the soldier’s companion for them to express their feelings.
For poet Quang Dung, it is even more meaningful. The image of the Ma river appears throughout from the beginning to the end of the poem. From the image of the Ma River, there are many new places that are both strange and familiar, making the Northwest land appear so dear.
Therefore, the Northwest is not only a piece of land, but it is also a piece of life, a piece of love, and a piece of the soldier’s soul. And nostalgia here is not ordinary nostalgia, it is nostalgia without form, a floating nostalgia spreading immensely between the two banks of reality, between the past and the present.
Far behind is the Mã River, Westward Marching troops! – Sông Mã xa rồi, Tây Tiến ơi
Still thinking of jungles and mountains is a staggering nostalgia. – Nhớ về rừng núi, nhớ chơi vơi
In Sài Khao, mist concealed the well-worn soldiers. – Sài Khao sương lấp đoàn quân mỏi
In Mường Lát, on a steamy night, the flowers returned. – Mường Lát hoa về trong đêm hơi
The upward slope was daunting and tortuous. – Dốc lên khúc khuỷu dốc thăm thẳm
Among desolate banks of cloud, gun muzzles sniffed the sky. – Heo hút cồn mây, súng ngửi trời
A thousand meters ascent, another thousand descent; – Ngàn thước lên cao, ngàn thước xuống
Someone’s house in rainy Pha Luông, far away. – Nhà ai Pha Luông mưa xa khơi
A weather-beaten companion halted, – Anh bạn dãi dầu không bước nữa
Slumping on his helmet and gun; he left life behind. – Gục lên súng mũ bỏ quên đời
In the evening there thundered majestic waterfalls. – Chiều chiều oai linh thác gầm thét
At night, in Mường Hịch, tigers teased the people. – Đêm đêm Mường Hịch cọp trêu người
The rhythm of the original poem in Vietnamese makes us feel like the verse is broken in half, stamped, making us feel like in front of us is a relief of the Northwest mountains and forests. The Northwest keeps appearing with the same message, high mountains and deep passes.
And then to support such a poetic rhythm, the author uses a lot of syllables: “crooked, deep, entrancing…” and uses counting words like “thousand yards,” or contrasting words, opposite directions such as up and down.
Just like that, the image of the Northwest is very fierce and dangerous, it is the wild roads, and the Northwest is also a sacred forest with poisonous water with roaring waterfalls, Muong Hich tigers teasing people…
When writing about the land of the North West which is wild and fierce like this, Quang Dung has very strong and sinewy drawings with rich music and graphics. Here we do not see the fear of the soldier, but on the contrary, it exalts the strength, the strong soldier. Tay Tien resounded like the solid, strong footsteps of the Tay Tien soldiers.
The Northwest is poetic and lyrical
The upward slope was daunting and tortuous. – Dốc lên khúc khuỷu dốc thăm thẳm
Among desolate banks of cloud, gun muzzles sniffed the sky. – Heo hút cồn mây, súng ngửi trời
A thousand meters ascent, another thousand descent; – Ngàn thước lên cao, ngàn thước xuống
Someone’s house in rainy Pha Luông, far away. – Nhà ai Pha Luông mưa xa khơi
The first three lines of the poem are very wild, but the last verse is like a shout. In the middle of the dangerous remote mountains, the image of a house floating in the rain creates a romantic feeling, bringing the warmth of life. It shows that Tay Tien soldiers are not alone in the mountains. And the image of the house shows a very warm, lyrical, and poetic Northwest.
The next verse “Oh Westward March, with the scent of steaming rice. Her season of fragrant fields (or sticky rice in Vietnamese) in Mai Châu,” In fact, if we look at the tone, a poem as rich in music as Tay Tien, of course we always have to pay attention to the tone. The tone in Vietnamese “trac, equal, equal, trom, equal, equal, trom”. It’s always floating like smoke spreading in the middle of the afternoon amidst the mountains, so romantic and fanciful.
The poem “Her season of fragrant fields in Mai Châu,” in which the word “season of you (or “little sister” in Vietnamese)” is really a new creation of Quang Dung in terms of language. Normally, we often associate it with the rice season, lychee season, tangerine season, and longan season, but here Quang Dung said it was the season of the younger sister. Surely this is a method of anthropomorphization that makes Mai Chau’s image appear very close. Mai Chau’s image appears as a beautiful girl, the color of her lips in her youth, the most beautiful age of the young. For women, the addition of fragrant words evokes a feeling of closeness, abundance, and warmth.
A Northwest is both beautiful, very desolate, quiet, intense, yet romantic, rich, and full, and in this lyrical dreamy look, the two contrasting and opposing methods show the alternation between quality. Intense realism with romantic, poetic substance creates a really harmonious picture. For Tay Tien soldiers, the Northwest is not just nostalgic, not only an image of roughness and wildness, but the Northwest is a fun and colorful festival with local people in villages where soldiers stayed.
The Northwest is passionate and profound
The barracks brightened up for a bridal gala. – Doanh trại bừng lên hội đuốc hoa
Lo and behold, she was already dressed. – Kìa em xiêm áo tự bao giờ
Coy she was as the panpipe played a Man tune. – Khèn lên Man điệu nàng e ấp
Toward Vientiane, the music inspired poetry. – Nhạc về Viên Chăn xây hồn thơ
Those of you who left for Châu Mộc that misty evening, – Người đi Châu Mộc chiều sương ấy
Did you notice the spirit of reeds along river banks? – Có thấy hồn lau nẻo bến bờ
The allure of lasses in dugouts? – Có nhớ dáng người trên độc mộc
Floating on swift-flowing water like flowers – Trôi dòng nước lũ hoa đong đưa
This is the image of a Northwest in passion and depth. Coming to the Northwest land not only comes to wildness or lyrical nature, but also to the people of the Northwest full of poetry, music, and painting.
The image of a campfire festival full of passion and love for the army and people is reflected in the jubilant night of celebration with brilliant and splendid colors “lighting up”, “flower torch festival”, “trumpeting up in tunes”. The graceful girls appearing in the words “Dressed up Xiem Ao”, “New colorful clothes” make the space of the party more romantic and lyrical. Because of that, the souls of the soldiers also soar, enthralled in the warm atmosphere of humanity: “Music about Vientiane builds poetic souls”
The next stanza is the image of the afternoon dew is very soft, vague, fanciful, wild and sacred, which is clearly expressed in the words: “afternoon dew”, “soul wipes the river banks”. The people working in the Northwest are idyllic and rustic: “a figure on a pirogue”, the scenery is very charming, full of life, romantic: “floating in the water and the flowers swaying”.
The image of drifting water and flowers swinging evokes the true soul of the Northwest because in the first part “flooding water” shows wildness, but in the second part “swinging flowers” like a dance on water shows the beauty, lightness, and romantic sophistication of nature here.
It can be said that the Northwest in fascination is dreamy and fanciful, yet also very earnest and sad, which sow in the soldier’s heart not only a poetic soul, but an indelible impression on the land that has the North West name. Thanks to his romantic, poetic writing style, Quang Dung has painted a Northwest that is both fierce and majestic but also very lyrical and poetic.
The beauty of the Northwestern soldier
The portrait of the soldier is realistically depicted through the image of “the army without hair”, “green”. We can see that the Tay Tien soldiers lived and fought in extremely harsh and arduous conditions, in a sacred forest with poisonous water, so he contracted forest malaria, so his hair could not grow, his skin was pale yellow and it was a leap. That is the reality of war that Tay Tien soldiers had to endure, and Quang Dung portrayed it in the most realistic way.
Despite the hardships and harshness of the war, the Tay Tien soldiers, mainly intellectuals of the petty bourgeoisie Hanoians, still showed that they were people with romantic souls and loving hearts. The image of “strong and fierce” is not only the beauty on the outside, fierce, solid, strong, but it is also an aura, spreading from the inside, making the enemy afraid, that is the brave, strong, resilient soldiers of Tay Tien.
Another image is also impressive: “glazed eyes” which are very intense eyes, and the dream here is not a dream, but a dream of killing enemies, of those who went to fight the enemy. Among the very sinewy, powerful verses with strong drawings, there is a very soft verse “night dreaming about Hanoi, the graceful beauties”. Hanoi is the homeland, a dear image for the soldiers, and they take the image of their loved ones in their homeland as the motivation to fight.
So the soldiers are not giants without hearts, they are not cruel war machines, but they are people with hearts full of love. Because they love their homeland, love the people where they were born, they have hatred for the enemy and have the motivation to fight through all the hardships of war.
The tragic beauty of soldiers is reflected in their heroic sacrifice. They are willing to devote their youth to the country “scattered with borders and graves”, “regardless of green life”, “he returned to the land”. Tay Tien soldiers appeared in pain, sacrifice, and loss. They passed away very peacefully, gently, without attachment. “No regrets” is a word that shows something very cruel, not because those soldiers do not love their youth, but because “regret” here is that they have put the life of the country first.
Another image that evokes the majestic beauty of the soldiers is the image of a “cloak”. In fact, the soldiers do not have a mat to roll their bodies in when sacrificed, they just lie like that with their military uniforms and return to the motherland.
However, the soldier’s uniform was beautified to become a royal robe like the epic images of old knights. The Ma River represents the country that is leaning forward to see you guys into eternity. The image of the roaring Ma River became a farewell song for the soldier, raising the image of the soldier to an epic level, helping the soldier to become an immortal image with time.
Through Quang Dung’s poem Tay Tien, the image of a soldier appears to be honest, romantic, sentimental, and at the same time very heroic. With many words with classical and solemn nuances, the author created a sacred atmosphere, making the soldier’s tragic death resonate with the whole of nature.
The sound of the last four lines in Vietnamese makes the poetic breath continue to echo endlessly, in harmony with the path of the volunteer soldier who set out for the country.
Westward Marching soldiers left without promises. – Tây Tiến người đi không hẹn ước
Their remote expedition meant in itself a separation. – Đường lên thăm thẳm một chia phôi
Those who joined the Westward March that spring – Ai lên Tây Tiến mùa xuân ấy
Had their minds set for Sam Nua, not the plains. – Hồn về Sầm Nứa chẳng về xuôi
Quang Dung’s poems are not many, but they are poems that are considered as masterpieces in Vietnamese poetry such as “Westward advancement”, “River banks”, and “Eyes of the Son Tay”. These poems won the admiration of many people, and were chosen by famous musicians to spread.
There are verses “At nights, we dreamt of Hanoi and its charming girls” that make Quang Dung miserable, due to the Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm affair which was a cultural-political movement in Communist North Vietnam in the late 1950s. But along with great time, Tay Tien has affirmed the talent of a great national poetic soul, still attractive to readers today, taught as a top poetic masterpiece at high schools in Vietnam, reminiscent of an impossible forgotten struggle for years during the period of national resistance against the French during the Indochinese war from 1946 to 1954.
Using a realistic and romantic style of writing, Quang Dung skillfully expressed the hardships on the marching roads of the Tay Tien army, creating a very beautiful image of a soldier with sky-high spirit in battle, fighting and the pomp and romance in the soul. The statue of the Tay Tien soldier is carved with both Quang Dung’s love for his comrades and for his country.
This year, 2021, we built Secret Hideaways, inspired by his poem. It is the way we celebrate his 100th anniversary of Trần Quang Dũng (Bùi Đình Diệm), a young 100 years old soldier, brave, fierce, epic, and the first person who wrote the history of West Vietnam in literature, poetry, music, and paintings since 1946.
Pham Ha
President and CEO
Lux Group
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