RIVERS ENTOMBING MOTHERS (No. 13) contains references to three different stories, one real, one
semi-mythical and one fictional. In 40 A.D., after her husband was executed by the Chinese overlords, Trung Nu Vuong rallied the people and liberated Vietnam from the Chinese yoke for a short period before being defeated by the Chinese general Ma Vien. She defiantly threw herself into the Hat river rather then submitting. The Nam Xuong lady is again mentioned. The last stanza refers to the wife of You Must Live, a short story by the contemporary writer Khai Hung; when a peasant couple was swept away by the rising flood, she refused her husband's help and gave up her life so that he might live and raise the children
13. SÔNG VÙI CHÔN MẸ
Nhớ xưa, nhớ Mẹ, nhớ Mẹ xưa
Mẹ xuống sông rửa nhục anh hùng
Mẹ trôi trên dòng sông Hát
Nước ngược suôi đưa Mẹ đi muôn nơi
Nhớ chăng, nhớ Mẹ, nhớ Mẹ chăng?
Chôn đáy sông mối hận yêu chồng
Chàng Trương có buồn thương khóc
Rước Mẹ lên, nước thiêng sẽ giải oan
Nhớ Mẹ, nhớ Mẹ
Yêu đàn con, thương đàn con
Nên trao thân cho nước ngoan.
Nhớ Mẹ, nhớ Mẹ
Trên trường giang mong đàn con
Sông trôi xuốt đời trong trắng
Hỡi ôi ! Có ngày, có Mẹ vui
Ôm sóng bơi, vớt củi sông dài
Ngờ đâu sông đảo điên say máu
Nước cuộn mau khiến cho Mẹ chìm sâu.
13. RIVERS ENGULFING MOTHER
Brave and proud she stood in defeat
and welcomed a glorious death.
Borne away by the wand'ring Haat,
her body drifted on the waves...
Her heart remains for all time
defiant in the wat'ry grav?
Reaching to aggrieved souls,
she gathers Nam-Xuong's wife in her arms.
O Mother! Mother!
For your sons and daughters
you chose the river!
O Mother! Mother!
This water forever shall cleanse your children's hearts!
Driftwood, mother was gath'ring
in the shallows by river's sid?
Rising flood, surging, swirling wild, took her
in a mad treach'rous tide.
trích từ Phạm Duy's "Mẹ Viet Nam"
