18 seasons remembering Trinh Cong Son

The translator and writer Buu Y is one of the few people of Hue who has continuously worked and created in the fields of culture and education from before 1975 to the present day.

In 2000, in the short piece entitled “Hue Diary,” written when he returned for the first Hue Festival, musician Trinh Cong Son wrote, “When you have a place to return, or to visit from time to time, you are very fortunate. There, you have a river, a mountain, and you can find again your old friends whose hair used to be black has now turned grey. You might suddenly meet a Hue girl on the street and ask her, ‘Is there anything new in Hue now?’ And immediately, or perhaps by chance, she will recite the two lines from a poem by Bui Giang: “Da thua xu Hue bay gio/ Van con nui Ngu ben bo song Huong” (“Yes, sir, Hue now/ Still has Ngu Mount by the Huong river…”)

One morning in late 2025, at Chieu Cafe on Dang Thai Than Street, behind the Hue Imperial Citadel, young musician Huynh Anh Khang had a conversation with us about music and his love for Hue – the land he feels he “owes a debt to.”

“Afternoon in My Homeland” was not only an artistic program commemorating the late musician Trinh Cong Son, but also a gathering of kindred spirits who share a deep affinity for his music.

The song “Tinh ca Mua xuan” (“Spring Love Song”) by Tran Hoan, set to a poem by Nguyen Loan, was born in the spring of 1979 and spread quickly in life in the early years after the reunification. Nearly half a century later, the song still resonates, becoming one of the most beloved songs about spring in the treasure of Vietnamese music.