QUY

Quy and anh Sy

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During Quy’s childhood, in the year of the August Revolution (1945), Quy had a very good singing voice. In 1946, on the days before the national revolt, Quy got the top prize in vocal performance in her rural district. She was only 9 at the time. Then came the national resistance (toan quoc khang chien), with all the worries of the family having to evacuate from their home. The family was worried about having enough rice to eat, or at least porridge. They also feared for their lives, trying to avoid the strayed bullets and exploding bombs. Still, Quy continued to attend high school classes, offered at night in a school across the river. After the dinner at 6pm, on the one hand, Quy carried her books, on the other the (peanut) oil lamp, following the path to the river wharf to go to her classes. Her classroom (with these oil lamps) from afar looked like (resembled) a star ritual (lễ tế sao) of a funeral. Enduring the hardships in several years of the national resistance, no wonder Quy had abandoned her own singing voice.

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Trích "Đi", Doãn Quốc Sỹ