'The Lake of Hoan Kiem' - a hundred-year-old Hanoi ballad
Who was the first Irishman to visit Hanoi? We'll never know for sure but the following tale does at least tell us he might have a) arrived with no money and b) immediately fallen for a local girl.
I READ (SOMEWHERE) THAT IT WAS GOOD TO HAVE GUESTS on Substack, which made me immediately think of my own alter ego – the balladeer who spends a lot of time in ‘our studio’ (yeah, it’s just the guest toilet) recording maudlin tunes about the olden times.
With umpteen unfinished stories that I can’t yet share with you, I figured why not invite himself to record the ‘Hanoi Ballad’ that is one of his party pieces (as he doesn’t go to parties, it might be more accurately described as a ‘piece’). Just in case anyone isn’t familiar with ‘The Lakes of Pontchartrain’ (a song sung by many, but perhaps most famously by Paul Brady with, my family’s old Donnybrook neighbour, Andy Irvine on the mandolin), this performance is, my alter ego would like to stress, just a playful homage but… also a sincere tribute to the life-altering beauty of Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi. If you haven’t yet visited, you really should go there and see for yourself.
The audio recording is below (just click play) and I’ll post the lyrics below, if anyone wishes to sing along.
The Lake of Hoan Kiem
(A ballad to be sung and strummed in the key of Paul Brady and Andy Irvine)
It was on one fine March morning, I bid Singapore adieu,
And I made my way to Vietnam, my fortune to renew.
I cursed all foreign monies, no credit could I gain,
Then I made way towards the Lake of Hoan Kiem
Through paddy fields, down highways, I walked through the heat of the day,
Over railroad tracks and crossings, my weary feet did stray…
Until the shades of evening and higher ground did I gain…
It was then I met a Hanoi girl from the Lake of Hoan Kiem
I said: “My pretty Hanoi girl, me money here's no good,
And if it weren't for the bloody tigers, I'd sleep out in the woods!”
She said: “Không sao đâu1, kind stranger, our house it is rather plain,
But we never turn a stranger away by the Lake of Hoan Kiem.”
So she took me to her mammy's house and there she treated me well,
Oh, the hair upon her shoulders! You can imagine just how I felt…
To try and paint her beauty, it surely would be in vain…
So pretty was my Hanoi girl by the Lake of Hoan Kiem.
I asked her if she'd marry me but she said it couldn’t be,
For she had a lover and he was far at sea!
She said that she’d be waiting for him and true she would remain,
'Til he came back to marry his bride by the Lake of Hoan Kiem…
[Brief monologue]
So fair thee well my Hanoi girl I will see you no more
But I'll ne'er forget your kindness by your cottage door
And at each and every social gathering a glass of rượu2 I'll raise
And I’ll drink to the health of every Hanoi girl by the Lake of Hoan Kiem!!
Không sao đâu (literally ‘no star where’) means ‘no problem’ in Vietnamese.
Rượu is a kind of rice wine/ liquor commonly drunk in the north of Vietnam.