So That Adventuring the Four Oceans is Worthwhile for Solo Organ

While composing this work, I was so inspired by the poem A Hero’s Will [Chí Làm Trai] by Nguyễn Công Trứ (1778–1857), a Vietnamese poet, scholar, and military general. As a freedom-lover who lived in a strict Confucian society, where officialdom and social duties dictated people’s role and fate, he struggled to maintain his dignity, spirit, and personhood while pursuing a harsh political career.

My brother usually recites A Hero’s Will to encourage himself when he faces ceaseless waves of hardship. This poem is originally composed by a nineteenth-century man who encourages other men to withstand hardship and pursue their unrealized dreams “so that adventuring the Four Oceans is worthwhile.” Interestingly, it is no more inappropriate for a woman like me to also be inspired by the poem and actually pursue my music dream so far away from home. However, my privilege and the challenges that come with it do not make me blind to the sexism that is still haunting my homeland, and I know firsthand many Vietnamese women who bravely go through extraordinary sufferings to be free from the old confinements. I composed this piece as a way to express the feelings that A Hero’s Will and their stories invoke inside me.

Beyonds that reason, I also believe that this poem truly transcends time, identities, and cultures. Is there a human being who never once feels the tension between “adventuring the four oceans” (enjoying freedom and spontaneity) and “paying our debts” (fulfilling obligations)? That paradox can cause us much fear and frustration, but it also opens up to a journey full of discoveries.

Below are the original poem written by Nguyễn Công Trứ and my English translation.