Contestant Do The Duyet won the first prize in the category of translating the Vietnamese folk song "Beo dat may troi." Photo: Thanh Luan

The program is organized by Interdisciplinary institute for culture, language and education fostering (CLEF) and Vietnam-Japan Cultural Exchange Association.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Minh Thuy, director of CLEF, the Vietnam-Japan Folk Song Festival and the Vietnam-Japan Folk Song Translation Contest 2023 introduce the two countries' folk songs.

It contributes to enhancing understanding, promoting learning of the languages and cultures of the two countries, spreading love for folk songs particularly and music of the two nations.

Launched from May 2023, the Vietnam-Japan 2023 folk song translation contest aims to select the best translations of the Vietnamese folk song "Beo dat may troi" into Japanese and Japanese folk songs. “Sakura, Sakura” into Vietnamese.

According to poet, musician, and researcher Ngo Tu Lap, a member of the Preliminary and Final Round Council, the decision to choose the songs "Beo dat may troi" and "Sakura, Sakura" was made by the Advisory Council after carefully considering folk songs based on the criteria of theme, popularity, and representation in the two traditional music backgrounds.

The contest is held for all subjects, regardless of age, gender, or nationality. Each person can participate in translating one or both songs.

"The translation must be both semantically correct, suitable for the melody, and have special literary or creative value. This is a high requirement, especially when there are difficulties due to differences between the two languages.

For example, Vietnamese has a subject-predicate structure, while in Japanese, the verb always comes at the end of the sentence. This forces the translator to have special structural and syntactic solutions.

Another difficulty is that Vietnamese has 6 tones, creating great pressure on translators when choosing suitable words for certain notes. Additionally, Japanese is polysyllabic. The Japanese word has many sounds, corresponding to many musical notes, while the corresponding Vietnamese word has one or two sounds," Ngo Tu Lap said.

Singer Nhat Huyen performs the folk song "Sakura, Sakura" in Vietnamese and Japanese. Photo: Thanh Luan

From May 15 to September 20, the Organizing Committee received 124 entries (52 translations of the song "Beo dat may troi" into Japanese and 72 translations of the song "Sakura, Sakura" into Vietnamese). A jury consisting of cultural, and linguistic experts, musicians, and poets from Vietnam and Japan judged the Preliminary and Final rounds.

As a result, in the category of translating the Vietnamese folk song "Beo dat may troi" the jury selected a first prize (belonging to contestant Do The Duyet), a second prize (Nguyen Huynh Kim Ngan), and a third prize (Pham Thi To Uyen).

In the category of translating the Japanese folk song "Sakura, Sakura," there was a second prize (Nguyen Mai Khanh), and two third prizes (Dang Huong Giang; Do Mai Phuong). This category does not have a first prize.

Do The Duyet performed the folk song "Beo dat may troi" in Japanese. Video: Thanh Luan

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