Vietnam and the Soviet Union were strong allies during the Cold War, from the USSR’s establishment of relations with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1950 through the three Indochina Wars. Vietnam was one of only three countries outside of Europe to join COMECON (the other two being Mongolia and Cuba). The two signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in 1978 and remained close economic and military partners through the years.
Some time ago, while searching the Internet, I found a Soviet-Vietnamese friendship song performed by one of the children’s choirs. In Soviet times there were quite a lot of similar songs dedicated to friendship with different countries, and this is one of them.
Below I will leave the lyrics in English, but since I will have to do the translation myself, please excuse me if it is not perfect.
lyrics:
When Nguyen arrived at the Russian city,
He looked at everything around him With love,
He struggled to find the words to talk to others,
But he remembered the word "friend" first.
Chorus.
Fly, the song, under the sky of our countries,
To Moscow to the north and Hanoi to the south.
You’ll say in Vietnamese: "bạn",
In Russian, I will answer: "friend."
Everyone loved Nguyen like a brother,
They liked him for his seriousness.
With the tenacity of a worker and a soldier,
He studied in Russian from his friends.
Fly, the song, under the sky of our countries,
To Moscow to the north and Hanoi to the south.
You’ll say in Vietnamese: "bạn",
In Russian, I will answer: "friend."
He shared the dream and bread with us together,
He learned the language of his friends perfectly,
But at the train station before returning home,
He forgot all the words in his excitement.
Fly, the song, under the sky of our countries,
To Moscow to the north and Hanoi to the south.
You’ll say in Vietnamese: "bạn",
In Russian, I will answer: "friend."
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