By Lê Vĩnh Tài, translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
your poem is twice as long
you said
hence you love twice as much
and when I claimed
love is limitless
you laughed
you said you would remember
if I place a kiss
on your lips
but I’m
a little
clumsy
kissed you on the neck
instead
hence the poem ends up hotter
than the Sun
you can talk all you want, laugh
take in the air
because we
our children grandchildren
while you inhale and exhale
like the tides
inhale while the moon
is drifting
and exhale until
we (our bodies)
explode
like firecrackers.
_____
bạn nói với tôi bài thơ của bạn
dài gấp hai
nên bạn yêu gấp đôi
và khi tôi
nói, tình yêu là vô hạn
bạn cười
bạn nói bạn sẽ nhớ
nếu như tôi hôn lên
môi bạn
nhưng tôi
hơi
vụng về
đã hôn lên cổ của bạn để
thay thế
và bài thơ thậm chí còn nóng hơn
cả mặt trời
bạn tha hồ nói, cười
và thở
rằng chúng ta
con cháu chúng ta
bạn hít vào và thở ra
như thủy triều
hít vào mỗi khi mặt trăng
trôi dạt
và thở ra
tới khi chúng ta
nổ tung
như xác pháo…
6 replies on “Lê Vĩnh Tài | no. 18: 34 – your poem is twice as long you said”
Beautiful. I wish I had a second language. I learnt some French at second. My friend is Portuguese and she taught me a few words. I struggle with spelling and grammar in my own language because of a poor education and being dyslexic. At 39 I took up writing to challenge myself and improve myself.
Thank you so much for sharing your work in both languages. 💖
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Sorry that should read I learnt French at school 🙁
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Thank you. Me too, I’m dyslexic. I this helps me with translating Vietnamese into English, since the language grammatically are in opposite directions. My Vietnamese have improved a lot over the last four years. Though I have only started blogging in May. It’s never too late to learn. I wish you all the best in finding a language you love. Take care.
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I’ve grown to love my own language and enjoy writing. Where about in the world do you live?
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I’m in Australia, I was a Vietnamese refugee in the early 80s.
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I remember seeing the Vietnamese refugees & the boat people as the news reported them as I was growing up. ❤️Hugs❤️
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