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POETRY/THƠ

Lê Vĩnh Tài | no. 10:19 – April, you’re bent out of shape, mixed up

Lê Vĩnh Tài, the Vietnamese poet and translator born 1966 in Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak, Vietnam. The retired doctor is still a resident of the Western Highlands, a businessman in Buon Ma Thuot.

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the poet and translator, born 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

Re-education camps after the Vietnam war

By Lê Vĩnh Tài, translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

April

you’re bent out of shape, mixed up 

our lives

inside a pile of vulgaris hands and feet

.

people returned to their homes

tried to dig up 

a life

an exhumation

.

hot

cold

entanglements

ruinous

dusty, sandy, ashes.

_____

tháng 4

bạn méo mó, lẫn lộn

cuộc sống của mình

trong một mớ chân tay lùng nhùng

.

mọi người về nhà

tự moi ra cuộc đời

mình

khai quật

.

nóng

lạnh

vướng

đổ nát

bụi, cát, tro tàn…

By Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

There's magic in translating a body of work from one language to another.

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