Category: EPIC POEM/TRƯỜNG CA

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.
—
your mother did not give you a name
she instead tucked away all the rhymes
inside her recollection
for you

the poem, you use it
to travel
wherever
people may try to bid and bargain

you know that even
rhymes, like the shoes
you wear on the street
after the times you’ve found
customers, those who like to buy
and evade tax when they sell
you

like a tree after a storm
the wind can make you
sick in the stomach

you end up with gastritis
go home
in an ambulance, thus many things may
wet you
no one to check or confiscate

your mother will place a dream in your heart
through mystics slips
once or twice
each night, dreams in a tiny room
causing your chest to shrink
like the rhymes and words
in a poem, consolidated, each and every night

and yet you’re thinking about
how every morning you’re waken
by your children crying

Mothers are the source of life
not just something
one dwell on
who vouch for you
when the wind is high
grey skies
and it’s wet.

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.
—
“Những ý tưởng sai lầm luôn kết thúc bằng đổ máu, nhưng trong mọi trường hợp, đó là máu của người khác. Đây là lý do tại sao các nhà tư tưởng của chúng ta thoải mái nói về mọi thứ.”
—
“Mistaken ideas always end in bloodshed, but in every case it is someone else’s blood. This is why our thinkers feel free to say just about everything.”

Albert Camus

Lê Vĩnh Tài, an acclaimed Vietnamese poet, born 1966 in Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak, Vietnam. The retired doctor is still a resident of the Western Highlands, an acclaimed 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.
April 30, 1975
—
days like these
poetry is a scar
in the heart of the people
_____

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