How could I possibly fathom the waiting? My mother waiting for my father to come home. This was a letter father send to mother from re-educational camp, my very first translation, lyrics by Trịnh Công Sơn
Tag: tho
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SLEEPWALKING – MỘNG DU
by Thái Hạo, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm In the summer rain I’m under a hut devoid of walls Trying to sleep In a continuance of a dream last night, a corn seed germinating Corn kernels like front teeth Breaking through the soil piercing sunlight dancing in the […]
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Black or White – Trắng hay đen (2)
by Đình Nguyên, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
Tea
Nor spirit
by Đình Nguyên, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
you replace the horizon
with a scatter of hope
a flare
sunlight
A star fell into the bamboo bushes
mixing with fireflies in the dense darkness
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AN OLD SEASON – MÙA CŨ (2)
by Sấu Mã, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
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THE SMELL OF POETRY – MÙI THƠ (10)
by Sấu Mã, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
The clouds shredded
We’re a crumbling net beneath the sky
Engulfing all that’s austere
By Lê Vĩnh Tài, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm days months yet in slumber back to what yet is left the climb small climb yet long came home yet in yearning yet burns a smoke first light smoke thus yet this white plume quiet yet like floating clouds I sat thus yet […]
HUE – IN THE DIARY SO NOTED
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vẽ mình – self portrait (21)
in the thoughtlessness of the day
I remembered
my face
like forever I’ve seen it last
regretting no, the one-two-failures
a swinging fist enough to shatter a face
instead, laugh loudly
this long long life, another year done
following the verse, December greets its bride
their new life ran aimlessly the city
December now they remember
a smile so painful no longer hurts
they’re like two vacant holes
they ache
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A Knock on the Door – Gõ cửa
By Lê Vĩnh Tài, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm No matter, no matter what The long-ago rocky sad incline The dreams rushing came without a knock The mortal hand ever far away. The arriving mortal a mortal too sad to knock listened to the resound of dreams dreams of someone actually knocking […]
Poetry should be a little hungry…
By Lê Vĩnh Tài, translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
—
you’re a sad little boy
you’re a sad young man
you’re a sad little toy
you’re a sad human being…
By Lê Vĩnh Tài, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm THE HAIKU HAS DOUBLED IN LENGTH hence she is stuck as the autumn lay waiting the coming of winter THOSE ARE THE REASONS you hate poetry, with the rhymes are thrown around without reason and not rhythming without reason […]
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87
reading Vietnamese poetry means National pride, but
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GARBAGE – RÁC (69)
By Lê Vĩnh Tài, translated by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm if a poem is a piece of garbage then so is she while she covers the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes with expensive powders and creams the poem hid behind its pain the long sleeve used to wipe away the tears behind […]
