by Tran Hung

Laying out a piece of night, I sit on a wave,
surf into deep water and sky
where she’s a distant brown dot,
where she’s in my hands with the wet, cold paddle,
fingers like frozen cones,
the ancestral light casting shadows,
moon flowing at the village end and fish flopping in the fields.
She is soaked in the moonlight
and no one knows where the boat takes her.
There was once blue sky, blue sea and blue sunlight,
a blue soul that soared into yellow clouds,
a flaming train running through a rosy door.
Not a single horn for years,
only the trainline sound vibrating in her chest
on the leaf of night, in the deep water,
surfing fast, far, and smooth,
dreaming of the finger of ice that sleeps in damp hair.

by Tran Hung

my love
I have the remains of a bitter leaf
I have a herd of night leaf remains
I have a lifetime of moonlit remains
a life that goes for no season

a season of going high
a season of the flight of green kites
a season of noisy red boats and yellow cows
a season of bright virgin bambo
holding hands and letting hands go in the voice of night
my love’s tears a diamond, on the proposal
an intact keyboard, overwhelmed with waves
that sing a song of no shore
I sing a song of no season

pave onto his heart a green but bitter leaf
slab on his lips a moon and leave him away

by Tran Hung

do not go, my love
this land belongs to you
cassava leaves miss your smile
pumpkin vines reach over rocks
birds drop rosy seeds

rolling hills
walking trees listen to shining clouds
flocks of sparrows fly in silence
oh upland hill
give me your hands
walk on this path
pass over this rock
and the corn will grow heavily on your shoulders
the horn will play, sweat will soak your back
and your feet will be wet in the twilight spring

do not go, my love
the upland hill bees are coming back
the bees starving of flowers are coming

by Tran Dang Khoa

Translated by Ngo Binh Anh Khoa

It is nothing new
When the Earth unknowingly rotates
When the heat departs, the cold arrives
Sorrows and joys will quickly fade away…

What will come will come
What shall pass shall pass
There’s no need to fight
We’ll still become…old at last

Life is like a grain of dust
The desired peace never comes
If even the world is tilted,
What then can endure?…

Perform one good deed
While we can still share with each other now
Who knows what tomorrow will be like
When the mortal world unknowingly rotates…

2012