A poem in Vietnamese by Trần Quốc Toàn
Translation: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Characters half asleep in the land of white clouds
Human characters,
Birds searching for a warm nest after the rain.
–
A foetus with the embodiment of dawn
Father was on the wrong side of the horizon
Discerning the shatter of glassy clouds.
–
My character was a ripe moon in yellow cabbage blooms
Feet upon the keys of the wind
Jostling aching heartbeats
On all levels were the characters of an adventurous spirit.
–
The raining characters dancing on a palm-leaf conical hat
In the days’ mother was burdened with the wild nights
When it was barely light
Her face was riddled with listlessness.
–
The characters lifting these painful earthly loads
Sprouting
secreting
In the melodious voice of herbs.
–
As the sky nourishes every drop of sunlight
Filtering
Each character of you(my love),
The cries of babes in a season of milk in decline
Out on the veranda, the winter afternoon sheds its leaves . . .
—
June 2022
_
Kí Tự
Chiều ngái ngủ một trời hoang mây trắng
Những kí tự người,
Chim đi tìm tổ ấm sau đêm mưa.
–
Trong bào thai nhân quả buổi bình minh
Cha đi lệch góc trời
Nghe mây thủy tinh nứt vỡ.
–
Kí tự tôi trăng mùa cải vàng bông
Thả bước chân lên phím gió
Từng nhịp tim đau vồn vã
Trên những tầng kí tự phiêu linh.
–
Kí tự mưa tung tẩy trên nón lá
Thủa mẹ gánh gồng đêm bưng hoang
Trời chưa tảng sáng
Khuôn mặt chằng chịt vết lăng trầm.
–
Kí tự nhẹ nâng những cơn đau cõi đất
Nhú mầm
tiết mật
Trong tiếng hát loài thảo mộc.
–
Trời hàm dưỡng từng giọt nắng
Chắt lọc
Kí tự em,
Tiếng khóc trẻ thơ mùa thiếu sữa
Bên hiên nhà lá rụng chiều đông . . .
Trần Quốc Toàn, the Vietnamese poet born 1992, at Tuy Phước, Bình Định, Vietnam. Prize: Tiền Vệ 2019 Liberal Literature Award for Kinh Đêm, a book of poetry; Văn Việt 2022 Literature Award for the novel Trong Rừng Cây Du Thủ.
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.