the last page of the calendar

A poem in Vietnamese by Hứa Hiếu
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
Photography: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

541.

____________

after a game of hide and seek

the birds shift their tired wings returned to the dark side of the mountain

I’m scrambling

to pick up the pieces of lost time

scrubbing them, hang them up, to after folding them neatly inside a draw called life

there, they quietly lay

a tumulus

I’m the same

the last page of the calendar

.

December 2020

_____

khi xong trò trốn tìm

lũ chim rủ nhau nghiêng cánh mỏi về sau bóng núi

tôi lụi cụi

gom tháng năm lưu lạc

giặt giũ, rồi xếp ngăn nắp vào tủ cuộc đời

ở đó, chúng nằm im

một huyệt mộ

tôi cũng thế

một tờ lịch cuối năm.

____________

Hứa Hiếu


Hứa Hiếu, the poet from Vung Tau, Vietnam, currently living in Lawrenceville, United States.

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.

By Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

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

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