It has never felt so sad

A poem in Vietnamese by Cung Trầm Tưởng
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Left to right: Cung Trầm Tưởng, Phạm Duy, Ngy Cao Uyên. (Hình phamduy.com)

The ride upon your departure

It has never felt so sad

Winter is upon Paris

A lifetime of separation

Sending you off to our motherland

My vernacular in a kiss

Nothing is longer than 

A hundred days of separation

The yellow lights at gare de Lyon

The endless forlorn falling snow

Your hands in mine on the verge of tears

Whatever needs to say is now too late

October 2022

_

Lên xe tiễn em đi

Chưa bao giờ buồn thế

Trời mùa đông Paris

Suốt đời làm chia ly

Tiễn em về xứ mẹ

Anh nói bằng chiếc hôn

Không có gì lâu hơn

Một trăm ngày xa cách

Ga Lyon đèn vàng

Tuyết rơi buồn mênh mang

Cầm tay em muốn khóc

Nói chi cũng muộn màng

Chưa bao giờ buồn thế…Cung Trầm Tưởng

2-28-1932 -:-10-9-2022

Mong chú yên giấc ngàn thu 


Cung Trầm Tưởng (2-28-1932 -:-10-9-2022), the poet was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and died in Minnesota, USA.

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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