a red apple

A poem in Vietnamese by Lê Vĩnh Tài
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
Photographer: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Book Street, Saigon, Vietnam

a red apple

houses the worms

–

in time

the worms consume the apple

from the inside out

–

now we have

nothing

but worms

_____

một trái táo màu đỏ

che giấu những con sâu

–

lần hồi

những con sâu ăn rỗng ruột trái

táo

–

bây giờ chúng ta

không còn gì cả

ngoại trừ những con sâu…

_____

JANUARY 2021

Lê Vĩnh Tài, the poet and translator born in 1966 in Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak, Vietnam. The retired doctor is still a resident of the Western Highlands and a businessman in Buon Ma Thuot.

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.

12 comments

  1. Pingback: a red apple | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  2. It’s interesting how the delightful apple gets taken over and consumed by the worm from the inside out 😃😆.

    Also, the idea of a worm eating an apple seems almost mythical these days, because, I don’t know if there at one point existed a particular species of worm that ate or liked apples/fruits, but usually the apples are pecked by birds, and swarmed with flies while the worms are deep in the “dirt” 🪱🪰🍎🍏😄

    I also responded to your lovely comment earlier:
    https://aktionkilla.wordpress.com/2023/03/18/look-it-up-episode-241/comment-page-1/#comment-27774

    🤭😂😁💘

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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