no one has fingers small or light enough to cause so much pain

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

the poem

it can never touch you

it’s a finger

gently trying to discover you

petals opening

and closing

fleetingly

holding on

you know

no one has fingers small or light enough

to cause so much pain

April 2019

_____

bài thơ 

nó không thể chạm vào bạn

nó như một ngón tay

yếu đuối khám phá bạn

bạn sẽ mở hai cánh hoa của mình

và đóng lại 

bằng sức mạnh mong manh 

của bạn

bạn biết

không ai, có ngón tay nhỏ và nhẹ

mà làm đau như vậy


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.

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