the young poet | Lê Vĩnh Tài

Lê Minh Chánh. Art: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

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

the young poet
throws a poem
into the air

and they would wait
for the tears
to fall

while in the old poet’s eyes
the mere ode
dripping 
in alcohol
runs slowly 
down the drain
dripping in a line
follows each other down
into the sewers…

January 2019
______

the young poet
throws a poem
into the air

and they would wait
for the tears
to fall

while in the old poet’s eyes
the mere ode
dripping 
in alcohol
runs slowly 
down the drain
dripping in a line
follows each other down
into the sewers…


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.

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm's avatar

By Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

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

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