My Vernacular | Lê Vĩnh Tài & Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

and the sunlight will fade away
as silently as the blades of grass across the lawn

the last curtain call
upon our last curtsy, our last bow
quietly we will leave this world

our goodbyes like the darkness
swallowing up the mountains and the valleys

as we drop to our knees
we lay down to rest

on our backs are the unpaid debts
the prayer offerings in burning ashes
the promise of another lifetime

thơ Lê Vĩnh Tài

—
cuối cùng nắng cũng tắt
chúng ta ngồi im như cỏ

chúng ta mở cánh cửa
lặng lẽ rời khỏi đời sống
sự tiễn đưa như bóng tối
nhận chìm cả núi đồi

chúng ta ngồi
rồi nằm xuống
với món nợ khổng lồ giấy tiền vàng mã

My Vernacular

The age before you made legos of words.
My father wanted a boy.
With no package, he left me in my mother’s arms.

Your pubescent years singing sugary poetry
Chasing skirts, fighting our enemies
At sea on a boat, me

You’re deep in poetry seasoned with life.
My head in the clouds
Feet deep in trigonometry

While you were playing God (not Morgan Freeman)
I roamed the campus, a spectre of my youth.
I wanted to be you

Knocked on the doors of the creator
“So are the days of our lives.”
We made families, didn’t we?

And so on and so on so forth.
Blah blah blah

What’s the point of chopping down trees, the forest on fire
To further an ego in printed books.
No one could ever douse our blinding light. (wink)


_____
19 December 2019
(tặng Lê Vĩnh Tài)