The net | Sấu Mã

Phu Quoc, Vietnam 2011. Photography: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

A poem in Vietnamese by Sấu Mã
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Do trees believe it would grow?
Do rivers believe it could flow?
How come the mountain there gets to stand and sit?

Then again there’s always the exception

The exception – the baiting of humanity
Watching
A fish squirming in the net.
.
July 2019
_____

GIÃY LƯỚI


Cây có tin cây được lớn?
Sông có tin sông được trôi?
Sao núi kia cũng nhấp nhổm đứng ngồi?

Đúng ra thì luôn có ngoại lệ

Ngoại lệ – mồi nhử nhân gian
Xem
Cá ùm ùm giãy lưới.
.
3/12/2016


Sấu Mã, the poet is a retired professor living in Vietnam.

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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