a red apple  | Lê Vĩnh Tài

Starfruit from my parent's garden. Photography by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

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

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.

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.

14 comments

  1. 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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