Goodbye | Bùi Giáng

Bùi Giáng by Đinh Trường Chinh

A poem in Vietnamese by Bùi Giáng
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Oh old bare heart
Grasping at the wrong sky
Upon dusk the source of life
Midlife came doodling passed by

Từ giã

Người mộc mạc trái tim cũ kỹ
Vói hai tay bắt lộn vòm trời
Chiều qua mang một cõi đời
Đi về lẽo đẽo giữa đời đi qua.


Bùi Giáng (1926-1998) was born in Thanh Châu, Duy Xuyên, the province of Quảng Nam, Vietnam. He passed away at Chợ Rẫy Hospital in Saigon, Vietnam. Self-taught at a late age in life. The prolific poet and translator were fluent in French, English, and Kanji. With many published translations like Hamlet by Shakespeare, The Little Prince by Saint Exupéry, Campus…

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.

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By Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

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

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