tempting fate with so much poetry | Bùi Kim-Anh

The Old Quarter, Hanoi, Vietnam. Photography: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

A poem in Vietnamese by Bùi Kim-Anh
Translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

everything is so expensive now
at the store of poetry how
meaningless are the feelings sold
useful friendships, dirt cheap lives

joy bartered with strife
alone, the buy and sell of poetry
bartering for moon in the middle of the sky
so poetry may say neither this nor that

meaningless words cheap sadness
tempting fate with so much poetry
would anyone want to be
burdened with such deeds

bây giờ cái gì cũng đắt
chợ thơ đâu ta dìu dặt với tình
bán mua đến cả tấm tình
rẻ thôi hai chữ nhân sinh ấy mà

thơ mình lại bán cho ta
bán buồn là để làm quà cho vui
bán mua mảnh trăng giữa trời
cho thơ lại kể những lời vẩn vơ

bây giờ cả thơ cũng thừa
trả nhau chữ nghĩa như đùa với duyên
rẻ thôi đem bán nỗi niềm
ai mà mua cái ưu phiền làm chi

Bùi Kim Anh, the poet born in 1948 in Thái Bình, graduated from Hanoi Teacher College, a teacher at a few high schools in Hanoi(Cổ Loa, Bạch Mai, Trần Phú). She is a member of the Vietnam Writers Association. Bùi Kim Anh together with her journalist husband Trần Mai Hạnh currently lives in Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Hanoi with their eldest daughter and grandchildren, including Thiện Nhân, from Mount Thành, Quảng Nam, abandoned by his mother and adopted by Trần Mai Anh, the poet’s daughter.

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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