A poem in Vietnamese by Xuân Diệu
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
You gave me water
And I turned it into wine
A spirit of boundless desire
Warm fragrant sake divine
Brewing hunger in your eyes
In these waters I will hide
Our breath
The consummating spirit
In this water I will add thus far
My spirit, laughter
Shimmering stars
Watchful blue sky
Ah! Water that will quench my passion
Since the dawning of life
This splendid life
Infinitely pours
Again I would like to raise my glass
Drink darling if you dare
But take it easy, not all of it
Otherwise you’ll be knocked out yeah
Chén nước
Em cho anh chén nước,
Anh biến thành rượu nho
Rượu triền miên mộng ước
Rượu nồng nàn thơm tho
Cái men trong mắt em
Anh để vào chén nước;
Hương hơi thở của mình
Đã hoá thành rượu chuốc
Anh thêm vào chén nước
Rượu cất của hồn anh,
Rượu cười sao lấp lánh
Như ánh mắt trời xanh
Ôi! Chén rượu ân tình
Từ bình minh sự sống
Rót mãi tới vô cùng
Của cuộc đời lồng lộng
Anh lại nâng chén nước
Mời em nhắp môi cho
Em ơi, đừng uống hết
Kẻo say chết bây giờ
—–
(Sài Gòn – Mĩ Tho 17-8-1975)
Xuân Diệu (2/2/1916 – 18/12/1985) born Ngô Xuân Diệu, Trảo Nha was another pen name, from Trảo Nha village, Can Lộc district, Hà Tĩnh province, but he was born in his mother’s hometown Hoà Phước commune, Tuy Phước district, Bình Định province, where his father Ngô Xuân Thọ worked as a teacher and where his father met his mother Nguyễn Thị Hiệp. he lived in Tuy Phước till he was 11 years old(1927) before moving to Quy Nhơn for school. Around 1936-1937, he attained his baccalaureate in Huế. In 1937, Xuân Diệu studied Law in Hà Nội while he wrote for a newspaper, between 1938-1940 inclusively he was a member of Tự lực văn đoàn, in the same period shared an attic with Huy Cận at 40 Hàng Than.
source: thivien.net
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 
I love how the poet took one of Christ’s sayings, “Give a cup of cold water to one of these little ones” and one of Christ’s actions – turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee- and combined the two and wrote a poem about the cup of passion that is love.
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