Life is a dangerous path | Hồ Chí Minh

Các em Anh Ngữ AVA tặng cô Maria

thơ Hồ Chí Minh
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm dịch

I
Beyond the highest mountain steepest climb
Who could have thought the flattest path was a crime
A tiger in the mountain was nothing
Human on the flattest path meant prison

II
I represent Vietnam
I am an act of diplomacy in China
It’s supposed to be simple not all this trouble
When I’m a “V. I. P.” in their prison

III
I am honest and I have nothing to hide
How could they accused me of being a traitor
It’s not something one take lightly
Harder to take it now so lightly.

Thế lộ nan


I
Tẩu biến cao sơn dữ tuấn nham
Na tri bình lộ cánh nan kham
Cao sơn ngộ hổ chung vô dạng
Bình lộ phùng nhân khước bị giam

II
Dư nguyên đại biểu Việt Nam dân
Nghĩ đáo Trung Hoa kiến yếu nhân
Vô nại phong ba bình địa khởi
Tống dư nhập ngục tác gia tân

III
Trung thành ngã bản vô tâm cứu
Khước bị hiềm nghi tố Hán gian
Xử thế nguyên lai phi dị dị
Nhi kim xử thế cánh nan nan


Hồ Chí Minh [1890-1969] Bác Hồ, Uncle Ho, the poet was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969, and as its first prime minister from 1945 to 1955.

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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