A poem in Vietnamese by Viên Linh
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
a sad soul
forty with a head full of white hair
embodying the burnt books
chilling ashes of someone else’s revolution.
the injustice of the letters
broken heart with no voice
hid the bubbling desire
bottomless sadness
time passing by in the dark
playing the vinyl missing friends
scattered and exiled across the world
the old books and me and the same story
2.
us in the middle of a red hot summer
raining blood and gale
pushing to where the ghostly sail
not a single shelter
the waiting years
where were the souls I hold dear
mowing the lawn
watering the grass with my tears
in the dying light miss
the inkwell and nib
my writing desk is an abandoned crypt
demonic tears songs of mourning
3.
dormant demons and blank pieces of paper
waiting mine field
unending under currents
look for each other in nihilism
separated by the South seas
to the bottom of the East sea meet
for survival separate
for the motherland live in exile
so I’m a little sad for my so
O mournful heart
Chuyện Vãn Cùng Sách Cũ
Xưa một kẻ u cư
Bốn mươi đầu bạc trắng
Ta thân xác phần thư
Đời tro than nguội lạnh.
Chữ nghĩa đã hàm oan
Tâm kiệt cùng mực cạn
Ẩn mật chút men trong
Cất lòng sầu vô hạn.
Hầm tối tháng ngày qua
Nghe nhạc vàng nhớ bạn
Lưu lạc nơi xứ người
Sách cùng ta chuyện vãn.
2.
Chuyện ta mùa hạ đỏ
Mưa máu đẩy thuyền ma
Về đâu trời đất tận
Tìm không một mái nhà.
Mấy năm rồi ngóng đợi
Bằng hữu biệt muôn phương
Có chiều ta xén cỏ
Lệ rơi trong góc vườn.
Có chiều thương bút mực
Bàn viết như mồ hoang
Yên nằm hồn lệ quỉ
Chờ ý xuống hộ tang.
3.
Quỉ ơi đời giấy trắng
Chờ ngươi đã nhiều năm
Có nghe nghìn xác sóng
Tìm nhau ngoài hư không.
Xa nhau bờ Nam Hải
Gặp nhau lòng Biển Đông
Sinh ly thà thủy biệt
Quê hương thà lưu vong.
Chuyện ta hờn chí nhỏ
Tâm ta ừ tâm tang.
Vien Linh [1936-2024] grew up in Saigon. He made a living as a writer since 1962, and was the Editor-in-Chief of many weekly newspapers specializing in literature and art such as Kich Anh, Nghe Thuat, Khoi Hanh, Hong, Thoi Tap, Dan Ta… He was the Editor-in-Chief of Tien Tuyen Daily Newspaper of the General Department of Political Warfare for more than 6 years of military service, with editors Le Dinh Thach and Ha Thuong Nhan. He was discharged in 1972. March 28, 2024 the poet Vien Linh passed away at 11:11 a.m. in Virginia, USA, at the age of 86.
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 
It’s a bittersweet memory for us too. I have many friends… At my college everyone was burning their cards. Instead I walked eight miles to the draft office in Xenia, Ohio and signed up. My number came up the next day. And the day after that the war ended — for us but not for You. I have mixed feelings. Life emerges always the winner. And love.
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Yes, I think so too.. but the bought of melancholy they sometime plaque me.. and that’s okay. bless you my friend, hope is for those who dare to go on I guess :))
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A lot has been said about being able to transform a text into something that is clear to people of another language, dialect or slang, perhaps forgetting the fact that translating doesn’t always mean understanding what is proposed. Thinking hurts, understanding requires going beyond an imaginary two feet from your nose. Surveillance and Punishment and The Interpretation of Dreams are books; here’s a sign, light on antithesis, so to speak: Psychological Types, and Faust; and more in The Painted Bird, and an entry into the breaches of personality in a book whose title camouflages its depth: Lavoura Arcaica, in which one notes in desire the impasse of breaking the backbone of a tenacious wall [taboo is taboo], and so there are those who say that violence, madness and other human timbres live by chance in books, or because of other extremes. Thinking hurts [“the injustice of the letters”].
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Nguyễn Thị Phương TrâmYour website or blog is a well-kept house, where I can learn and grasp concepts, reject wicks already under suspicion around the world, etc, and I come here from time to time.Best wishes.
Darlan M Cunha (Brasil)
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thank you my friend, for the much needed affirmations, your kindness have not gone amiss it has been taken wholly in my heart. bless. Trâm
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This is a wonderful poem of deep sadness. Reflecting on another life no longer lived… a stranger and pilgrim in another land.
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those kind words. Roth. thank you.
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You are welcome.
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You are welcome. You do such a great job with translating these poems to English!
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