there were six people there | Bùi Chát

prawn heads cooked with calabash soft centre

the husband served the soup

                  the wife slurped it down

                 the help said it was delicious

the nosy neighbour reported it

the reason why I wrote this poem

even though I do not know 
         who could possibly be the sixth

Râu tôm nấu với ruột bầu

Chồng chan
 
               Vợ húp
 
                 Người hầu khen ngon

Hàng xóm nhiều chuyện nghe thấy kể lại

Nên tôi viết bài này

Nhưng tôi không biết ai là người thứ sáu

(Chúng ta đang trôi đi đâu?! - Nxb Đà Nẵng 2025)

Bùi Chát is the poet, writer, publisher and artist’s pen name. Bùi Quang Viễn was born on October 22, 1979, at Hố Nai, Biên Hòa, Đồng Nai Province, Việt Nam. Born to family of patriotic Catholic refugees from the North in 1954.

Graduated in 2001 from the Faculty of Literature, Linguistics, and Journalism of Hồ Chí Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Bùi Chát named and cofounded Nhóm Mở Miệng (Open Mouth Group) with the poet and writer Lý Đợi, promoting Graveyard & Garbage Poetry.

Nhà Xuất bản Giấy Vụn (Scrap Paper Publishing House), also founded by Bùi Chát, distributions of xerographically structured sensitive works by “pavement poets”. In 2004, Bùi Chát and cofounder Lý Đợi were detained for two days for distributing flyers at a poetry reading raided by the authority. In 2005, the culture department blocked their performance at the Goethe Institute in Hà Nội.

In 2011, Bùi Chát was awarded the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize “for his exemplary courage in upholding the freedom to publish.” He was arrested on his return to Việt Nam after receiving the award in Buenos Aires and detained for several days.

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.