leminhchanh – Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

A poem in Vietnamese by Lê Minh Chánh
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm
Photography: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

April. The tired flowers on the pavement
People sprinkle their lack lustre colours with water
An exchange of death
An exchange of destruction

An exchange of a new dawn
The disintegration all round
The windless pathways
On the rise and fall of stomping feet the subdued dust

The Sun passing half-way across Aries
No one for a moment thought they would burn
The grazing scorching blisters of passing shadows
Came the afternoon and the passing storm

Love, how do I quickly end, April?

Tháng tư. Những đóa hoa mệt lả trên đường
Người vẩy nước lên bầy hoa tái nhợt
Mua về một cái chết
Mua về một tàn phai

Mua về một ban mai
Thấy rã tan mọi thứ
Những con đường cạn gió
Bụi u uất những bàn chân giẫm xuống đạp lên

Mặt trời đi qua nửa cung Bạch Dương
Không ai nghĩ phút giây nào mình cháy hết
Những chiếc bóng chạm vào nhau bỏng rát
Buổi chiều đến và cơn mưa bay mất

Em, ta làm gì cho qua hết tháng tư?

Lê Minh Chánh
4.21

Lê Minh Chánh, the poet currently lives in Saigon, Vietnam.

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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