Tag: living

Present | Bùi Chát

chưa có tên, sơn dầu trên canvas, 150x195cm . Bùi Chát.

poem inspired art by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

we alone have so many faces
mine have all taken a hold of me

my natural compulsion is to run
run again and again
run away as far as I can

to forever escape from all those faces
I have found a place to hide within you

forever within you
to embracing a new day

Hiện hữu


Có quá nhiều mặt trong một khuôn mặt
Cố bám riết lấy tôi

Theo phản xạ thông thường
Tôi bỏ chạy
Rồi lại bỏ chạy

Và để vĩnh viễn thoát khỏi những khuôn mặt
Tôi đã trốn vào em

Mãi mãi ở trong em
Ôm trọn ngày đang tới

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.

Huế Showers | Bạch Diệp

Bạch Diệp in Huế

A poem in Vietnamese by Bạch Diệp
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

A variation of Lưu Thủy Kim Tiền’s melody
Opening a barrel of sweet Hoàng Gia wine
Pouring, savouring each drop at a time

Door or high brick walls cannot stop the rain
Mother stir frying salt, lemongrass, and raw watermelon
Remembering the rain showers of long ago
Wooden clogs, and silk tunic gingerly crossing the bridge
Huế girls now leaves their house on a motorbike
In jeans and big backpacks

The rain would stop
And the fermenting city would burst open
Flooding the streets with the scent of eucalyptus
licorice, and ginseng
Through the door to the end of the garden
All the way to the riverbank
thriving and green
Moss and grass over Cửu Đỉnh
Resisting
oblivion

Fear not is what will be lost in time
The kids in any cafe or street corner will tell you
There’s no coffee lovelier than
Coffee in Huế

Huế mưa

Là biến tấu của giai khúc Lưu Thủy Kim Tiền
Làm vỡ chiếc thùng rượu ngọt Hoàng Gia
Đổ xuống
từng chuỗi
giọt

Cửa Ngăn cửa Sập tường gạch cao không ngăn nổi mưa
Mạ rang nồi muối sả muối vại dưa hường
Nhớ cơn mưa xưa guốc mộc áo the
Thủng thẳng qua cầu
Con gái Huế chừ quần jean ba lô hớn hở cuốc xe đi mô cũng tới

Rồi mưa cũng tạnh
Nội thành dậy men mở những lối đi ngập nước
Mùi khuynh diệp cam thảo đinh lăng
Qua khung cửa về cuối khu vườn ra đến bờ sông
Rêu xanh và cỏ mướt đang lên
Cưỡng lại sự quên lãng trên Cửu Đỉnh

Chẳng sợ những gì thời gian đánh mất
Bọn trẻ con ngồi đồng cafe góc phố
Nhất quyết rằng
Chẳng nơi đâu ấm bằng góc cafe Huế

Bạch Diệp, the poet and artist lives in Hue, 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.

HOW TO CONFESS… | Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc

Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc

thơ Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm dịch

how to confess your love and not lose it
grill other people on how to for the first time love
the unknown doors to brave new worlds
words
vernacular of the flesh
wordless gaze
forget them
run
and that includes death
and still most unfamiliar is affection
the unmet gaze of those we love
dumb anxieties may it be a mean or kind dream

ah who am I to say
to have lived this long to never again love
head first into a river called life
like a fish out of water
craving for death
the way the marriage bed had denied me
as we laugh and cry half a lifetime withered away 
by the games we play 
cross stitches of pride over shame and humiliation 
ignoring the sting of bindii 
    under foot mistaking it for a lover
love came out of nowhere
over the mountains 
through the ravines of a life spent
may it be life or death matter - no
the enthusiasm for oblivion 

discerning the bitter struggle 
smells of an impending storm
hid behind mirrors of illusions
the way storms are imprisoned 
    in the smallness of one's fist
as the clouds in the sky would hid 
    the affections reflected
a fox with nine tails abstained 
    from worldly interactions for 999 years 
    and 364 days and its tails are dripping 
    teary still
cunning enough to get marry 
    to avoid being strike down by lightning
cunning enough to get marry 
    as a glorify way to confess 
love
    regardless of a love that is not real
    regardless of the agony of true pain
    regardless of how harden humanity had become
in its wisdom water could still break
a misguided spirit guardian howling in the dark
enough fret to trouble the moon

LÀM THẾ NÀO…

 
Làm thế nào để tỏ tình mà tình không biến mất
tra vấn tha nhân bài học vỡ lòng yêu
Những cánh cửa đời xa lạ biết bao-
lời,
ngôn ngữ thân xác,
mắt câm,
quên nó đi,
chạy,
và cả chết…
Nhưng xa lạ nhất vẫn là tình
Người mà ta không dám ngó vào mắt khi đối diện
ngẩn ngơ lo cơn mộng dữ hay lành

Ôi ta,
sống đến đây tưởng như không bao giờ yêu được nữa
lao vào dòng sống ngày mỗi ngày
như cá lao mình khỏi nước
nhìn cái chết thèm thuồng
như nhìn chiếc giừơng cưới luôn chối từ ta
tàn nửa đời trộn cười khóc làm trò chơi
đan xéo lòng kiêu nhòa nỗi nhục
giả dại hôn ngọn cỏ châm đau mà ngỡ người tình
Chợt tình đến,
ngang tàng núi non,
lạnh lẽo huyệt thẳm
mòn sống,
thờ ơ chết,
nồng nhiệt với hư vô

Cảm được vị đắng nhọc nhằn,
 mùi giông sắp đến
đành nhốt tình sau tấm gương bóng ảo chờn chờn
như nhốt bão trong lòng tay nhỏ
như vùa mây đỉnh trời che kính chiếu yêu
hồ ly tu 999 năm 364 ngày,
   đuôi còn nhỏ lệ
mưu toan kết hôn chạy trốn sét trời
mưu toan kết hôn như để tỏ tình
Yêu,
   bất chấp tình ảo
   bất chấp nỗi đau đớn thật
   bất chấp ngọc người ngàn năm tri thức tan bóng nước
Tịch tà lạc bóng
âm âm tiếng hú gợn nhàu trăng



Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc

Director Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc, born 5 August 1953 in Bà Rịa, Vietnam. She graduated from stage directing in 1980, trained as an actor at the Ho Chi Minh City School of Theater and Cinema and Tran Huu Trang Theater. She was a student of director Nguyen Tuong Tran (second generation disciple of Konstantin Stanislavski), trained as a cải lương performer with People’s Artist Phung Ha, and she trained many renowned native and international drama and cải lương artists like: Meritorious Artist Huu Chau, Huu Nghia, Hong Dao, Quang Minh, Meritorious Artist Huu Quoc, Meritorious Artist My Hang, Luong My, Mai Lan, Hoa Hiep, Xuan Trang, Thanh Phuong.

She taught the subjects of Screenwriting, Drama Theory and History of Vietnamese Theatre at several colleges and universities, co-founded the Experimental Directing Club (1985), staged about 30 traditional and contemporary plays, wrote about 70 traditional and contemporary plays for the stage and about 30 scripts for cinema, hundreds of episodes for television, several research works on theatre and reformed opera, attended many festivals, seminars, composed and researched on theatre and education in the country and in Australia, England, France, Germany, Tanzania, Norway, Sweden, Philippines, USA, Indonesia, and was the stage personality of the year 2004 voted by Vietnam Television.

She was an actress for the stages: 5B Vo Van Tan, Idecaf… The roles that the audience remembers: Otilia, The Chicken Raising Girl & The Old Girl (Du Luan Quan Chung), Aunt Ba Kim Duyen (Ngoi Nha Khong Dan Men), Grandma (Cau Dong), Grandma Ca & Grandma To Gia (Long Dang Do Cao), Grandma (Tam Nguoi Dan Ba), Crazy Audience (Thuong Hoai Ngan Nam), Grandma Hanh Ngo (Mot va cua toi?). The most recent role was Grandma Vu in the MV Tan Vo with Dam Vinh Hung and Nhan Phuc Vinh.[1] The performance “The Last Romantic” is a 60-minute solo performance made up of ten tragicomic monologues that Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc used to illustrate her talks about theater at universities in and outside the country.

In addition, she is also a member of the Writers, Theater, and Cinema Associations, and is one of the 20 outstanding writers of Ho Chi Minh City selected by the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association.

She is the first Vietnamese woman to bring Vietnamese works to the off-off Broadway stage in New York as an author, director and actress, including: Lost Woman (2008) and We Are… (2011). She was selected as the highlight of the Vietnamese International Film Festival (VIFF) in the US (2007).

In addition to documentaries about Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc produced by VTV, HTV, Binh Duong, and Long An television stations, in 2015, director Hung Phuong made the documentary “Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc – The Treasure Keeper of Gold and Jade” 19’36” long and won first prize in the “I Preserve Beauty” contest.

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.

Huế | Bạch Diệp

thơ Bạch Diệp
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm dịch ra anh ngữ

in my dream
there’s a city far far away
a city drifting in a purple mist
there the streets are as green as velvet
shimmering through its kingdom is a river that drapes like silk
someone’s voice
more of a whisper(nhẹ rứa) is as soft
as the clouds as the mist
as true as poetry
an aching longing in my heart

I have ran away from the ancient eaves of Bao Vinh
from the call for departure from Văn Lâu Thừa Phủ bus stop
drunk often by the permeating air of camphor
beneath a turquoise starry night at Linh Mụ wharf
carries in the breeze are the notes of unbearable sadness
just once in “a house of a wanderer”
as the bells of Phủ Cam Cathedral ring you lit a candle
I remember how…

thin you were like Huế in the fall
scattered leaves in Rú Chá(our mangrove primeval forest)
Who is Huế waiting for with all its thirteen gates wide open
Tịnh Tâm blooming lotus during the fasting seasons
Scent of spicy ginger blooms by Tuần ferry terminal
I have travelled to the end of the earth beneath the same sky
searching for a meal balanced in yin and yang and the five elements
the way Mạ gather each fresh stem of green for you to season
with ruốc cay(shredded pork/chicken/prawn)
now that is Huế!

Bạch Diệp in Huế, Vietnam.

Bạch Diệp, the poet and artist lives in Hue, 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.

M i s s i o n | Bùi Chát

Sứ mệnh Sơn dầu, oilstick trên canvas 150x200cm 2025 by Bùi Chát

poem inspired art by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

I’m here and I will continue to
challenge myself
the way I have always challenged myself
challenge the meaninglessness
of meaning
of all that is iconic

S ứ m ệ n h

Tôi đến và tiếp tục
Chống lại tôi
Như đã từng chống lại tôi
Chống lại sự vô nghĩa
Của ý nghĩa
Của các biểu tượng

(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.

Oneway | Bùi Chát

Fansipan Mountain Sapa is a dream destination for outdoor enthusiasts in Vietnam (Source: Collected)

poem by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

A poem by a patriot
Next to a book of poem by another patriot

Completely still

They sit side by side

Turned silence into wordless silence

So they can stare at a paradise lost

Một hướng


Bài thơ của một người yêu nước mình[1]
Bên tập thơ của một người yêu nước khác

Họ cùng nhau

Ngồi yên

Chuyển lặng im thành im lặng

Để nhìn về thiên đường mất mát
—
[1] a poem by Trần Vàng Sao

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.

A footnote on a journey | Bùi Chát

Khai mạc 'Đang trôi'. Art by Bùi Chát. Photo by Trà Cù Lủ

poem by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

You left me in a rush as though
you’re retreating from a fight where I’m
completed bogged

Chú thích cho một cuộc đi


Em rời bỏ tôi
Vội vã như rút khỏi cuộc chiến
Tôi đã sa lầy

(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.

Drowning | Bùi Chát

Khai mạc 'Đang trôi'. Bùi Chát in the middle. Photo by Trà Cù Lủ

poem by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

I was about to compose a poem with all the words
I picked out from all the poems I have read
My wife stopped me just in time instead
– Are you sure you want to go ahead
People will watch you day and night
(Worried someone might steal their organs or kidnap their poems)
The litigation and lawsuits can drag out until when
Passing from one person to the next day in day out and then
There will be no one left to fend
Enough energy to chase after those new innovations
New poems

Đuối


Tôi đang định làm bài thơ
Bằng những từ được tháo ra từ bài thơ khác
Vợ tôi biết được, bả cản
Nếu anh nhất định làm vậy
Mọi người suốt ngày đêm canh chừng
(Sợ thơ mình bị bắt cóc hoặc lấy cắp nội tạng)
Cuộc kiện cáo giằng co có thể kéo dài
Từ người này sang người này, rồi lại sang ngày khác
Cuối cùng sẽ chẳng còn ai
Đủ sức chạy theo những loài thơ mới

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.