Tag: vietnamwar

Missing you mate | Hồ Chí Minh

Cô Trâm và bạn Nghĩa

thơ Hồ Chí Minh
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm dịch

By the river we said our goodbyes
See you when the harvest is ripe
Now the rice is harvest the land cleared
I’m incarcerated in a foreign land now that’s something to fear!

Ức hữu


Tích quân tống ngã chí giang tân
Vấn ngã quy kỳ chỉ cốc tân
Hiện tại tân điền dĩ lê hảo
Tha hương ngã tác ngục trung thân

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.

Listening to the sound of rice being pounded in a mortar and pestle | Hồ Chí Minh

Thôn Diên Lão, phography Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

thơ Hồ Chí Minh
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm dịch

pounded over and over again
the grain of rice had to endure the pain
but once the husk is removed and forgotten
the grain of rice is as white as cotton
people in life are much the same
to succeed one have to endure the pain

Văn thung mễ thanh


Mễ bị thung thì hẩn thống khổ
Ký thung chi hậu bạch như miên
Nhân sinh tại thế dã giá dạng
Khốn nan thị nhĩ ngọc thành thiên

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.

Scabies | Hồ Chí Minh

thơ Hồ Chí Minh
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm dịch

The whole body covered in rich brocades of pinks and reds in six colours
Itchy itches scratching strike a tune
All VIPs covered in rich brocades
Strumming in harmony are cell mates or more so soulmates I say

Lại sang


Mãn thân hồng lục như xuyên cẩm
Thành nhật lao tao tự cổ cầm
Xuyên cẩm tù trung đô quý khách
Cổ cầm nạn hữu tận tri âm

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.

THE SUNSET ABOVE THE CLOUDS | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Desire floats above the clouds
In the heavens heading south
It’s cool breath spreads heat
Hues of yellows, reds, orange now.

To fall to fly to be so high
Sweat beads vapours of the sky
Navel tense arms are wide
For seconds in the amber light.

Embraced by the earth
The Sun always surrender
Wilted limp in darkness
Blanket under constellations by birth…

of night.

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.

consoling solitude | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

moon. photography by nguyễn thị phương trâm

The hunger grows impatient
Cravings passing conscience
Obsession beyond moral sense
In moonlight only you!
I reached for a glimmer of self,
Any dignity left to confine,
Just consoling solitude.

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.

The little bird’s song was a little odd at dusk | An Thu

Buôn Ma Thuột, by Lê Vĩnh Tài

thơ An Thu
Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm chuyển thể

I’m suddenly surrounded by a startling sadness
The horizon was silent – distant
In white clouds erected – the walls of sadness !

Dusk in abandonment – dusk in a strange land
Time passes in the death of innocence
Upon my shoulders, the sadness in a line, piled atop each other
In remembrance of this tough life embraced the sunset

An entire life in view of the future
Frightful… dear god, right or wrong?

Dusk is about to disappear into the night…
And all I want to do is cry
The confusion – the strangers, I’m stranger than I !
Remember… .
Yes… .
Yes… .
Remember… .
Something had upset me today, maybe .
All these sudden changes: to just remember, to then just forget …
—
June 2022
_

Con chim nhỏ chiều nay hót lạ
Dưng không buồn đứng ngó mông- quanh
Trời bình yên bây giờ xa – đã
Buồn tôi ơi- mây trắng xây thành !

Chiều bơ vơ – chiều nơi đất lạ
Tình thơ ngây đã chết theo ngày
Sầu theo sầu chất nặng trên vai
Ôm hoàng hôn nhớ kiếp đọa đày

Đem thân về ngó suốt tương lai
Hoảng hốt… trời ơi, đúng hay sai?

Chiều sắp vào tối…
Bỗng dưng buồn muốn khóc
Ngơ ngác ngó- lạ người, lạ cả chính ta !
Nhớ….
Nhớ…
Nhớ….
Hôm nay mình hoảng hốt gì hay sao .
Tự dưng nhiều thứ biển đổi: thoạt nhớ, thoạt quên …

An Thu, the poet is from Long Xuyen, Vietnam, she currently lives in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A.

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.

aesthetic and social norm | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Sydney winter 2025, it snowed in Queensland, and the last time it snowed in Queensland was in 1975, 50 years ago. Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

aesthetic and social norm
you must conform

slim down
– you’re too fat!

dye your hair
– you’re too grey!

shut up
– you’re a woman!

you like sex?
– you’re a whore!

CONFORM TO SOCIAL NORM

I am fat
I am grey
I speak up
I love sex

THE ART OF LIVING

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.

where people are being born | Lê Vĩnh Tài [482]

Buon Ma Thuot, Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Thơ Lê Vĩnh Tài
Translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

when one see a mute man dancing
in a rock garden, will his eulogy be at all
discernible?

read
when he is dumb
when they say he is deaf

but he was born to discern
how the world is falling apart
where everything had drifted away
forgotten and was lost

at the side of a mountain where the internet did not reach
just a hand written poem that could break
one’s heart

even the deaf can read
knows that time waits for no one

choked up because of those eyes
even though he is dumb and deaf
discernible still is the world through his eyes

does the world not have eyes?
does the world not have ears?

where people are being born
welcoming their new soul
at a funeral parlor
who will come back?

trong một khu vườn toàn đá
có một người đàn ông câm
đang nhảy múa
chúng ta biết gì về bài văn tế lễ tang
ông ta đang đọc?

đọc
vậy có lẽ ông không bị câm
người ta nói ông bị điếc

ông không sinh ra để nghe
thế giới đang bùng nổ
từ một nơi trôi dạt
đã bị lãng quên

bên sườn núi không có internet
chỉ bài thơ chép tay còn ẩn dụ một tin tức
ngực

vì người điếc vẫn biết đọc
cảm nhận thời gian không ai chờ đợi

cái nhìn
lên màn hình nghẹt thở
người đàn ông dù câm và điếc
vẫn có đôi mắt nhìn ra thế giới

có đôi mắt trên thế giới này không?
có đôi tai trong thế giới này không?

nơi mọi người vẫn đang được sinh ra
chào mừng linh hồn của họ
tại nhà tang lễ
vậy còn ai sẽ quay về?

Lê Vĩnh Tài, the poet and translator born in 1966 in Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak, Vietnam. The retired doctor is still a resident of the Western Highlands and a businessman in Buon Ma Thuot.

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.