Tag: writing

Still husband material? | Lý Đợi [1]

Nhà thơ Lý Đợi (Ảnh: Họa sĩ Phạm An Hải)

poem by Lý Đợi
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

a woman with money
three time divorced
looking for a guy as advertised
with a set with criteria:
single
who will never be a brute
who will never abandon a lady
…
who can fuck.

one autumn morning
the cypress door bell rang
and there outside the door was a monk
both his hands tied
there because of the ad in the classified
and she was surprised
and unsettled
because there indeed was a dick

the man took his time said:
as you can see… I’m single
and can’t in any way hurt you [hands tied]…

but how will you perform your task well she sighed
hold on to your dick, be that guy
confined?

I guarantee you it’s not blind
how else did you think I rang the bell on that cypress door!
[and what else am I supposed to do with the hand grenade in my tights? He implored]

Vẫn làm chồng tốt?


Một người đàn bà giàu sụ,
đã ba lần ly dị,
có đăng báo tìm cu
với các tiêu chuẩn:
Độc thân,
Không có thói vũ phu,
Không rời bỏ mệnh phụ
Và…
Biết đụ.

Vào buổi sáng mùa thu
chuông reo ngoài cửa pơ-mu
hoá ra một thầy tu
hai tay cột chặt
đến vì mẩu rao vặt
người đàn bà ngạc nhiên
và dằn vặt
vì đây đúng là một ngữ cặc

Người đàn ông đó thong thả nói:
cô thấy đấy… tôi đang độc thân
và không thể đánh cô được [vì tay trói]…

Nhưng anh làm sao có thể thực hiện tốt nhiệm vụ
của một người cầm cu
trong tư thế lao tù?

Đảm bảo với cô là nó không mù
Thế cô nghĩ tôi bấm chuông bằng gì khi đứng trước cửa pơ-mu!
[cũng như tôi phải làm gì với quả lựu đạn chày trong túi quần mùa thu?]

[chuyên đề TÌNH YÊU VÀ TÌNH DỤC TRONG VĂN CHƯƠNG]

Lý Đợi (1979), Born in 1978 in Khuc Luy village, Dien Minh commune, Dien Ban district, Quang Nam province. Bachelor of Literature, 2001. As of 2008, after five years of writing, he had published three solo works and approximately twenty-five collaborative works in Vietnam and abroad. His poetry and translated poems have also appeared in several literary magazines and websites in Vietnamese and English. He has also participated in poetry performances, presentations, documentary films, workshops, and exhibitions at the Goethe Institute in Korea, China, Germany, and Vietnam. A key member of the Open Mouth group, which includes Bùi Chát, Khúc Duy, Nguyễn Quán, Lý Đợi and others. He co-initiated and promoted the photocopied work printing movement in Vietnam. He co-founded the Paper Scraps Publishing House. He currently lives in Saigon and works as a journalist.

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.

LÝ ĐỢI

Nhà thơ Lý Đợi (Ảnh: Họa sĩ Phạm An Hải)

in Vietnamese by Lý Đợi
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

[chuyên đề  TÌNH YÊU VÀ TÌNH DỤC TRONG VĂN CHƯƠNG]

Lý Đợi (1979), Born in 1978 in Khuc Luy village, Dien Minh commune, Dien Ban district, Quang Nam province. Bachelor of Literature, 2001. As of 2008, after five years of writing, he had published three solo works and approximately twenty-five collaborative works in Vietnam and abroad. His poetry and translated poems have also appeared in several literary magazines and websites in Vietnamese and English. He has also participated in poetry performances, presentations, documentary films, workshops, and exhibitions at the Goethe Institute in Korea, China, Germany, and Vietnam. A key member of the Open Mouth group, which includes Bùi Chát, Khúc Duy, Nguyễn Quán, Lý Đợi and others. He co-initiated and promoted the photocopied work printing movement in Vietnam. He co-founded the Paper Scraps Publishing House. He currently lives in Saigon and works as a journalist.

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.

NOT THE SAME OLD DAY | Đinh Thị Như Thuý

Đinh Thị Như Thúy

A poem in Vietnamese by Đinh Thị Như Thúy
Translator: Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

And Dalat is welcoming people home late
Verdant pines like vertical shreds down the afternoon
Me discerning the hollowness in my chest
A hint of newness in the air

And the spellbinding fog and clouds of Dalat
And pride
And wind
And flowers
Me soaking up the sweet tenderness
from the lashes of sleepy hills
Knows still that it’s not the same old day

Knows already that it’s not the same old day
Me walking along in the dark gathering the flowers
of my imagination
Dalat staggering sad horse’s eyes
Clip clopping
Through persistent showers

Oh low flying dragonflies
Dalat and I are now both
soaked through
by the rain

KHÔNG LÀ NGÀY CŨ

Và Đà Lạt đón người về muộn
Những thông xanh bợt bạt trong chiều
Em lắng nghe
sự trống trơn trong lồng ngực của mình
Biết ngày đã khác

Và bùa mê sương mây Đà Lạt
Và kiêu kỳ
Và gió
Và hoa
Em nếm trải sự dịu êm
từ mi mắt ngái ngủ của những ngọn đồi
Biết vẫn không là ngày cũ

Biết đã không là ngày cũ
Em đi dọc con đường đêm
hái đầy tay những bông hoa ảo giác
Đà Lạt liêu xiêu buồn mắt ngựa
Lóc cóc hoài
Mưa giăng

Hỡi những cánh chuồn bay thấp
Đà Lạt và em đã ướt đẫm rồi

Đinh Thị Như Thuý


Đinh Thị Như Thuý, born 16-9-1965 in Hue,Vietnam. The Vietnamese poet attended high school in Danang, and university in Dalat, then was a literature teacher in Krong Pac district, Dak Lak province. Currently, she works at the Union of Literature and Arts of Da Nang City. She also used the pseudonyms Như Thuý, Như Dã Quỳ.

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.

What is poetry? | Bùi Chát

poem by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

What is poetry?

– How the f..k would I know!
You’re the poet, you tell me!

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.

CUỐI NGÀY, NHÌN RA, TỪ MỘT NGÔI ĐỀN BÊN BỜ SÔNG | Jia Dao

賈島 Jia Dao (779–843)

Nước
phủ kín chân trời dưới những đám mây;
sương mù trên núi
làm mờ ngôi làng phía xa.

Khi trở về tổ, những chú chim
để lại dấu vết trên cát;
đi trên sông, một chiếc thuyền
không để lại dấu vết trên sóng.

Tôi ngắm nhìn dòng nước
và cảm nhận sự dịu nhẹ của nó;
ngắm nhìn những ngọn núi
cho đến khi tinh thần mệt mỏi.

Mặc dù vẫn chưa muốn
dừng suy ngẫm,
hoàng hôn đã buông xuống
tôi phải cưỡi ngựa trở về.

LATE IN THE DAY, GAZING OUT
FROM A RIVER PAVILION


Chia Tao (779–843)Translations by Mike O’ConnorIn: The Clouds Should Know Me By Now: Buddhist Poet Monks of ChinaWisdom Publications, 1998, pp. 11-42.

Water to the horizon
veils the base of clouds;
mountain mist
blurs the far village.

Returning to nest, birds
make tracks in the sand;
passing on the river, a boat
leaves no trace on the waves.

I gaze at the water
and know its gentle nature;
watch the mountains
until my spirit tires.

Though not yet ready
to leave off musing,
dusk falls,
and I return by horse.

Jia Dao [779-843] CHIA TAO WAS A BUDDHIST POET of the Middle T’ang dynasty. Born into an impoverished family near today’s Beijing, he became a Ch’an (Zen) monk early in his youth, with the religious name Wupen. While scant biographical detail of his monastic days exists, his official biography does note that upon arriving at the Eastern Capital, Lo-yang, Chia Tao wrote a poem protesting a curfew forbidding monks to go out after noon. The poem caught the sympathetic eye of the eminent Confucian poet Han Yu (768–824) and led to the latter becoming Chia Tao’s poetry mentor.

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.

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.

An Oxymoron | Bùi Chát

poem by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

1.
I am a witness to many deaths
Sad. Pitiful
Horrifying, to the point where…

Death is something no one dare


2.
I am a witness to many deaths
Sad
Pitiful
Horrifying
to the point where…

Living is something no one dare

Nghịch lí


1.
Tôi đã chứng kiến nhiều cái chết
Buồn. Thê thảm
Kinh hoàng, đến nỗi…

Không còn ai dám chết


2.
Tôi đã chứng kiến nhiều cái chết
Buồn
Thê thảm
Kinh hoàng
đến mức…

Không còn ai dám sống

(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.

pointless | Bùi Chát

poem by Bùi Chát
translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

“Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist.
To make living itself an art, that is the goal.”
― Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

the end is inevitable
don’t you want to go out with a bang?
try not to bored people to death

the same drama over and over again
a bunch of amateurs
inept actors always in the wrong role
saying the wrong lines

why the same sad tragedy?
do you think your audience are fools?
or no one has enough courage to write something new?

the end is inevitable
so choose the best way to go
dragging it out is pointless
to the sacrifice of so many patron!

Vô ích


Sau trước gì cũng xong
Phải chăng chọn một cái kết phù hợp?
Đừng để người xem nhìn nhau ngán ngẩm

Một vở kịch diễn đi diễn lại
Mà diễn viên toàn người nghiệp dư
Lần nào cũng không đúng vai
Lúc nào cũng sai lời thoại

Sao để mọi người xem mãi vở kịch tồi tệ?
Tụi bay nghĩ chẳng người nào hiểu kịch?
Hoặc không còn ai dám dựng vở mới?

Sau trước gì cũng xong
Hãy chọn một kết thúc hợp lý
Kéo dài chi vô ích
Mất hết khách bi chừ!

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.