Thy Nguyen, an eminent poetess from Vietnam, the Land of Blue Dragon, shares her three poems
Thy Nguyên
Poetess Phạm Thúy Nga, who writes with pen name Thy Nguyên, was born in 1981 in Haiphong city of Vietnam. She is member of Haiphong Writers’ Association and Vietnam Writers’ Association.
Her published works include Sân người (poem collection, 2012), Cầm mưa (poem collection, 2013), Phố đông người (poem collection, 2014), Ga nổi (poem collection, 2015), Đời đá (epic poem, 2017), Người dưng (poem collection, 2019), Gửi (epic poem, 2021), Phố vợ cũ (poem collection, 2023).
The Ex-wife Street
Hai Phong has an Ex-wife Street, you know?
Where the softest sun drank my teary pain.
Where hundred solitudes knitted the heavy rain.
Where the street lean on those thirty years of bathing though.
Serenity already outside, uncertainty already lay down.
Happiness missed the turn, unable to come back now.
All these grey hairs waved into the neat pillow,
As my room sits in a triangle limbo of winter cool.
Your shoulder was bent as a hurt that afternoon.
As each pink Antigonon now, a bruise in silence
As each golden leaf now, a faded embroidered kiss
At the back of us, wind after wind cheered up till drunk.
***
Rewash the sunrise
More than a poem is one unfinished line
I washed all the sunrise and hung outside the window
Door to that once upon a time
Door to that rotten people
You said flowers must stay blooming
Wind must stay spring fresh
Light must stay golden
I must stay gorgeous.
My clothes are already too big.
My shoes are already too wide.
As the reflection of my bracelets in the empty mug
As the red lipstick
I drank until the last drop
As I must get married.
O sunrise washed all of me
O sunset hanged me in a chaotic silence
Unable to finish the line
Just a flip then we lost our prime.
***
Four Lost Men
O’ Lord
Thou leaved four lost men in my home
The first one
My father
Gave life for three children
Packed the childhood goodbye when I was just two.
The second one
One day
Brought my sister to the other side of the broccoli field
Tied the straight flush
Dealt the seasons at the game of life
The third one
In my memory
As the dreamy circle
As the pouty sun
As the hallucinated rain
As the gambler for double
The fourth one
Brought my mother’s spring
Ran across the field
The afternoon turned into sparrows
Picked the leftover of summertime
Piled the January crime.
O’ Lord thou lost the roof of my home
My mother became my father
My sister became her children’s father
I became the father of two daughters…
The women’s world sparkles like the twinkle star
Waiting for a twilight
Lost all the lover’s time.
_____________
(Translation: Ryan Pham/Nguyen Le)
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