Cool Stars – Poetry from Vietnam
Hoang Vu Thuat, a renowned poet from the land of Blue Dragon shares his three poems
Palm leaves accidentally touched my hand
Palm leaves were like cool hands
Cool Stars
Palm leaves on the roadside touched my hand
Those memories were far away, cannot remember anymore
I gently reminded the old poems
Poems about a childhood
After your words, carefree distance
The deep sky lit up thousands of stars
The deep land lit up thousands of palm leaves
Stars suddenly slit the sky
Just like a poem
You gently reminded and cannot remember anymore
Who remembered all the stars?
Shined in the vast sky
Palm leaves accidentally touched my hand
Palm leaves were like cool hands
Stars would turn off
Those poems were back again
As I were back again
In the song you would sing tomorrow
In the middle of real life
Shine a – star – you
As your hands
Eased my aching heart
Innocent old poems how can you remember
Tomorrow you would forget
Then tomorrow the quiet distance
Live with me full of energy
Then tomorrow
Hands gentle as palm leaves
Palm leaves will twinkle as blue stars
Remind about poems from that time
Long-suffering poems
Maybe the birds would fly back
Chirp in front of the alley
Maybe and lots of possible things
That I only believe in one thing
The road will bloom with thousands of green palm leaves
Brilliant night with thousands of cool stars
Read on Packs of Cigarette
Packs of cigarette on the table
As the dead cicadas that burned the fire of last season
I found something unclear
Maybe the lonely sadness
White nights crossed the blue hair
Actively forgot
Success and failure after a lifetime of hard work
Stack packs of cigarette on top of each other
As people build brick houses
I tried to rearrange my thoughts
Around the ashtray
A few cigarettes burned unfinished
The days were light and airy
Why always touched the silence
Suddenly sounds of fallen trains in the alley
Rains far away from home
Dew floated in the street
I have a girl to remember
Many other things else
I picked it up and dropped it
Sometimes I feel that I am likely a pack of cigarette
Empty
Wanting to crush and throw it away
Coconut Tree on Cape of Cua Tung*
The chain trees of the same my time had gone
Only a tree standing there
On snout of the land reaching out to the sea
The chain trees of the same my time had gone
I suddenly heard the waves whispering
Waves saying these days and nights
Putting hands on the tree trunk
I feel my hands burned
Deep bomb wound that could not be healed anymore
The answer that coconut told me
The chain trees of the same my time had gone
Only a tree standing there
Many shaded sunk in the rock soil
The trees of the same time have gone
I suddenly heard the wind whisper
The chain trees of the same my time had gone
I suddenly heard the wind whisper
The wind saying these days and nights
Green leaves full of tears
I bent down and touched the soil
Oh the bright red soil
Soil answered me
The chain trees of the same my time had gone
Only a tree standing there
Rain and sun pouring over
Pouring the storm
Many couples sitting under this tree
Coconut leaves cooling the arms
Fishermen going to the sea
They stood on the boat bow
The form of coconut tress
On snout of the land reaching out to the sea
____________________
- CUA TUNG is the beach of the middle region of Vietnam
(Poems translated into English by Khanh Phuong)
