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)