THE GIRL OF ROME – Poetry from Vietnam
Poet Le Trien, hailing from the land of Blue Dragon, shares his six poems
When you go, the afternoon follows
Eyes as blue as the sky
What to send in the dark night?
Dreams in a foreign land
Suddenly searching around like a fool…
Le Trien
THE GIRL OF ROME
Where are you going in such a hurry?
Hey, the girl of Rome
Please stop for a moment
To help me the way back!
When you go, the afternoon follows
Eyes as blue as the sky
What to send in the dark night?
Dreams in a foreign land
Suddenly searching around like a fool…
(Rome – Italy, in the night of September 4th, 2005)
COME BACK
Came back from a long trip
On To Hieu Street, the coffee shop was still there
Dead leaves in the late autumn fell all over the alley
The wind blew to call out the winter…
You were still the same, leaning on the door
Counted the time, your eyes were filled with longing.
I spent many nights on the lovely Seine,
In the midst of Paris full of splendor,
The Eiffel Tower was splendid with lights.
The girl from the West with blue eyes, like the color of the sea…
Goodbye to all the places I used to go
I came back to the Red River
Hoan Kiem Lake, Thang Long…
Came back to the person who made my heart clap like sea waves
Dimples to warm the days far away!
(Paris, September 10th, 2005)
I’M BACK HOME
The dry branches cut across the afternoon clouds
The wind blew
Followed the Thao River and blew
Some rarely stars flashed turquoise
I’m back home!
The alluvial seed this season was having a sweet dream
Forever attracted to you
In every earth breathe
You were like the sand of the river
Got thirsty
Drought season
I hoped it all rains!
In the winter, I held you in my arms
My coat was like a hot stove of the vagrant
You smelled the scent
The scent of Australia’s forest in my coat
The distance was deep in the eyes
Brought it back to you
Sunshine in the green steppe!
You and I
Pulled back time from white hair to the young black hair
Held the space and anchored to the two ends of the crescent moon
Blew it frenzy!
Burst into flames into millions of flowers.
I’m back home
From there so far
The fire just ignited on the flight path
Looked into your eyes
So warm
You saw
Through my chest
Gray clouds gradually disappeared!!!
TO THE PERSON OF THE SEA
Maybe
There was nothing left
To the end of the road
It just remembered
I missed you
Crazily
Noisy Street
But looked like waves
Pushed the shore
From the sea.
You asked me:
Why is the heart so small?
But divided into too many compartments
So, which way for the sea?
When you asked me
I asked myself again
Why am I walking in the street?
But my soul is remembering the sea?
Hey the sea! Will the waves stopped
To let me forget you…
I was like a piece of the Moon
By the time
More defects, less roundness
Sometimes I were searching for
But you didn’t see the Moon.
Still missed you
Nostalgia of the deep sea
Still grumbled
The two ends of the Moon and the Sea
To made
Tidal waters.
I was precarious
It was afternoon winter in the city
Carried this nostalgia
One more time
No alcohol but still drunk…
TO YOU
That was it, at the end of the day in the airport
You came back in my dream
I followed these clouds to the strange horizon
Vast grasslands green forests
There was “the sound of birds singing in the bushes
All river flew.”
The kangaroo flocks were hide in the green bushes
Clear sky, friendly people
Australia – the dream of many people!
In here, earth and heaven almost the same
Who he is afraid of the real world rarely dreams of the heaven
Walked under the Australia sky from the depths
Poor you, the woman who just “passed through the autumn”
Bore the sadness “Moon split in two”
Haunted the fate that once burned out
For the summer in the highland
Still the wild sunflowers
A patch of golden sunshine beside the valley of love
The years would pass and the autumns disappeared
So now the spring buds began again…
BLACK HAIR
Black hair was no longer black
The color changed so quickly
The streets dyed so quickly
Surprised to meet the brown again
There was no more locust black
Smelled the scent of grapefruit
All year round, you used rain water to wash
Floated like a floating cloud
Where was that long hair?
The canopy was tilted to cover two people
Just went far away
Your charming dropped for a lifetime!
There was still the river of childhood
Doan harbor – Hien Quan was still there
Thao River had been dried and flooded in many seasons
It still flown in me everyday
The rain and sun made it change
Black hair – hey black hair!
_________________
Poet Le Trien, hailing from Thanh Minh, Phu Tho town, Phu Tho province (Vietnam), now he is living in Cau Giay district, Hanoi city and Melbourne, Australia. He is a member of Vietnam Writers’ Association and Hanoi Writers’ Association. His published literary works are: First flood of the season (poems); Black hair (poems); Unseasonal rain (poems).
