The Love of 1972 – Poetry from the Land of Blue Dragon
Nguyen Trac, an acclaimed poet from Vietnam, shares his five poems.
Unarmed and unafraid
Houses went roofless because of bombs
We had fallen in love before departure for battle
The love of 1972 (*)
Unarmed and unafraid
Houses went roofless because of bombs
We had fallen in love before departure for battle
Smoke darkened on the walls
Purity twenties
In the middle of twenties and Tomorrow is the season that trees would change the leaves
Hanoi was stunned after the rains
You may not believe but we were filled with happiness then
In the mission of Human since the wild times
War no longer exists
Withdrew and leave it for the gentle cuddle…
(* December 1972, US Air Force commanded B 52 flying fortresses to bomb Hanoi)
***
Time
We carry time on our hands
Store it on the watch
And step out to the world
Earth that been through many ages
Sometimes longing the old days in a sudden
Roll into the old pages
We travel back in a dream
Holding the Perpetual Calendar
Looking for good days, bad days
We look for a needle in a haystack
Leisurely in eternal earth and sky
We carry time
Like camels carrying hump on their back
Travel through the universe’s black hole –
A shut star
Imagine we could reach the Future
We carry time
By the breakable hands
Heavy of dreams
In a glimpse of a lifetime!
***
Wind is still on-road
There the sound of bamboo broom softly sweeping on the road
Soft so as not to wake those who arrived home from work late last night
But enough to wake the leaves
Wake the sun, the wind tip, the bird sounds
The poor woman
Once a week
Comes to clean the lane
The lane has accustomed to her broom
For she has known the personalities of the brides here
Who is happy, who is sad
Who is “addicted” to shopping!
She is the active inside the silence
The ripe next to the green
The brushstroke of silent humble in a competitive world
There the sound of bamboo-stick knocking on the road
Void as the sound of bamboo tocsin
A veteran whose one eye wounded
Once again starts a new day making his living
He does not know all the names of the kids that born here-
Those who always accelerate every time he is nearby and yield on the road-
But he knows his grandparents’ name
And remembers who was in Truong Son
He is the silence inside the active
Yesterday inside today
The sacred hidden and covered among the daily
All the calm but chock-full morning
All the trembling noon
There still the sound of bamboo broom sweeping on the road
The bamboo-stick knocking on the road
And I hear that wind is still on-road
Blowing into nowhere…
***
Early rising woman
Each morning
The woman rises before dawn
Runs with brisk winds
Beside her is the night of grass
The precious Luna, gem of sky
At Her back the city
And just her, fresh spring
She runs around the park
Such enthusiasm
Through the stinks of animals
And perfumes of roses
With lithe legs
She flies through dry earth and stones
By her side newly bloomed flowers
By her side bell tolls in the thousand year-old pagoda
She runs steadfastly and breaths
Bringing in the blue sky into her chest
Whole essence of first light, of wind
And chiming of birdsongs upon branches…
***
Beside Trà Kiệu dancers’s figures
Impossible that it is real
That curve of the woman’s hands
Unreal
And those legs
And body the shape of fire
Nebulous to illusive naiveté…
But unreal
How are you living?
Amidst goods and evils of being
Amidst history’s cinders
Volatilities of sorrow and joy
The Tenth century had been far gone (*)
The Twentieth century is becoming relic
Yet wonders ones after others
You stills, the wondrous constant
You live like it had been for thousands years past
Hands not of mortal’s
In bursts of nirvana
Still joined with humanity!
(*The height of Chàm civilization when The Dancers’ Pedestal of Trà Kiệu was conceived)
The Chàm civilization lasted from the 2nd century A.D to the 17th century. Remnants of the civilization can be found today in Central Vietnam, along the coastline with various temple sites.
____________________
Translated into English by Vo Hoang Long and Ngo Gia Thien An
