She stood and then she went

Immense sea winds and tears

Tears dissolved on her body

Her soaked body

And memory rose like steam

The sky was distant blue then

Then she was very small

The sea pushed her down

In the garden of her childhood there were horses

A spacious garden, large horses

Each afternoon

The horses played with the girl

Afternoons that never ended

In the garden of her childhood there was a woman

A crazy woman with cymbals

Going round and round

Shouting with the small girl

Shouts that never ended

In the garden of her childhood there was a sun

The sun and young swordsmen

Children with stomachs larger than heads

Men with heads larger than stomachs

And shriveled women

With smiles tightened like clams

The sun nourished them all

In the garden of her childhood there was a road

A road that ran into the sea

Between two rows of sea-pines

That repeated her mother’s lullabies

Sea-pines and fishing boats

Fish and fish sauce sweet as breath

Lingering even now

In the garden of her childhood

Baby snakes slid under the horses’ legs

And a woman was holding chopsticks

When the chopsticks were raised

The horses thrashed then vanished

The snakes made plaintive sounds

The horse oh the red horse

The red horse where is my horse

The cymbals clanged in panic

In the garden of her childhood were small crabs

White pebbles and coarse sand

And many very small footprints

Small murmuring snails

And many caverns

Whose talk never ended

In the garden of her childhood were all things

All the things one could think of

These things taught her, made her grow up

The horses taught her aggression

The woman taught her illusions

The snake taught her awareness

The crabs taught disappointment

The sun taught perseverance

And the sea taught her darkness

She stood and then she went

In aggression awareness disappointment

In perseverance she went in darkness

On the road that ran into the sea

She asked about her friends and the gentle sea

The sea replied with a winter storm

Winter oh winter

Winter made her friends flee and hide

She stood and then she went

Slowly she went toward death

translated by Đinh Từ Bích Thúy
from the Vietnamese original ‘Vết Thẹo’ 

The little girl came into existence with a lonely scar

During a time of no hunger no fullness no smell no taste

I live freely in my body and

Listen to the scar growing slowly, taking roots
Infancy flashed to adolescence
O my head hand feet from a childish time

Attuned in time to the smell and taste of love

In one step I left behind my girlhood
The little girl came into existence despite doubts

I alone exist in my deep dark scar

Empty body in which fragments travel

My scar my wound hidden by reeds
No speech no vision nothing at all

I’ve lived with my predicament through the years

All those years I’ve looked at life–a stranger

The war within me continues coldly