Liberal Translations of Vietnamese Pop Songs

 

 

 

Rain Drops

 

On banana leaves
Run off like a river of tears
A mother sheds
On her son’s lifeless face

On mango leaves
Evaporate with sweet fragrance
When a young wife welcomes home
Her war-weary husband

 

 

 

Tell Me

 

How many rice stalks in a field
bends in a river
layers in the cloud
leaves in a forest
How to stop the winds
Tell me where they came
And where they go
How old is the moon
So I can say for certain
What I long to tell you

 

 

 

Welcoming

 

Your hesitant footsteps
trace the earthen levee
shaded by swaying bamboos.
Amber setting sunlight
on mustard greens
greets you.

Mama waits for you at the fish pond,
her hands see you as in dreams
wishing that her eyes could.
Wildflowers bloom along rice paddies,
water buffalos roll in mud,
children smile for you.

 

 

 

Gull’s Wings

 

I have no promises to offer you
I have no words to entice you
When the warm sun lifts you 
a siren song lures you
you leave the rocky shore
circle above crystal white corals
into the vast blue world
Oh my dreams and the gull’s wings
beyond reach
and the ocean’s roar.

 

 

 

Sources: “Giọt Mưa Trên Lá,” “Đố Ai,” and “Ngày Trở Về” by Phạm Duy; “Bay Đi Cánh Chim Biển” by Đức Huy