If Someone Asks

Those who embrace what’s coming
Will have to live regardless
Of broken back and bent knees in front of the enemy

By the Sea

specks of dust
grains of sand
and hilltops
war had taken away parts
of the portrait

When I Return / Mai Mốt Anh Trở Về

The art of speech becomes a physical exercise
The talkative develop thick forearms
Nghệ thuật nói bỗng hóa trò lao động
Thằng nào nói nhiều thằng ấy tay to

A Golden Fall in the Old Town / Thu vàng phố cũ

He wants to ask
how many shifts life must go through.
The train moves on and lingers at no stop,
yet all those flowers or butterflies still stir

priest / linh mục

once, obeying the devil,
i resurrect yet again
in this priestly life
of decadent lunacy

Why You Cannot

what’s happened
stand up
don’t close your pale legs all the time

Dịch thuật: sáng tạo hay kỹ xảo của ngôn ngữ và hoàn cảnh ra đời của một tác phẩm bằng tiếng bản xứ

Trong vai trò vừa là người sáng tạo vừa là người dịch thuật, tôi có nhiều lợi điểm. Tôi hiểu rõ những gì tôi viết. Tôi không nhất thiết bám sát văn bản gốc. Tôi tự cho mình cái quyền sinh sát, mà không ngại ai trách cứ. Ví như người thợ may sửa lại tấm áo cho những đứa con tinh thần ra đời nơi đất khách…

Going towards Heaven’s Gate

we can only go straight following a bird’s path
even calls take half of the first lunar month to meander

Liberal Translations of Vietnamese Pop Songs

Mama waits for you at the fish pond,
her hands see you as in dreams
wishing that her eyes could.

Day ♦ In This Place ♦ The Dream

lights begin to agitate
around the house without an entry
voices begin to threaten
tomorrow won’t be kind

Vertical Evening Meal

Naked octopi
Having escaped from the ocean
Now lie on their sides above green vegetables
Shaped like coins.

from an umbilical stump / từ một cuống rún

I have the soul of an orphan
still trusting the life source from my umbilical stump
tôi có một tấm lòng của đứa trẻ mồ côi
vẫn thật thà tin nơi cuống rún mình đã cắt ra

chùm thơ song ngữ Bùi Chát

Chúng tôi, nhiều thế hệ
Bị giữ lại bởi đèn đỏ
Chúng tôi không cất bước được
Chúng tôi không bay lên được

We stand at the intersection
Generations of us

dấn cơn đau vào mưa ♦ em & người đàn ông

Lời nói không thanh âm
Một hồ nước khô
Trên ý tưởng cạn nguồn. Ta đi xuống vực sâu đó

Mặt trời lặn xuống ở California

Anh không thể lấy em
Xin em đừng giận

I can do the transformation trick:
Make myself very small

Lập Trình / Programming

they see themselves quite despicable whenever thinking about love-making
they see themselves quite wrong whenever thinking differently

Xin đừng vội tan… / Oh Please, Not to Fade…

Xin đừng vội tan vào buổi chiều
Chiều đang tan vàng ngất cô liêu

Oh please, not to fade so fast into the afternoon
The one that is scattering in a goldenly swooning loneliness

Waiting

I forgot today is Monday
I’ve been waiting for this day, so to say,
for chance to see a painting, view a few poems
watch a dance on TV, danced by a girl whom I never liked, really

The Fifth Moon

Ash cooling
a war horse
grudgingly raises his front
leg

Country

a country crushed
whitened thrown out packaged cut grafted discarded burned hauled away
wrapped
staying put in oblivion

Phan Xuân Sinh: Two Versions in English

Pour me another drink, my friend
Sitting with you here has lifted my spirit
Tomorrow’s tasks are of no consequence
Forget them so we won’t be troubled

Thơ dịch của Nguyễn Đức Sơn

To live a life that is unfettered
Get used to losing your balance now
Muốn cho đời sống không cằn
Tập cho quen mất thăng bằng từ đây

Refund

The craving for a woman makes him pedal his bike round and round the city.
A few street sisters can be spotted on Red Cross Boulevard, popping in and out of sight from behind large trees. “Too much traffic, can’t do it,” the man thought.

Quán Trọ Hành Tinh / Planetary Inn

And this sense, blood flowing over hands over musical instruments?
History moves its foot, slowly, taking its time.
The spider-web of paradise is weaving a tapestry of dreams:

The Way out of Basra

When I first set foot on American soil, I couldn’t help but notice that the first feeling upon arrival was the same for all who arrived. It created a very deep and everlasting impression in my mind. But my disorientation at that moment only lasted for a short time, and I soon recovered. The strange feeling began as the airplane left Viet Nam.

The Grain of Rice ♦ The Snake

we told each other those early fateful things
until the sun was blinding outside

those were fairy-tale rice plants
they did not need to grow up

Clouds Flew Away

It was a thing I knew for sure
a thing I knew how heavy my longing for it
was like: a man who fell flat on his face by himself
like the dead fallen flat on their own faces.

Country Hamlet

We use to sit our dinners out in front of the house
And dream of a future at noon among dippers of cold water
Sometimes we wonder how a story on the news
Could seem like some old tragicomedy