Vision Impaired

That’s what you get for becoming familiar with the common people. His vision impairment was fake but your judgement impairment was real. You poured your heart out and your wife bared all her flesh. Darkness descended and enveloped both of us. In the dark, the blind can see better than the sighted.

Lust for Light

 
translation by nguyễn đức nguyên
from the original flash story ‘mê nắng’ – damau #25

He started being passionate about sunny days after his release from the education camp. Almost everyday, if it was not raining, after …

Wine Daughter

 
March 20, 2003. It was the day America declared war on Iraq. The biggest loss of my life also occurred on that day – my father stopped calling me his “wine daughter”.
I first heard my …

Song of The Defeated Soldier

listlessly flowing with the wind during the refuge runs
ghosts of uncertain times, masks of apprehension
just sit still
calm your soul

The Passing of April…

English version edited by Đinh Từ Bích Thúy
The last days of April also mark the (temporary) end of Damau’s "War" topic. War itself, unfortunately, has not, and will not, stop[ped] even for a short moment. …

Huế, an Arm Left Behind

Here, like an arm left behind
here, like an insistent prayer
a shiver crawling up the spine
searching the bell toll over

The Lamp and the Heart

 
Translated by the author
A person talked to a friend, “I had a lamp that was never lit, its kerosene chamber still full. Then one night the shadow came, approaching the lamp aggressively. In a few …

Ngày Lạ / Strange Day

Nửa đêm cúp điện
chuông báo thức trễ
1 tiếng 16 phút
vào bồn vặn vòi sen
không nước nóng

7 Days after Poet Diem Chau’s Death

At night in bed I kept wondering:
“Who?”
translated by đặng thơ thơ

Strategy for a Penile Implant Ad

translated by the author
One nice day, the advertisement for a clinic specialized in penile implants in Los Angeles decides that it needs to have a new approach in order to be more successful in the …

thơ Mai Thảo

Dawn leaving dawn the flower does not notice
Night returning night the tree does not know
A moon, once or twice discovering a trace,
On the wall imprints my thin lone shadow

Pray God for Rain

translated by Nhat-Lang Le
(from the Vietnamese original “Lạy trời mưa xuống,” Damau 18)
It was drought for a whole year. Fields were dried and grass was burned. All water sources almost dried out. The buffalo boys …

Evening Twilight

A rancher was standing in his yard in the evening twilight. He heard people talking and making noise at the front gate. He saw three women out there, and called the servant to open the …

flash stories by Tran Doan Nho

 
 
Bush

translated by Đặng Thơ Thơ from Bush (damau.org 16)
 

Before leaving Vietnam for Indonesia, Bush said to Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, admiringly:
“Your country is a wonderful place, where people don’t have to waste their energy speaking their mind, …

flash stories by Đặng Phú Phong

Fight
translated by Lưu Diệu Vân from Đánh Lộn (damau.org 12)
 
Yesterday’s evening, my physical body and I had some disagreements. It’s really nothing, because just like other times, they re-adjusted themselves accordingly, and everything would be …

POLONIUM 210 (*)

Translated by Đỗ Lê Anhdao from POLONIUM  210 (*) – Tường trình về một cái chết

*

I am the one who keeps the secret about his death.
I’m reporting from the …

Of Mice and Subways

translated by author from Truyện kể Chuột và Xe Điện (damau.org 12)
 
           

At the subway stop of train #9, at the corner of 7th Avenue and 28th Street, in New York City; there lived two mice who …

Nap Time Trance

translated by author from Tiếng Nhạc (damau.org 14)
 

I have known Thành more than five years. He came to America along with his father’s qualifications in the H.O. program. He is kind of good-looking but has been …

I perceived the sound of your breathing from the other side of the world

translated by Lưu Diệu Vân from Tôi đã nghe thấy từ bên kia thế giới tiếng em thở (damau.org 14)
 
And I thought, I must do something for the remaining days, until the moment I get …

The House Behind The Temple

I returned to my family house the first time after more than twenty years. Its appearance had not changed much. It was still the same three-compartment house painted plain white, its facade only disturbed by several partially opened doors. At the back was the kitchen and before the entrance was a small garden.

POLONIUM 210 (*)

Dang Tho Tho 

POLONIUM 210 (*)
Report about a death

Translated by Đỗ Lê Anhdao from POLONIUM  210 (*) – Tường trình về một cái chết
 

*

I am the one who keeps the secret about his death.
I’m reporting from …

Happiness

She possessed a pair of piercing eyes and lips that could heal any wound.
He was an easy-going, average man who frequently liked to stare at the tip of that perky nose on her face.

Cây cầu khỉ

đêm sặc mùi nhớ
nhớ sặc mùi cải lương
tôi đến nhà em
đi qua cây cầu khỉ
tôi đòi hôn lên vú cuả em
đôi vú trắng tinh khiết
hai núm nhỏ bằng hạt đậu

Flash stories by Tran Mong Tu

Nap Time Trance

translated by the author

I have known Thành more than five years. He came to America along with his father’s qualifications in the H.O. program. He is kind of good-looking but has been suffering …

I perceived the sound of your breathing from the other side of the world

Nguyen Vien 

And I thought, I must do something for the remaining days, until the moment I get to see you. First, I positioned myself in front of the writing table, typed in the keyboard these …

flash stories by Tran Doan Nho

Tran Doan Nho 

Bush

Before leaving Vietnam for Indonesia, Bush said to Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, admiringly:
“Your country is a wonderful place, where people don’t have to waste their energy speaking their mind, just a waste of time …

Flash stories by Tran Mong Tu

My teddy bear is very old, I do not remember how long I have had him. As a habit, I’d been going to bed with him nightly. I hugged him in my arms when I laid on my side. I tucked him under one of my thigh when I laid on my back. He’s just a little bear but he provides such stability. Maybe this is only a habit of trust, but without him I would feel like I was on the moving boat, and it would be hard to sleep. I hugged him as I hugged my sleep, my dreams or my poems. Both of us are pretty old!

Flash stories by Nguyen Vien

And I thought, I must do something for the remaining days, until the moment I get to see you. First, I positioned myself in front of the writing table, typed in the keyboard these words: “Are you anxious?” Then I clicked the mouse on the send button. But I reconsidered, everything had quieted down over that side of the world, if your yearning for me did exist, it was merely an illusion. What made me believe I can hear the sound of your breathing?