From the Vietnamese original “Nhà quê” on Da Màu 26.02.2010

It’s just our hamlet at lights-up
Cows stand awake for people to lie down at night
The soil in the fields are sun-hardened for a thousand years
Yet we just wish for half a day of rain

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

It’s just our hamlet in a poor crop
We would soothe our guts with the six classical songs
The calls of a stray boucal
Still drift along tides as vast as our lives

It’s just my country hamlet of soil
The same soil to mould statues when poor
     or to dry our smiles on when hungry

 
 

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Articles by Phan Chính

• Bạn tôi - 02.04.2010
• Ru! - 18.03.2010
• Thời khẩu trang - 05.03.2010
• Nhà quê - 26.02.2010
• hồ hữu tường: những ngày cuối đời - 28.05.2009