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A Gift

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Translated by Pham Ngoc
 

the storm has just passed
many years have flashed by like the falling stars
the mountains
the rivers
the vicissitude
far away
we awake to see our reflections in each other's eyes
these many years just like the first kiss
kisses full of shyness like our wedding night

have you still got those dreams
return to the night all this sweet and sharp pain
with your long rumpled hair hanging wildly in the air
even the ancient time will return to cheer

when will the clouds from the East
line up anxiously to move
South
North
is your heart laying on that Western wind
between tears
flaring up
like thousands of stars rising

if you are still waiting
be calm and unhurried
because today even water bubbles are gay
the summer sunshine covers the spring time
the living, though a hundred years old, are still feeling young
the dead, though a hundred years old, are still feeling featherlike
youthful blood in my veins
courageous and pulsating

will affection come back
with the two of us
to salute
the world going by
my souls sends to you as a  gift
the remembrance buried deep under the falling mist
with the sea ahead
sun behind
I come out from
the fire
boiling
like the great wall
and form an alliance
with the infallible

do not awake
to be greeted by poison flowers
freshly blooming and smiling
keep following the path and singing the remembrance song
with my love flowing full into your outstretched hands
eternal like the wedding band

hatefulness instilled within us
undulating and dangerous
still singing the loving tunes
weaving the shirt of flowers in the sky
oh! That last moment
I am still cheering
by creating
by giving
and proud even in eternal silence
therefore still going, fulfilling the promise
and using my life to honour
those gone
will it be a holy gift for the people that follow
oh! Mountains are still calling for rivers
which bring alluvium to betray the salted sea
(the dead are never present
how can tomorrow understand?)

little sacred scent in this lonely life
there is nothing left to say even if we meet
everything has been lost on that weaving light
tomorrow's sunrise comes to late
now let sleep within this emptiness
like the night I give you all that I have wept

between that hard rock my sun still shines
a thousand years of dirt will be washed
in shadows of darkness I can hear your breath
like the drilling drum calling me to march. . .
 
Nguyen Duc Batngan

Original title: Tang Vat
From: "Binh Minh Cam" (Shrouded Dawn)
A collection of poetry written in 1975
published in 1985

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