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Once on the Top of the Hill

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Translated by Andy Kale

 

The hills rise high with the intoxication
The rivers grow dumb which never arrive
When I sit hearing inside you the upstream and downstream cry out
To demand
You suddenly ferment the act of sinning

Is there a rain drop which cries in pain
Is there a cloud, which appears in its deceptive form?
Which walks onto our idols
Why don’t you bother to stand up?

Winter is taking leave of the high mountain
Autumn is taking leave of the deep river
The gentle foam has metamorphosed into the ocean
May we clink glasses and drink to each other’s health like the spans of a bridge
Or as the quiet siren

Everything will be far-away like eternity
At the first night of pubescence did you pity yourself?
Did you kiss yourself in your wedding dress?
One familiar love form has missed
One breath of wind is never the string that ties fast
One life
Please sing with the drifting song
Which has the blind blue color
Of desire

Please sing with the song of condolence on the row
Of dark graves
As you saw me off in a certain time of death

Part of our soul sets out to sea
And part of them stays
Please propose marriage to
The dewy
Night
And use nothingness to engage with your
Life
As I am still with-out the range of promise

Are there any leaves which wave goodbye to me on my way?
With millions of retreating familiar figures who are disappearing and appearing with you
I crawl after, too and
Like the insignificant tears
Which fill the blocked lake of tears

Will you come back as the beautiful?
As the yesterday’s butterfly which alighted on my shoulder
Hesitantly
I will sing for myself for you
For life
For the embracing arms for the perfect childhood

Are you persistent as the steep hill?
How can you hear inside me the clouds?
Call out
My dear, my dear, the sad smiles
Have ended before they become passionate

My dear, my dear, does the separation
Insist in the white-clean affection
Like our smile
Fairness
Comes onto your lips on a thousand nights
Which is
Dawn with the sun
Setting

Nguyen Duc Batngan

Original title: Mot Lan Tren Dinh Cao
From: "Binh Minh Cam" (Shrouded Dawn)
A collection of poetry written in 1975
published in 1985.

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