raise your heads + he , poems by the phong (uplifting poems -- dai nam van hien books, saigon 1971/ this edition: jan.2012, hcm city

raise your heads + he/  poems by the phong
dai nam van hien books, 
this editon: jan. 2012 hcm city -3-


                                                       

raise your heads

 by the phong

1

 When they have much money,

                             sure you can ask them to buy 

Sure

they are the cream of society

Sure

                         their services can never clean thanks to good, 

expensive soap

Sure

their teeth are clean and shining

(for the same reason)

Sure

                           their voices are resounding because full of pride

They come to you

 do nothing for you

anyway

they expected too much from you

"I tell you

       nobody needs top worry about them"

2

Whatever you do which involves no real labor,

no genuine care,

no love on your partner

I couldn't care less about it

because it has no value

They should have suffered,but now it is too late for that

They should have earned their life honestly,

but they should have the will

They should have known humility

so that they are not full of arrogance

Really they have never know real love

so they should not talk of love

"I tell you, they are downright contemptible"

3

Today I walk Saigon streets in sunny weather

The air is invigorating

I am enjoying myself

I feel myself a new man

Cheer up 

Dear follow.

SAIGON , JULY 17, 1963

h e

TO POET-JUDGE  DAO MINH LUONG

1

He wrote poems to sing freedom and to denounce slavery

His wish to be a willow tree on the windy coast

 He wrote in poems this world is full of great expectations

He and a deep love for less lucky countrymen

He hate:

the trucks of screaming prisoners

on the way to court

To make money was the last thing he would think of

He lived a good life,

he was nice to those around him

He even shared the poverty of his fellow mates

He spent many years to pore over books

in the university

His talking straight

and thinking straight endeared him

in the eyes of many

He solemnly swore,

I will never do bad things to others

He wept over the death of Frederic Garcia Lorca

the Spanish poet

He pointed to the picture of Francisco Franco

loudly condemning him as a cruel man

He paid homage to Vietnamese hero Nguyen Thai Hoc

" I shared his convictions and held him in admiration." 

2

Time passed ...

Time was a great master ...

time taught us to do good is never easy

Many a night I could not sleep because of him

Now that the was a judge,

he betrayed his own beliefs

Holding the conscription notice,

 he shrugged his head

" Tell me, what is this all about

tell me

 I only want to live I am afraid to die

I love myself

I have one life and I don't want to lose it"

He burst out crying as a little kid.

On the way home

I could not say a word!

SAIGON , JULY 23, 1963.

(p.  58- 62 UPLIFTING POEMS )