what I saw on the gloomy sky of today?+ love lifted me + our fatherland must go /poems by the phong (uplifting poems/ dai nam van hien books 1974, 2012)
uplifting poems by thephong - 4-
dai nam van hien books, saigon 1974, 2012)
what I saw on the gloomy sky of today?
by thephong
TRANSLATED BY DAM XUAN CAN
What did I see,
apart from blood stained rolls of barbed wire
What did I see,
a city besieged
What did I see,
cops outnumbered people in the streets
What did I see,
soldiers were even more numerous thn cops:
At the crossroads today,
and old woman is screaming over the loss of her son
He quit school
smashed everything on his road to the future
Her frail body in clothes whiter than whiteness fell on
the bitumen road
Have you died,
my sister aged only eighteen
who has not known love
You have left us,
cowards of thirty years of age
Who will write two words Vietnam
on the gloomy sky of today?
I look forwards to seeing
a horizon bathed in blood
"Down with tyranny
down with repression!"
What did I see,
alas my shortsighted eyes could not see far
What did I see,
they killed people in the roundup last night
What did I see,
my barefooted people with mourning bands
on their loose and dreary hair
bursting into tears
What did I see
many newborn children
refusing to live in this monstrous world
What did I see,
sisters ans mothers awaiting their jailed brothers and sons
The sight of schoolgirls tearing their coats
to make slogans haunted me
I shouted to exhort others to rebellion.
SAIGON, SEPT. 15, 1963
love lifted me
Trying to hurry my lingering sadness
in the softness of a woman's body
My heart is bloodless
so I take a hot bath
Casting a glance at the misty vale
I dream of European looking women
In my heart of hearts
what I need is only a soft body
Soldiers in combat garb are moving outside
The people try to find out
about this wretched country
through the B.B.C.
Lying on the white sheet my eyes stare at the stone walls
I hear nothing
nothing at all around me
A nurse in white is walking to and fro
Puzzled
I take her as a wandering ghost
There is simply no end to mu misery!
The radio music is torturing me
I scream for help until it is turned off
Now I know a woman is what I long for
As sweet human voice,
a happy moment in life.
DALAT, OCTOBER 1963
our fatherland must go
Our country is no longer one and the same
(A fish cut in we must be still trembling for while)
On sunny days there are sidewalk
vendors trying to sell flags at give away prices
I turn away
to avoid the sight of foreigners taking pictures
of streets scenes
Men limping
women welling wares
children begging
How about my friends,
the bourgeois dressed smartly in European clothes
Nothing is lacking for those who are so gracious and
beautiful
But they want to sell out our fatherland mocking at
our sorrows
They want to sell out
our fatherland along with the flags and your name
what
Everything is for sale,
everything must go
And they fly abroad,
leaving us behind
And what we can do
when they are already in the air?
Oh!
They are never to be trusted,
the good friends of the foreigners
No one of them have ever cared for us ...
Let the flag vendors do something worthwhile
Let they bring water
when we walk barefoot the sun is hot
Sure they are reliable,
they will not sell our fatherland
Sure they will not flee
our country now in its hour of need and in
the future
Grief has badly shaken all of us, son't you see
I start writing about the fate of our land.
SAIGON, OCT. 1963
the phong
(p. 64- 69 UPLIFTING POEMS)
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