uplifting poems, poems by the phong (dai nam van hien books -- south vietnam 1971, this edition, jan. 2011 hcmcity)

uplifting poems  by the phong -7-
dai nam van hien books, saigon 1971.
this sdition, jan. 2011/ hcm city

                                                  UPLIFTING POEMS
                                                               by the phong

                                                           
                                                   
 TO BE  GIRL


Where there are flies there's God   
Where's God lonely men have a friend 
I've walked all trails in my country 
When I stopped the city of Dalat
            was shrouded in mist in the dead of night
                     fortunately I had a companion to keep off the ghosts


Your face is haunting me,   
                in day and night
Lying in bed
                 I keep thinking of you
                          I  simply cannot help it
Your lips are so delicate,
                      your eyes just don't go away
On the threshold of adulthood
                        I' sitting looking for a sister soul
I have climbed to the top of Lang Biang Hill
When I all wanted was to bury my head in your floating hair
Is there any love story
                  which is not beautiful
Is there a blemish pervasive enough
                  to blot out deep humiliation inside ?
I think continuously
                  of you and me and all


To be a girl
          to be a bar hostess
Is to be stripped to the liberty to live straight
And forced to put on airs
          for the sake of money
Remembering the sweet moment
          worth the money I saved in one year
You held me in your arms
Your warmth was better to me
         than the heat from the fireplace
I was yours.
         all yours,
                even it for a brief moment only
We were together twelve long hours

(Tomorrow I will live a world of memories).

SAIGON, OCT. 23,1963



 EPITOMIZING DAY TO DAY LIFE


Today the sun shone brightly as on other days
Rain or shine did not matter much,
           but the cost of living
           had risen sky hight
(The price of bicycle imported from Europe
      had been increased by 50 per cent
      If the bicycle was sick the owner would pale too)


In my family there were neither women nor small kids
There were just for four of us of various ages
The head of the family of forty six
        had been a widower for four years
Oh his two sons the older son just turned twenty
We had enough food but we were not very happy
The sixteen year old boy started coloring nudes
He was fond of cutting out pictures from movies magazines
        and watches female loveliness closely


As for me
       I saw life pass calmly
This did not mean I was free from worry
O my twenty year old girl
       I love your simple charms
You do not wear ornaments
(the price of gold had nearly doubled)
But your sweet smile
        could make many a heart beat quicker


At the back of our house there was a thatched house
They needed a dependable sewing machine
         but they could not afford it
The foreman had lost many a finger
Looking at him,
         I suffered as much as he did
Every morning he got up early
         and hastened to start work
he  was a real beast of burden


Beside our dwelling was a house crammed
         with so many beds 
         that there as apparently
         no way out
The soldier's wives renting the house could do nothing
         but sleep
Their husbands at war had not come back


We read in newspapers
          that thousands of youths had been killed
          their bodies left unburied
A silent sea of faces blurred in tears
Every month one thousand soldiers lost their lives
          while the enemy casualties
          were four times as numerous
Let's hang these papers as talismans on our beds ...


On the farther side of the road
A curious news is being spread
           a reliable on
           alas !
           Concerning a seventy thousand- piaster
           worth American motorcycle
A two-cylinder Harley
           which can ride fast on the mute road
and the Vietnamese motorcycle whose price is unknown


A talkative woman-motorcycled
           who only moves in bed
The two crazy owners exchanged the aforesaid things,
            as in a fairy tale
A lover of good living
            The airman preferred the flashing motorcycle to 
            his wife
So he was in treaty with the American sergeant for ... her
In working hours,
            the American
            and the woman-motorcycle are free to rock in their bed
(Meanwhile the Vietnamese husband can ride the Harley on the road)


We rightly guess he would evade any questioning on its price
Such is the story of the woman with two husbands
The story which makes an eighteen-year old girl burst out laughing hysterically


Sewer water, rain, tear, tea an semen
(Those kinds of water need being purified to become just clean water)


Epitomizing life I could not help frowning and sighing
The forty six year old woman is still a widow
The twenty six year old chap
           is still reading death announcements of known persons
The sixty year old boy does not want to be a man yet
The foreman,
           after the incident,
           is still collecting trophies
The old man of seventy has died ,
           buried without a proper funeral
I, over thirty now ,
          is still without a woman


This bicycle ,    
          after being repaired ,
          is laying still in a corner
And the eighteen year old girl is criticizing my poetry
" I don't know what you mean
        I don' t like you at all
            I hate all men who are bachelors
               I hate your so called uplifting poems ".

SAIGON, JULY 7, 1963.

t.p

          (p.   73- 79    UPLIFTING POEMS)

                                                                       (to be continued)