Poetry
Published: 09:49 PM, 15 March 2022 Last Update: 10:11 PM, 15 March 2022
Six poems by Tran Hung
Breaking up
I have only tonight with you
After the rain, you are sleeping
Peacefully like roots in the earth
The moon is coming down,
Window of sky frame is a dreamy silver color
Looking at you, I am looking at the silent trees
My heart is heavy as the rooster calls
Houses are deeply peaceful
My darling,
Don’t go to the station at dusk
Horn of the train sounds so far
Don’t be alone tomorrow night please
If you sit alone, the night tree will fall
Night heart will be broken
The star’s light will be gone
When you know I never come back.
Let it goes
The threads all crawl from every layers of clothing
Each layer of the world is becoming naked tonight
I hugged this brown stone alone
Like hugging the vase of my life
Quietly pouring my memories in the wooden cups in the house at the end of the road
Without clothes we buttoned into our skins
You are like a tiny little quite needle in the carpet
What the needle could do without stitches
So please wait for a painful heartless hand
But now the hand is like a dead knife in the night
I don't miss you
But your hair is like an unconscious swarm of ants in the night
Your skin echoes like every season of wild mosquito
Ten fingers let go without any hope
Open your eyes wider and wider and see if anyone left
The mark on me is no longer elastic
Just throw and throw all the fallen white fashion in the air
Every owl has let go and fallen into a dream
Whatever color you apply your lips cannot keep me unforgettable
Last quarter moon shadow
I sit on the waves through the moments of night
On the black leaves through the abyss of water and sky
Honey, where are you, a distant brown dot?
Honey, where are you, my hands – get wet and cold with the paddles
My fingers are cold like winter ice-cream
Home light shadows appear here and there
The moon spills its light at the village entrance, fish thrash at the field’s end
You are sopped with water and moon light like fish
And it is unknown where you go on the night boat
Blue sky, blue sea, blue sunshine at that time
Souring souls in fresh golden clouds
Without you, I feel out of place
The train is resplendent with pink doors
No train-whistle over the years
Only vibrations of railway sleepers are left in the thorax
…
On the black leaves through the abyss of water and sky
Gliding very fast, very far, very smooth
Dreaming about cold fingers sleeping in the wet hair.
Like a dream
The night rain has been bucking
the raindrops have been broken in flash
and the holy light has been lit up
widely extending on the water leave like a sad eye
how much fresh and how much vitality
of the joyful song for dedication
and the night bird has known how to fly
and the night stream has flowed away
...
but you didn’t say
but you didn’t stay
you’ve shivered like a tree after rain
you’ve really come and gone already
still here endless petals
still here wet bare footprints
holding little and proud pink toes ...
Lotus
It is so fortunate that you don't know how many times I think of you
Now I am not brave enough to look at the young leaves for long
I remember hearing from someone, tragedy will come when you are old
but not your heart
But right now, while the whole world is falling asleep
It is thrilling outside
Do not know whether the grass calls the rain or the rain calls the grass
I worriedly kneel down to the shore and hear you breathing
Your breath is like a lotus leaf of autumn green rice
...
A lotus leaf stirred tonight
A drop in another inclined lotus leaf is about to fall
You no need to mind when I posted on Facebook
A picture of a young boy
I want you to visualize those eyes
looking at you from a thousand miles
how bewildered they are
The eyes that have been looking through many velvet seasons
To reach your incorruptible forehead
A so long goodbye season
Goodbye season from long ago is still shaded in here
Although we have followed each other's footsteps for decades, now you come to me
Like the moonlight touching the water for the first time
Like the sound of a petal dew dozing in the way back
Dozing in the old way
Where persons go after persons
But you and I turned into different ways
Following the beat of clarification
At the end of the raining road, you sat like a lotus
At the end of the raining road, we were like white rice
Then you slowly went away
So far away…
By my side, it is the rain, by your side, it is every moonlight feeling
By my side, it is the winter, by your side, there are persons looking toward you like sunflowers
By my side, it is the river berth waiting for yellow flowers
By your side, it is every blue dew coloring your heel into blue on the blue road
……
You’ve slowly gone away
For decades
Now you are resting your head on the piano and hearing nursery rhymes
Life is like a bow
No matter how high the arrow goes, it will reach the ground at the end
You’ve dreamed for too long and now you come back to me
It’s just as painful as velvet.
-Tran Hung is a Vietnamese poet
