AUTUMN TREES AND HUMANS

Trees have passed through the cold winter,
To nourish budding branches, receiving mist and snow.
In silence they create fresh flowers
To offer life so many beautiful colors to glow.

Trees have experienced the warm spring,
Welcoming rosy sunlight greener leaves to render,
Hosting the wind to softly lull the boughs
As twigs and blades cosset the blooms' splendor.

Trees have subsisted through the sand season,
Bearing summer on trunks tanned and barks dry,
Still waiting for ripe fruits so long longed for,
The fresh sweet produce, being stunted to defy.

Trees have survived so many changing periods,
Feeling merry in spring and numbed in cold.
Do trees suffer thirst in sultry summer
After dripping for life so many drops of water gold?

Do trees sense fatigue so when summer just left
Autumn hurries back to accept falling yellow leaves?
Autumn lulls trees to a deadly sleep on the sidelines,
Awaited resuscitation, to seek for sap that achieves.

Have humans, looking at trees, ever wondered:
Trees or humans are to endure more displeasure?
Leaves on trees can be changed many times;
How many times may humans all life rest at leisure?

If humans were lulled by autumn to sleep
To cast off their shoulders what has been downbeat,
They would advance up in spite of long distances
To perfect everything that is still incomplete.

                       Vietnamese poem by HUỲNH MAI HOA

                       English translation by THANH-THANH