AUTUMNAL LOVE IN HIGHLAND

Dalat gave me many misty afternoons there

in the streets to feel the early autumn air

high above dull spread the hazy sunshine

and realms of heavens also seemed to pine

Oh Dalat, autumn had attached me to you

and just kindled in my muse the dreamy hue

imbued willows in blue, your hair in romance

and the legendary moon in a shade of trance

Was it that you brought here the Hanoi fall

dawn dews over thin shoulders like a shawl

so that in gazing at the azure I could delight

thousand years to long for the birds’ flight

Dalat gave me the autumnal separation

your song sent me along with my migration

with promises so many, nostalgia so much

to see off and miss this warrior the nonesuch

                        Translation by THANH-THANH