A
LOVE POEM FOR HUÉ
Back
to Hué!
The green
leaves on the dreamy
way
suddenly
seemed to set the
sun in my soul to
sway;
since
that early in the
morning a certain
bird
has
made various vague
tunes in my heart
heard.
You
came home.
Steps resound
in the small alley,
light
smoke skim along in
the Imperial Citadel
pally.
Though
stony, I become so
surprisingly upset
as
the once I wondered
if I had lost my
self yet.
The
River of Perfumes
gets nostalgic in
fall;
Its
fog and flowers make
your sad air
enthrall;
that
stream of youth’s
hair is source of
eternal love;
you
still are always a
kind of naive
dreamlike dove.
Over
the eyes of that Hué
morose ancient
shrine
I,
the nomad, to brush
with a kiss did once
incline;
the
Sacred Lady’s
dodder caught my
affection to fill
like
a light evening
breeze on the Huong
Tra Hill.
You
have got home, and I
aged with so long to
miss,
Oh
Royal Capital,
coaches and horses
of old bliss!
I
feel I reel with
send-off spirits on
the parting plate:
Is
this the only bitter
remainder of my thus
bitter fate?
Translation
by THANH-THANH