EVENING MELODY

Quite a chance that day the journey was granting

On our long way, the afternoon sun slanting.

Over the wind your singing voice took dominion

To lull human life’s vicissitudes to oblivion.

What scenery! with smoke your eyes dimming,

The vast country over with tune was brimming.

Suddenly I reminisced about our motherland

So far that albatrosses hardly reach its strand.

Your hair was bob-waving against the stream;

Your lips ambitiously showed such a beam.

All at once I felt as though I had become of yore

In contrast with your prime of life in the core...

Then comes this journey you’re out of my sight

And my way seems endless in the starlight.

How I miss you along each mile of wishing hot

Wondering if you still remember or simply forgot.  

                          Vietnamese poem by ĐỖ HỮU

               English translation by THANH-THANH