SPRINGTIME LOVE WORDS

 

 

I suddenly feel strangely nostalgic

Each time the swallows soar overhead.

Looking up I think it’s our native sky, above

Emerald bamboos, golden rice widespread.

 

If you get back there take my deep thought

To the pretty river in the full moonlight,

The green reeds under the spring sun,

Each noisy wave stirring the sea at night.

 

The looming mountainsides at dusk,

The dying beams, the glimmers bland,

Like a painting with pervasive smoke

At sunset – So picturesque our native land!

 

If you get back there send my true words.

After ten years abroad I am drifting still;

So many budtimes have come again,

I have silently cried by myself on the sill.

 

It is late in winter, it is dead cold;

Losing one‘s country is losing one’s range.

From thousand miles away, my love;

Once exiled, earth and sky are to change.

 

You go back there convey my best wishes

With full feeling and whole heart of mine

For peace and happiness for everybody

While awaiting the dear dawn’s shine.  

 

 

  Vietnamese poem by NGỌC AN

  English translation by THANH-THANH