TRANQUIL TO WELCOME SPRING   

Over twenty eight years in exile, haven’t I been?

One more spring has already returned.

So great emotions arise with each soft breath;

How can I express all joy and sorrow I am concerned!

Glad?

Because my children have succeeded,

Not better but not worse than what they deserve.

Food and clothes, houses, cars... pretty enough,

They just use their skill and energy society to serve.

Happy... Because some millions of my compatriots

Are able to live in peace, away from pain,

To repay their debts to the favorable host country:

The melting pot to give mercy is to refugees to deign.

Merry?

Because history has begun a new chapter,

Our fatherland has started to rise, though late.

To be under renovation to contend with the world;

The glory of the Fairies and Dragons must not bate.

Cheerful?

But sometimes somewhat sad:

The young seem to forget their original brain.

They pretend to be foreigners, act like money-bags,

Organize struggle tricks - Are they wise or inane?

Those who have neither civil nor military ability

Brag about their merits, after they gave up the game!

Actually honest, judicious, or only sycophantic

Following in the tail of the snobbish - Fie for shame!

Melancholy?

Because my wits and talent are still limited,

Chances missed, literary perspectives seem to gloom;

My writings remain unsufficient to fill a hard disk 

Although it is a mercy to be a poet I might presume.

What else to be blue?

My hair has already grown white, eyebrows sparse,

However, from my mania for Beauty I cannot abstain;

Earthly people are fond of glamor, gaudiness,

Leaving thatched huts to sit in a royal palace to feign.

Oh joy, oh sorrow!

I reconsider things and feel neither gay nor grieved,

All is only unreal and illusory profiles.

The world is changing

together with the nation’s fatal styles.

Calm, self-contented, satisfied,

I welcome Spring with laughters and smiles!  

                 Vietnamese poem by DƯƠNG HUỆ ANH

                  English translation by THANH-THANH