FACING MY LOVER’S IMAGE               

By your autograph I imagine you thru good hand;

Your bequeathed confidential verses I understand.

In the late moon I restlessly wait still

Looking at the far woods, the snow-covered hill.

I want to reminisce in our old love to immerse

Our boat being smooth but the current adverse.

My shore of affection is a vast sea of grief;

I procrastinated all the year round without relief.

I mean to say a love word in despair;

It is late: two ways have separated here and there.

Tears of torment to me can’t be an avoidance;

Your image, I inherited, looks at me in annoyance.

You are that far, from such an infinite space

Keep an eye on me but know it out of embrace.

Winter is not so cold as the cold in my heart:

Once to depart this life is for ever to part.

Although divided, by immense passes to impede,

Please try to listen, I deeply wish to plead:

Let me have the chance to face my lover’s image

Even once only in a brief dreamy pilgrimage!

Translation by THANH-THANH