MISSING SAIGON

Missing Saigon, people lament everywhere;

Wasting away, my heart sobs, how can I bear!

Old dwellings, old dwellers, almost lost;

But Saigon’s splendors still loom over there.

You remain as ever an elegantly graceful sight,

Even throughout generations in poor plight,

The Far Eastern Pearl with plaintive features,

Gone through the mill, polished up to be bright. 

I still remember each school-yard flamboyant 

Red in bloom along the summer paths buoyant,

The churches’ striking structure so majestic,

The pagodas’ curved roofs regularly chatoyant.

Catinat Boulevard in comfortable animation

With foreign tourists crowding into the nation,

Ben Thanh Market with four festive gates:

East–West North–South shopping in elation.

Nguyen Hue Street full of spring flowers,

Thu Duc yellow apricots coming in showers,

Fruits from the countryside arriving in heaps...

Reliving such springs, it is dreams in towers.

As stone statues, people shed hot tears to stand

Recalling Saigon to recall all the beloved land;

The ocean waves are rising in one’s heart.

Oh Saigon! Still remember that time so grand?  

Translation by THANH-THANH