GRANT ME A SMILE

Unable to see you for just one day
Suffices to lade my heart with sorrow.
I had lived a rubbish life for three years,
Until one day: much grief for the morrow.

You came into my existence as a gale
For far-off melancholy to surge.
I had already forgotten my karma; why
You had the heart to fancy in me to urge!

Which dreamers don't later wake up?
I have felt anguish from now on rise high.
You arrived then you left, I knew it; but
Why I got infatuated with this fleeting tie!

I will content myself with life's vision
Although in a twinkling I consent to.
You parted, I will go into eternity;
A short moment is sufficient to love you.

Let me come to see you this evening!
And please grant me a smile however!
I will embrace into my sleep my dearest
Whom I will still cherish forever...

  Vietnamese poem by YÊN BÌNH

  English translation by THANH-THANH