Đặng Trần Côn Zitate

“Winds howl and howl at ghosts of those war's killed—
on soldiers' faces shines the stalking moon.
O men, alive or dead, has anyone
portrayed your faces or invoked your souls?”

“The sun has spurned his flower and let her wilt.
The flower's wilted, as the sun won't shine.
Wilted, she drops her petals by the wall—
I've often watched them drop on dew-cold nights.”

“Your way leads you to lands of rain and wind—
mine takes me back to our old room, our bed.”

“When all through earth and heaven dust storms rise,
how hard and rough, the road a woman walks!
O those who rule in yonder blue above,
who is the cause and maker of this woe?”

“Here at this bridge we'll go our separate ways—
forlorn beside the road, I watch flags fly.”

“We hoped to join like fish and water once:
instead, we're split apart—a stream, a cloud.”

“No orioles yet on willows—you set out
and promised you'd come back when cuckoos sang.
Cuckoos have followed orioles grown old—
before the house some swallows chirp and peep.”

“Serve well your country with a true-red heart.
Defend your people with an iron will.”

“We look to find each other but cannot—
we only see those green mulberry groves.
Mulberry groves all share one shade of green—
of your own grief and mine, which hurts the more?”

“To silver may age never turn your hair!
And may I ever keep the looks of youth!”

“Your mother waits, heart-weary, at the door.
Your child in hunger cries for its chewed rice.
I feed your mother, serving as her son,
and like a father teach your child to read.”

“I see you off and sorrow—Oh, to be
your horse on land, your vessel on the stream!”

“At daybreak, heralds speed them through the mists—
the law outweighs what they may feel inside.”