Y Nhi

With Le

It is as if we were still together
on the red-earth Dai Tu road,
the hill still sprinkled with reed flowers,
the forest deep, dark with longing.

How many pages opened,
how many seasons of maple leaves turning,
the sky washed the blue of teardrops,
the dirt path worn by passing feet.

It is as if, Le, you were still nearby,
your shirt the color of the fading fields,
our class hiding in the middle of the hill
winds circling though the bamboo walls.

How many nights thinking
how many people below in the city,
around is the forest's hot winds,
the flood surging over the Doi stream.

Months and years pass
With you gone, Le, never to return.
We long for that time of youth,
The many roads we crossed.

This afternoon I returned
to the garden of Le's old house.
For a moment I half expected
to find Le behind the door.

To a Son on His 20th Birthday

Soldiers your age have just returned from the battlefield;
they have lost things they don't even know of,
in these brutal days, even you,
you have also lost more things than you can say.

How can we tell
what's ahead of us-the sea, forest, valley, or swamp

But regardless we've got to
go to the end of the road we have chosen.
Even if it takes the walk
of an artist on a cable strung over a vast empty space

Balance
balance
pay attention to balance

Translated by Nguyen Ba Chung and Marilyn Nelson