Friday, September 9, 2022

Tuệ Sỹ - TỐNG BIỆT HÀNH - A FAREWELL

 

TỐNG BIỆT HÀNH


Một bước đường thôi nhưng núi cao
Trời ơi mây trắng đọng phương nào
Đò ngang neo bến đầy sương sớm
Cạn hết ân tình, nước lạnh sao?

Một bước đường xa, xa biển khơi
Mấy trùng sương mỏng nhuộm tơ trời
Thuyền chưa ra bến bình minh đỏ
Nhưng mấy nghìn năm tống biệt rồi

Cho hết đêm hè trông bóng ma
Tàn thu khói mộng trắng Ngân hà
Trời không ngưng gió chờ sương đọng
Nhưng mấy nghìn sau ố nhạt nhòa

Cho hết mùa thu biệt lữ hành
Rừng thu mưa máu dạt lều tranh
Ta so phấn nhụy trên màu úa
Trên phím dương cầm, hay máu xanh

(Nha Trang 1977)


A FAREWELL

Only a step on the road but the mountains are high

Oh, my Gosh! Which direction will the white clouds stall?

The ferry is moored at the dock cloaked in the morning dew

Love ceases as water becomes so cold


A step onto the far-away road, far from the immense ocean

Layers of thin clouds are dying the sky silk

The unmoored ferryboat is eyeing the red dawn

But already bade farewell thousands of years ago


To pass the summer night looking at spectral shadows

In the fading fall of smoke dreams that whiten the Milky Way

Heaven doesn’t stop the wind, waiting for the dew to curdle

But thousands of years later to become dirty and blurry 


By the end of Autumn, one no longer sees signs of the traveler 
Autumn forest bloody rain devastates the thatch cottage  
I play the pistil on faded color

Of the piano keyboard, or the blue color of blood.


Poem by Tuệ Sỹ
Translated by Phe X. Bach

Edited by Prof. Thai V. Nguyen

September, 2022.


A FAREWELL

Just one single step, yet the mountain is high
Oh, Haven! In which direction will the white clouds settle?
The ferry is moored at the shore swaddled in morning dew
If love should dry up, would water turn cold?


A long journey, immensely far, far away
Where myriad of layers of floaty mist adorn the silken sky
The boat hardly leaving the shore, red dawn already breaks out
Yet thousands of years of farewell had passed

Till the end of summer night, chasing illusion
Autumn fading away, illusionary dreams whiten the Milky Way
The wind refuses to cease, waiting for dew to congeal
Which thousands of years later turns sullied


By the end of Autumn, one no longer sees signs of the traveler 
Autumn forest bloody rain devastates the thatch cottage  
I play the pistil on faded color
Of the piano keyboard, or the blue color of blood.


Nha Trang 1977

Poem by Tuệ Sỹ
Translated by Phe X. Bach
Edited by Prof. Thai V. Nguyen
November, 2019



A FAREWELL

Only a step on the road but the mountains are high

Oh, my Gosh! Which direction will the white clouds stall?

The ferry is moored at the dock cloaked in the morning dew

Love ceases as water becomes so cold


A step onto the far-away road, far from the immense ocean

Layers of thin clouds are dying the sky silk

The unmoored ferryboat is eyeing the red dawn

But already bade farewell thousands of years ago


To pass the summer night looking at spectral shadows

In the fading fall of smoke dreams that whiten the Milky Way

Heaven doesn’t stop the wind, waiting for the dew to curdle

But thousands of years later to become dirty and blurry 


At the end of the autumn of Farewell to the vagrant wanderer

In the fall forests blood rain toppling the thatched hut

I compare pistils on wilting colors

On the piano keyboard or the blue blood.


Poem by Tuệ Sỹ
Translated by Phe X. Bach
Edited by Prof. Thai V. Nguyen

August, 2022

Thơ Tuệ Sỹ
Dịch qua Anh ngữ bởi Htr. Tâm Thường Định
Hiệu đính: GS. Nguyễn Văn Thái

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