DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL

  

DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL

 DESCENDING THE MOUNTAIN TRAIL

 

Tomorrow, the monk descends the mountain

His thin monastic robe has faded at his shoulders

Through time, his prayer beads have worn out

His drinking age was replaced with the perfume of incense

 

At dawn, he descends the mountain

his hair whitish emulates livelihood

in the east, the sun turns red

and a summer without a single flying cloud

 

Tomorrow, the monk descends the mountain

As the end of the road, seeing a town

Coughing in the darkness

seeing the Buddha hall in the distance

 

At dawn, he descends the mountain

Crying tears are still in his eyes

Since the monks still love the shadow of darkness

the nightmare amongst the forest shroud.

 

-- September 1983

 

 

 

AT THE END OF THE YEAR

 

Another year passes shakily

Barely the forest wind makes ends met

The tomato rows sun dried in the silky sunshine

Harshness in the voice to call the homeland

-- Van Gia Forest, 1977

 

 

AT DAWN, PRACTICING CURSIVE WRITING

 

Morning dew blends in the aromatic tea

The cold wind caresses the floral paper

Gently raising the brush,

I hear from the bottom of my heart the sound of excitement.

-- Saigon, 1980

RAIN ON THE HIGHLAND

A swallow on a road that drags on
A long night listening to the falls cascading from above
In a hurry, I walked across the immense river
Waiting for the rain to fall on the flustered wings of the butterfly.

Spectral shadows are calling people’s names at dawn
With vague, unidentified sounds every day
Green rain is falling on black hair, in a heavy mist
Leaves in a dream drifting afar from the shore

He keeps standing in the middle of the sun-drenched river
telling stories of time immemorial
The little butterfly is fluttering back on its thin wings
But whereto, an unseasonal leaf?

Bygone times are still masquerading as smiles in dreams
He keeps going like water in spite from its source

Faintly intimate with shadows on an alien shore

As forlorn clouds, Oh!, former hair of thousands of years old

 

SMALL RIVULET

 

I am a small rivulet

Singing under the sun

Bending myself through deserted forests

Embracing the falling autumn leaves

 

The heart and mind of a meaningless existence

Longing for the immense ocean

People enjoy selfish love

I am inebriated with universal love

 

Enamored with a new source of life

Trustful in the future

Filled with joy once well oriented

The vehicle for progress has already started moving

 

I am a small rivulet

Mingled in the flow of life

Carrying along so much energy

To faraway places

 

I am a small rivulet

Running under all firmaments

Through countless forests

To finally come back to the immense ocean.

 

 

 

CONFIDENCES

 I can still hear the songs of cicadas
Still in love with the deep night flickering fire
Home is on top of the Truong Son Mountain
Let me entrust to you my everlasting wrath

THE HEAVENLY BIRD

A promise buried in mourning
A heavenly bird disappearing into the depths of the heart,
I hear weariness momentarily
Autumn filled with the reverberation of thousands of wails

The wee hours soaked in chilly mist and windstorm
I breathe deeply in dream engulfing dust
On the other side of the window over the hill yonder, the stars rising
Once going, the ship is going forever

Going to remember those afternoons with the white-tempered hair
With eyes staring at the adventure blood drops …

MỘNG NGÀY

Ta cỡi kiến đi tìm tiên động

Cõi trường sinh đàn bướm dật dờ

Cóc và nhái lang thang tìm sống

Trong hang sâu con rắn nằm mơ

Đầu cửa động đàn ong luân vũ

Chị hoa rừng son phấn lẳng lơ

Thẹn hương sắc lau già vươn dậy

Làm tiên ông tóc trắng phất phơ

Kiến bò quanh nhọc nhằn kiếm sống

Ta trên lưng món nợ ân tình

Cũng định mệnh lạc loài Tổ quốc

Cũng tình chung tơ nắng mong manh

Ta hỏi kiến nơi nào cõi tịnh

Ngoài hư không có dấu chim bay

Từ tiếng gọi màu đen đất khổ

Thắp tâm tư thay ánh mặt trời

Ta gọi kiến, ngập ngừng mây bạc

Đường ta đi, non nước bồi hồi

Bóc quá khứ, thiên thần kinh ngạc

Cắn vô biên trái mộng vỡ đôi

Non nước ấy trầm ngâm từ độ

Lửa rừng khuya yêu xác lá khô

Ta đi tìm trái tim đã vỡ

Đói thời gian ta gặm hư vô.

Tuệ Sỹ

Sài Gòn 1984

DAY DREAM

I rode an ant in search of fairy-grottoes

Immortal realms with flocks of meandering butterflies

Toads and tree-frogs wandering in search of life

In deep caverns, a snake slumbers in reverie. 

At the grotto entrance, a swarm of bees swirled in dance

Flowers of the crimson forest sensuous 

Bashful of fragrance and hue, the old rushes straightened up

Becoming an old immortal’s gently waving white hair

The ant crawled around, struggling to find life

On my back a debt of love

Also, the forlorn fate of my Fatherland

And our love, fragile threads of sunlight 

I asked the ant – where is it, the Pure-land?

Beyond the void, traces of birds in flight 

From the call of a blackened and bitter land

Lighting up my mind in place of the sunlight

I called the ant while grey clouds pondered

On the road of my wondering, my country anguished

Peeling away the past, heavenly beings shudder in shock 

Biting into the infinite expanse, a dream shattered in two

Those mountains and rivers, sunk in grief ever since

Midnight fires in the forest embracing dead and desiccated leaves

I go in search of a shattered heart

Starving for time, biting into nothingness.

Saigon 1984

Mộng Ngày

Ta cỡi kiến đi tìm tiên động

Cõi trường sinh đàn bướm dật dờ

Cóc và nhái lang thang tìm sống

Trong hang sâu con rắn nằm mơ

Đầu cửa động đàn ong luân vũ

Chị hoa rừng son phấn lẳng lơ

Thẹn hương sắc lau già vươn dậy

Làm tiên ông tóc trắng phất phơ

Kiến bò quanh nhọc nhằn kiếm sống

Ta trên lưng món nợ ân tình

Cũng định mệnh lạc loài Tổ quốc

Cũng tình chung tơ nắng mong manh

Ta hỏi kiến nơi nào cõi tịnh

Ngoài hư không có dấu chim bay

Từ tiếng gọi màu đen đất khổ

Thắp tâm tư thay ánh mặt trời?

Ta gọi kiến, ngập ngừng mây bạc

Đường ta đi, non nước bồi hồi

Bóc quá khứ, thiên thần kinh ngạc

Cắn vô biên trái mộng vỡ đôi

Non nước ấy trầm ngâm từ độ

Lửa rừng khuya yêu xác lá khô

Ta đi tìm trái tim đã vỡ

Đói thời gian ta gặm hư vô

Tuệ Sỹ

(Sài Gòn 1984)

oOo

Day Dream

i ride an ant in search of the fairy cove.

in lazy skies eternal butterflies flutter,

hard-of-living toads and frogs wander,

a snake lies dreaming in its hole.

a swarm of bees dance outside my lair, 

a wild flower puts on her make-up;

not outdone, the aged reeds perk up,

the wind shuffles the old sage’s hair.

around life’s vicious circle the ant spun--

i on its back a heavy love and debt;

nationless, we’re both victims of fate

still as loyal as the silky webs of sun.

i ask the ant, which way to Stillness,

can a bird’s flight be traced beyond Void,

is Earth, in her black and suffering voice

lit by self-reflection, not sunlight instead?

i call the ant, as silver clouds unmove

our paths of might, our Nation of could.

peel our past, the angels are shocked;

biting Limitless, our dream breaks in two.

a Nation--silenced since time withstood

midnight fires which embraced dead leaves.

looking for my heart, broken and lost

hungering for time on Emptiness i chew.

-ianbui (08’01)

Melbourne, FL