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| Google image of "Vietnamese boat people" |
Lời dẫn: Xin trân trọng giới thiệu một trong những bài thơ hay nhất khi nói về Thuyền nhân Việt Nam. Chúng tôi đã mạo muội nhờ giáo sư Nguyễn Văn Thái dịch ra tiếng Anh để con em chúng ta luôn nhé về nguồn cội của mình để biết và thương yêu nhau nhiều hơn. Chỉ có từ bi mới chiến thắng hận thù.
Điếu thi: Thủy Mộ Quan - Viên Linh
(để tưởng nhớ những oan hồn uổng tử trên Biển Đông)
Trên Huyết Hải thuyền trôi về một chiếc
Chiều bầm đen trời rực rỡ đau thương
Thân chìm xuống băng tuyền giờ tận biệt
Sóng bạc đầu hối hả phủ trùng dương
Về đâu kiếp đắm với thân trầm.
Những tân thư kỳ mặc những linh đường
Trong rêu xanh ngần ngật bóng sơn hà
Lướt hải phận về dưới trời cố quốc.
Về đâu đêm tối
Hương lửa lung linh
Những ai còn bóng
Những ai mất hình
Chim lạnh về Nam sông núi ta
Không nói không cười chân trở bước.
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1. Lạc Hà hay Nại Hà, là nếu ai qua cầu đó là đi vào thế giới bên kia. “Bia đề rằng Nại Hà Kiều, Kẻ nào có phước quỉ đều dắt qua.” (Nguyễn Ðình Chiểu, Dương Từ Hà Mậu).
2. Kiếp trước của chim Tinh Vệ là công chúa con gái vua Viêm Ðế, đi chơi ngoài biển chẳng may chết đuối, nàng tức giận biến thành con chim tha đá, quyết lấp cho đầy biển, đặng không còn ai chết đuối nữa. Nàng Nữ Oa là em gái vua Phục Hy, thấy trời có những khoảng trống, nàng nghĩ rằng vòm trời bị thủng, bị vỡ, nên tha đá ngũ sắc lên vá trời, đặng vòm trời sẽ liền lại. Xin khỏi chú thích các huyền thoại khác như Từ Thức, Thằng Bờm và cái quạt mo, hay Ông Nghè, Sĩ phu. (Chú thích của V.L.)
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Funeral Oration: The Gate of the Ocean Grave
By Viên Linh
(To remember those lost souls in the Eastern Sea)
On the ocean of blood floating is a boat
The evening bruised black, the heavens flaring with angst
The body at expiration is sinking into darkness
With foaming waves hurriedly the ocean was covered
Looming indistinctly somewhere on earth
a dusky shadow of an island
floating to the West, to the North, then the East
Floating where ? Everywhere is covered with sea tangle
To the whereabouts where karmas descend and corpses sink
Oh, soul! The earth moves farther and farther away
Depart and take the fathomless ocean grave as home
The soul is returning to the state of multiple lives
Death is reincarnation from karma uncompleted
It’s over, nothing left but a tenebrous abode
The Ho horse, the Viet bird have transfigured into evanescencea
The soul is still hovering over the Eastern Sea
mesmerizingly wafting offshore
pounded on by torrential rain
April bleeds, discoloring the misty skies
The body is descending onto the ruins of the former land
adorned with the castles, fortresses of the golden times
and sophisticated, novel literary works; and sacred altars
in the glories of the nation building period
Many eyes open, zillions of sorrowful hairs stand on end
So many hands handcuffed, so many breasts impaled yesterday
Amidst the green moss appears bleary Motherland
They glide over the territorial waters to return under the sky of the country of old
Moving towards a putrid direction
for battleground positioning
The souls of the remaining defeated army were scuffling at the Gate of the Ocean Grave.
Night falls, time stops, destiny ends
Burdened with a besmirched existenceb, they made their way across Lạc Hà1
Their souls fading into the multiple worldsc after death
faltering back to their homeland every night.
Where to in the dark night
Amidst the quivering incense sticks
Those who still have a shadow
Those who have lost their appearance.
Those who entered this ephemerous life
and transformed into drifters to join the heavenly host
Whenever demons no longer reside offshore
Let’s go to the mainland and return to our country of yore.
Together we restore our life’s root:
Splitting bamboos, cutting wood, digging ditches, and building our community house.
The Laureate back to his station
The General to the frontier, the student to his study
Từ Thức back to his fairies
The scholars back to teaching, the literati to literary critique
The mulberry farms to the silkworms
The green rice fields to the industrious peasant
The magistrate’s horse back to the buffalo boy
The cloister to God, the pagoda to the bonze
The areca spathe fan I give back to thee
The lovely girls to the pretty boys.
Việt Nam is reinstating its nation
Five times kings restored Motherland
The blue devils disappear, starts the mourning dove call
Dawn listens to and Dusk knows about
the cold bird moving South, our native land
Not a single word nor laughter, steps are staken to return
to the magic crossbow of the yesteryears
the sharp sword from the lake
Rushing with the fury of a swollen river
Lạc Long welcomes Âu Cơ back to the boat
Children rising from the sea and those
Descending from the mountains to meet one another.
Five thousand years start again
Which bird carries stones, who patches the sky2
We are leaving the foreign soil
Like birds shunning snow to return to their homeland.
Translated by Nguyễn văn Thái
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NOTES BY AUTHOR
1Lạc Hà or Nại Hà is a bridge that leads to the Netherworld. ““Bia đề rằng Nại Hà Kiều, Kẻ nào có phước quỉ đều dắt qua.” [inscriptions on the stele say whoever lucky enough to cross Nại Kiều Bridge will be lead by the demons] By Nguyễn Đình Chiểu in Dương Từ Hà Mậu.
2The previous karma of the Tinh Vệ Bird was a princess, daughter of King Viêm Đế, who happened to drown while on a promenade by the sea. She was angry and reincarnated in a bird carying stones to fill up the sea so nobody would drown again. Lady Nữ Oa, sister of King Phục Hy, saw empty spaces in the firmament and thought the celestial dome was perforated and decided to carry five-colored stones to patch the sphere. Excuses for not providing notes on myths about Từ Thức, Bờm and the areca spathe fan, Ông Nghè, Sĩ phu (remarks by viên Linh)
NOTES BY TRANSLATOR
a“Ngựa Hồ, chim Việt biến hình mà đi” [The Ho horse, the Viet bird have transformed into evanescence] has its origin in the verse from “Cổ thi thập cửu thủ” (Nineteen famous ancient poems): “Hồ mã tê Bắc phong, Việt điểu sào Nam chi” [胡馬依北風， 越鳥巢南枝: The Ho horse neighs at the Northern wind, the Viet bird nests in the South], implying lovers are missing each other. In Viên Linh’s verse, “Ngựa Hồ, chim Việt biến hình mà đi” [The Ho horse, the Viet bird have transformed into evanescence] means at death, love no longer exists; only impermanence.
b “ô y” (translated as burdened with a besmirched existence). In Buddhist conceptualization, “ô y” means “unpure conditions of existence”. “Ô”=dirty, besmirched; “y”= basic foundation of life. It is unlikely that the author refers to the anecdote of the “ô y” area in Jiang Ning (Nanjing today) where rich people of reputation all wore black clothes.
c “multiple worlds” is the translation of the analogy “hà sa” that comes from “Hằng hà sa số”: Hằng hà=the Ganges River; Sa số= number of grains of sand. Buddhism conceives of existence as composed of an infinite number of worlds that can be compared to the number grains of sand on the Ganges basin.
