| HUY CAN
Born on May 31th, 1919, in a poor Confucian family on the banks of Ngan Sau river, Ha Tinh Province. He is known for the anthology "Sacred Spirit", published in 1940. Nature in the anthology is often immense, lonely, nice but sad. The sadness seems causeless, metaphysical but after all, it is sadness
about life, human life, about the loneliness in the universe. The lonely poetic soul tries to find harmony and a silent lifeblood in creature and life. |
A long river
Undulating waves of a long river spread unending melancholy
Going downstream, a boat plows parallel lines of moving waters,
Sadness spreads many directions as home faring boat leaves water behind;
A single piece of floating firewood gets lost in its course.
Soft breezes flow over sparse sandbanks,
Sounds of a closing afternoon market echo from a far away village.
Sun is sloping down while melancholy rising higher on sky;
Under vast sky and along this river bank, lies a solitary pier.
Rows after rows of water hyacinths float in aimless directions;
There is no ferry to cross this vast water.
There is no bridge to evoke a feeling of connection.
Only green banks quietly join amber sandy beaches.
Layers of clouds rise high like white mountains...
Small birds slope their wings: so does the wing of the afternoon.
Love of hometown undulates with rising tides
One feels homesick even without seeing sunset smokes
Arhat statues in Tay Phuong Pagoda
Arhat statues in Tay Phuong Pagoda
My heart is constantly thinking of them after visits.
This is exactly the Buddha world,
Why do their faces seem too painful?
This Arhat is like a bag of bones, with exposed legs and arms
Such skinny body seems easy to be burned.
Thoughtful silence and sufferings become embedded in Arhat’s eyes
He still stays here in such bad state.
Another statue has lifting eyes and raising eyebrows in distortion
Wrinkles on his forehead seem like constant waves
His lips bitterly curles and soul seems dying.
Veins twist around hands and blood vessel boils.
Another Arhat statue has arms and legs contracted
They makes a round shape like a new foetus
But his ears spread to the knee
He listens to many bad stories during his life
Arhat statues stays here in silence
But they hear about ups and downs all over the earth
Like from the bottoms of human life
Angry winds emerges in the dark
Each of them has special features and bears human face
They undergo great sufferings on the earth
The strange meeting comes with many struggles
The statues do not cry but they have to sweat
Some incline their heads and some look back
They turns in eight directions to make questions to the high sky
A big question but no answer
Scowl is still on their faces until now
On the way to the Buddha
They are finding way to remove perdition on the earth
Such pains will end here
Are their hearts breaking due to human sufferings?
Where is, where is master carver?
Please come back to life and give me answer
You carved such unhappy statues
Are the stories in the Buddha world?
Or souls in the windstorm?
Sharings come from many, many previous generations
They are images of parents generations with their blood
They are unhappy and get into a stew
Burdens fall on their backs
Current friends of Nguyen Du
They constantly worry and thinking of the life
They feel painful but they can not save life
Deep pains are left in their heart
They make no headway in this life
Hopes, many hopes emerges
But they become faded like the young seed without the sun
Century sunset immensely covers
The parents generations grope for an exit
That is the reason why
Both smokes and dew are left on their faces
Arhat statues in Tay Phuong pagoda!
The society becomes bright today
I see the statue faces refresh again
Sunset goes away and smog gradually disappears
Beloved forefathers in the past
Bare and painful generation becomes close!
Losses in each wood fibre
Come here and everything becomes bright on the future path.
(Translated byThanh Kha group)
VNQD