Xuan Quynh's poetry

XUÂN QUỲNH

Xuan Quynh (1942-1988) is exactly a dancer and becomes a professional poet after passing the cultivation class for young writers in the first course of Vietnamese Literature Association (1962-1964). She is considered the leading female poet in the second half of the 20th century. Xuan Quynh's poetry is introverted, full of personal mood, however, it does not isolate from life. It contains true citizen life in the years when the country was still separated and war, poverty, hardship, and woman's worries appear on all the ways of bombs and bullets. The special works are her love poems some of which are set to music.

Heart sings

I’m unfoolish to wish my heart made of gold
You have ever known about my heart
You look down on riches
Therefore, you can immediately sell it if you need
I do not also wish it like sun
Because it will go away when evening shadow comes
Then only you undergo long night in silence
Your heart is far away from my heart
I come back to my real heart
Knowing how to revice the died red blood cell
Knowing how to gain things I lost
Knowing how to narrow the gap o

I come back to my real heart
Knowing to desire the things you dream about
Knowing to be touched through many awareness
Knowing to love you and knowing to be lover by you
Why are there too many thunderstorms in this autumn?
The ship windows do not close
The fields are deserted and mountain and forest are high and deep
I am lost in the depth of your heart
I am worry about our far way
My heart beats speechless things
My heart beats for hunger
Which flame shines in the loneliness
I come back to my real heart
Like flesh and blood, possessed by anyone
My heart stops when the life ends
But it knows to love you even when died

Waves

Fierce and gentle.
Loud and silent,
The river doesn't understand itself.
The wave doesn't find itself, until it reaches the sea.
Oh the wave passes,
And the wave to come will be the same.
Hunger for love
Is strong in the heart.
Standing before the waves,
I think of you and me
I think of the great sea.
And I wonder where the waves come from.
The waves must come from the wind.
And I wonder where the wind comes from,
And I wonder
When will we love each other again?

The waves deep in the sea
And the waves on the sea's surface
Long for the shore of the sea
Day and night the waves can not sleep
As I can not sleep, even in dreams.
Because of my longing for you.
When I go to the North,
Or to the South.
When I go anywhere, I think of you.
My only direction.
Out in the great sea
Thousands of waves are pushing,
Which one never reachs the shore
Even miles and miles from home ?
Life is so long,
Years and months go by
Like the sea, life is endless.
Clouds fly to the distant horison.
How can I become
Like the hundreds of thousands of small waves
In the great sea of love
And lap forever against your shore?

Co may Flower

Sand bank is deserted, rivers are full, trees look silly
Space flutters for season change
Who called my name in the canopy
It reaches autumn on my old returning path
White clouds move along with winds
My heart is bright like clear sky in first time
Bitters are left in previous seasons
Poem lines are written along with winds
Co may flowers are plentiful on the ways
They are incidentally attached to my shirt
My love words are frail like amoky color
Will your heart change?
 

Late Autumn Love Poem

White clouds fly at the end of sky
Yellow leaves are too few
It seems leaves come back forest
Autumn goes together with leaves
Autumn goes to the sea
Along with endless streams
Autumn comes together with daisy
Only you and me
Only you and me
Belong to the old autumn
Suddenly gentle breeze
Flow and stir everything:
Familiar path becomes strange
Grass is turned upside along with the cloud direction
Dew makes cheeks wet at night
Cold air goes through hands

Our love is like tree row
Passing the season of windstorm
Our love is like river
Passing the days of the deluge
Time is like wind
Seasons go together date
Age runs toward season forever
Only you and me
Only you and me
And love stay here…
–Oh, many new couples
Going through with gentle breeze!

Translated by Thanh Kha group

Source: Writers and works Việt Nam