VOICES FROM VIETNAM / translated by DAM XUAN CAN

Lời dẫn:
-  Dai Nam Van Hien  Publishing House - tủ sách chuyển  ngữ tiếng anh do Đàm Xuân Cận dịch - in theo lối mimeographed book- ngoài tác phẩm của Thế Phong  - còn dịch   thơ của một số thi hữu khác : Hoàng Khởi Phong ( 1943 -         ), Du Tử Lê ( 1942 -      ) , Văn Nguyên Dưỡng, Tạ Quang Trung,  Nguyễn Quốc Thái ( 1943 -        ),  Tuệ Mai ( nữ)  vv..  in trong  tập VOICES  .
  Dịch giả Đàm Xuân Cận ( 1939-          , hiện ở Cabramatta / Australia)  báo tin cho biết tập VOICES đã được một nhà xuất bản ở Mỹ  tái bản , cách đây đâu đó khoảng  mươi năm - anh đã gửi tiền đặt mua .
 Đầu tiên VOICES  được  tạp chí TENGGARA (   Dept of English / Viện Đại học Malaya ở Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia - jointly edited by Ismail Hussein, Lloyd Fernando, A. Bakar Hamid, Wong Phui Nam  )-  tái đăng trong TENGGARA 4 (  April 1969) .
 Chúng tôi  sẽ đăng lại dần dần trong  THANGPHAIGIO' S BLOG.


1.- NGUYEN QUOC THAI
     

Translated from the French
by Chan  Soo Ping*

                   My country and Points for Questioning

Often  I am sad and often I ask myself the question:
To whom does this country belong at this present hours?
The days when the bullets whistle all round the towns
and when the frail bamboos are smeared with flesh and blood.

For the ten, twenty years this war has lasted
our children have almost lost the power of smiling,
Often I am sad and often I ask myself the question :
How many springs would it cost my country ?

The clang of armour, dismal as the the tide
The roar of planes, ominous as the storm
I hear, and often I say to myself, not knowing how to cry:
Wehave lost our brothers one by one.

Each noon, when the still gun gilds Saigon,
I consider the future so dim, so distant,
and the older mother, her eyes brimming with tears,
musing over coming battles and her children.

Winter brings forth an abundance of cold clouds
The sun sinks like youth
Often I gaze around and terror seizes me:
Till when will my country remain in the misfortune ?

Poor country, poor Vietnam,
Often I am sad and often I ask myself:
How many times could you rejoice at independence
and how many times proclaim liberty ?

NGUYEN QUOC THAI

* The originals of these poems are in Vietnamese.  They were translated into French as follows:" My country and Points for Questioning" by Nguyen Ngoc Lan; "Wild Grass by Lê ( van)  Hao; " Oh! This Nothing" by Lê ( van) Hao;" When dies Young" by Du Tu Le; and" This is for my son not yet born and named" by Hoang Khoi Phong.  The English translations here published were done from the French by Chan Soo Ping.  ( TENGGARA 4)

                                                                                                             (to be continued ...)