Nàng thơ từ tranh ra

Gió đêm động bức mành

Ở đâu là vườn Thúy

Ở đâu hội Ðạp thanh?

Người rời ga thế kỉ

Về kịp hội hoa đăng

Thuật ngữ không tận ý

chờ đã mấy mùa trăng

Bích câu thơm dấu giày

Cỏ hoa thiên đường đây

Nàng nét gầy thu cúc,

đẹp nét thắm xuân mai!

Sầu - Hững hờ gương lược

Mái Tây để oanh buồn

Kiếp sau hay kiếp trước

Mưa Ngâu dòng lệ tuôn

Người từ thiên niên kỉ

Cố tri gặp hòa vui

Thơ, rượu say túy lúy

Nhìn nhau mà ngậm ngùi!

The poetic beauty gets out from a famous, colorful painting,

While the night breeze softly moves the blind.

Where is the “Thuy” garden where the couple set a fatal date?

And where is the “Dap Thanh” Festival, the place

for young people to enjoy the new Spring?

The poet leaves the “Station of the century”.

He’ll be coming back to the capital on time to attend the night festival of “Flowered Lanterns”.

Good words don’t have enough meaning to describe his brimful joy in his mind,

For he has to desperately wait for several moon cycles.

Bich Cau, a small, green hamlet, is still fragrant because the fairy left the traces of her shoes on the grassy paths,

It is really the paradise with beautiful plants and flowers.

The beauty is as delicate as the yellow chrysanthemums in Fall,

She also is as gorgeous as the pink peach flowers in Spring.

She wants to use neither mirror nor comb because she is missing her poetic lover very much,

The place where she lives - Mai Tay - becomes sad, influencing even some swallows flying around!

The poet and the beauty don’t know if they’re belong to this life or the other one in a reincarnation.

They just see the long lasting rain of July - Mua Ngau - making them sad and cry because of the harsh separation from each other.

It seems they were living during a millennium,

Now they meet each other after a long wait, and sweet joy bursts suddenly that can’t be described by words,

Beautiful poems and spirit are being served. They all get drunk later on,

Then they stare into each other’s eyes, recognizing that they are all compassionately sad!

Grand Canyon, AZ Spring 1988

Xuan Vu TRAN DINH NGOC