Page 89 - Dragon&Fairy in Poetry

Thanh Thanh

TO MY FRIENDS

Original “Nói Với Bạn Bè” by
MINH HÀ

There will be a time we also return to earth;
Then why still fight over win or lose to worth.
The drifted soul, corpse will fall into shade;
There is no more resin when the leaves fade.

There will be a time we all meet face to face,
Look right in our eye to recall our youth trace.
Let us see that our sight should not be shy,
Hold each other’s hands with hearts open high.

There will be a time we prostrate ourselves, sad,
Burn incense/aloe wood, mourn a gone comrade,
Shed tears when the hearse is going to move off.
Well, why at present we have the heart to scoff.

There will be a time all of us get back to dust
As a handful of ashes deserted in life―it must.
Then why still waste energy to blindly write
The words, terms, expressions to friends blight?

And everybody, everything is an empty rotation:
Come and go are eternally the laws of causation.
Why don’t we live with, use cordial tone on earth
In order not to regret our journey since our birth.

Translation by THANH-THANH

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