THE WRITERS POST - Du Tu Le - Vu dinh Dinh

 

 

 

THE WRITERS POST

(ISSN: 1527-5467)
the magazine of Literature & Literature-in-translation.

VOLUME 12 NUMBER 1

JAN 2010

  

                    

 

                   DU TU LE

                    __________________________________________

 

                         a poem by  DU TU LE

                              translated by Vu Dinh Dinh

 

 

 

       When I die, take me to the sea

 

When I die, take me to the sea

Living in exile, I don’t even own a burial site

Buried in foreign soil, my body unlikely would decompose

My soul, unliberated, how would it find its way home?

 

When I die, take me to the sea

Undercurrents will tow my body away

Far away, on the other shore lies my beloved homeland

With lofty bamboo trees staying ever green.

 

When I die, take me to the sea

And remember, do not close my eyes yet

So that I can catch a last glimpse of my homeland

As my body may somehow reach its lovely shore.

 

When I die, take me to the sea

So that I can meet my children

And watch their tears streaming down

From their eyes sadder than darkness.

 

When I die, take me to the sea

On the way, be sure to sing the national anthem.

Alas! For a long time nobody has been singing it.

(It too now resembles a wandering soul.)

 

When I die, there will be no more sadness;

Life in exile effectively separates you from your own soul.


 

 

The Writers Post
the magazine of literature

& literature-in-translation,

founded 1999, based in the US.

 

VOLUME 12 ISSUE 1 JAN 2010

 

Copyright © Vu Dinh Dinh & The Writers Post 2009.

Copyright for the original © Du Tu Le. Nothing in this magazine may be downloaded, distributed, or reproduced without the permission of the author/ translator/ artist/  The Writers Post/ and Wordbridge magazine. Creating links to place The Writers Post or any of its pages within other framesets or in other documents is copyright violation, and is not permitted.

 

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