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The Writers Post VOLUME 7 NUMBER 2 JULY 2005
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UYEN
NICOLE DUONG _______________________________ FROM
GULAG TO LOVE A
lover's ballad to him whose name is
prisoner-of-conscience
In memory of the fall of Saigon 30/4/2005: To that Vietnamese nobleman who has borne his cross, paid his dues, for us to
move on, and whom I will never meet UND In
what’s left of a glimpse of life let
me curl up against you facing
the dying sun feeling
your breath upon my hair in
storytelling too sacred to be revealed the
night falls and
the hours pass I
turn to face you to
place my lips on your telling heart and
listen to its beat tell
me tell me please tell me (the
heartbeat of life like
sounds of words and sighs too
fragile to render real yet
too real to surrender) It
tells me of
all the scars and wounds nhung la mau do thit roi... my
fingertips are now confirming on
your burning cells and tissues They
tell me of
hunger, hard labor, and torture chem tre dan go tren ngan... my
silky lips are now confirming on
every breath you draw It
tells me of
stretched nerves, broken veins, diseases, cold, heat, starvation, all in
buried hopes Nhung la ray uoc mai ao... the
vines of my arms are now confirming on
your torso and rib cage They
tell me of
days and nights without sleep and food long thuong quan tu om o gay mon the
valleys of my hips are now confirming on
your columns of bony legs They
tell me of
humiliation that aims to bend, when legs no longer run and
feet no longer stand Nang vua phuc xuong chang thoi nga ra No
more warrior or nobleman No
more assassin or escapist No
more saint or martyr Just
a being, broken, yet not broken Tram nam trong coi nguoi ta... Solzhenitsyn’s archipelago, your Suoi
Mau All
is here In
silence and
in one held breath You
thrust secrets of human hell onto me and
in me hell bears fruits then
you turn toward the wall and
never talk Never
dream Just
one more day, for the last time From
gulag to love lies
a thousand footsteps of pain UYEN
NICOLE DUONG
November 2004 The Writers Post & literature-in-translation, founded 1999, based in the US. Editorial note: Works published in this issue are simultaneously
published in the printed Wordbridge magazine (ISSN: 1540-1723). Copyright © Uyen Nicole Duong 2005. Nothing in this magazine
may be downloaded, distributed, or reproduced without the permission of the
author/ translator/ artist/ The
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