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THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467) VOLUME 8 NUMBER 1 JAN 2006
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HUY CAN __________________________________ REGRET translated by Vu Dinh Dinh Afternoon
sun sets across the field … Amidst a
quiet garden a young girl is folding
the betel leaf. In the
air, a lonely spider is deftly spinning. My dear!
Go to sleep… I will serve you with this fan, Which is open wide as my heart. Hundreds
of beautiful birds hover above To make
you sleep a peaceful dream! Sleep
well, my dear! Soft breezes rustle through rows
of willow As tall
trees cast their long, languishing shadows. Time and
time again, have broken hearts mellowed
your soul? Please
place your head on my arm So I can
hear the heavy drops of sorrow … HUY CAN Original
version: Ngậm ngùi nắng chia nửa
bãi; chiều rồi Translator’s note: I wish to thank Miss Ngo Mai Kha, Xuan Dieu’s
niece, who told me that I had misunderstood the word “trinh
nu” in line two of the poem. She said “trinh nu”
does not mean a virgin woman but refers to a plant when touched the leaves of
which droop and close. After having looked up the word in dictionaries and
talked to several elderly North Vietnamese, I found that in North Vietnam the
plant is only known as “cay xau ho”, which
literally means the plant that is shy. In Central and South Vietnam the plant
is popularly known as “cay mac co” (shy plant) and
in literary circle “trinh nu” (virgin woman).
Actually, the full literary name of the plant is “trinh
nu thao” (plant that is virgin). The common name of
the plant in English is sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica)
from Central America. I believe Huy Can, who was
born in Central Vietnam but spent most of his life in North Vietnam, had
cleverly played on words with the name. Now knowing the double meaning of “trinh nu”, I decide to retain my original translation. In 2003, Mr. Peter Askim,
a composer and assistant professor of music at the University of Hawaii, put Huy Can’s “Regret” to music and since the poem has been
interpreted many times at Cornell University, in Pennsylvania, and in Hawaii
by Miss Judith Kellock, an Emma-awards soprano
singer nominee and assistant professor of music in New York City.-- VU DINH DINH -- 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
© Vu Dinh Dinh 2006. 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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