Trúc Anh
ENTRUST
Oh leaf, how red it is the hills of formosan gum [1]
Blood of tree or the patriot’s
Thousand years of expansion
Rises and falls
The front shined with bright verdant feat
Silently red is the border.
Cinamon forest boisterous with passion bouquet
Dig stars to count
Border’s night of many entrusted words
Nature adores whoever marches to protect this land
Clouds gathered and turned into steel barricade, bronze wall
….
Ask where rivers get water from
From the border!
Ask the fountains from where its water flow
From watershed!
Let waterflow dissolves in the drained commencement
Let rice grows over fences of mountainous land
A crab is accustomed to terrace paddy field
Fountain’s name, trench’s name becomes name of hamlets, villages
Enormous verdant blazes with illuvial color
shining spiritual flow of Viet
Place that breeds the girls who soft as water
the boys who strong as water,
the elders who wise as water,
the kids who pure as water,
grow up by grandma’s tear mother’s tear,
by a-thousand-year sorrow of our nation
Place that breeds the men called Dung who acquainted to bitter and hardship
ten toes firmly attach to borderland,
sharpen bamboo stick for prolonged revolution
The brown women called Da enduringly labored the mountainous land
rose-myrtle eyes that purple the hill slope,
lovingly brew the child of the land
No rain but from afar those hills are soaking wet
From the skyline, green domain started fading
Last blast of fire moribundly sinks into storm’s root
Hear the restless sound of the river in the night at the outpost
Illuvial sleep startles
To where you are heading hey busy sailing ships
I lay my trust on steady paddle beat
…..
Ask skyline from where did mountain rise
After million million eras of creation and destruction
So as to set up nowaday’s rolling stone barricades
Thousand-bloom Mountain rejuvinated
Stretch and forget every stung bitterness
The uptight of forgiveness let the corn goes golden, rice goes green
Human climbs upper step
Water flows lower trenches
Flow and flow through hidden tides, ripple spin
Gentle but smooth oh tides of history
In deep ground there keep thousand sentiments
There’s no bone that does not carry the blood of the forebear
There’s no flesh that does not carry the intimacy of our parents
Join the Eastern Sea are rapid tides of Bach Dang
Story of thousand years ago our forefathers engaged the enemy
Sharpened stake as the hatred in human’s heart
Radiant swords and spears frightened the invaders
Blue pure Nhu Nguyet just as yesterday’s
Indomitable “Holy” verse echoed at night
“Strike first” to keep a vast area safe as stronghold[2]
A hundred and sixty thousand dead bodies of Holy reign’s troops congested at the river
Bear in mind the reputable “Dong Bo Dau” of Spring
Thang Long turned into scorch earth in a blink of an eye[3]
Majorities falls to minorities for having no conscious of the water tides
Nam dynasty is no grasses to be crumbled under Yuan Mongol
Words of “Army exhortation” echoes for a hundred year
Assemble the nation to challenge enemy
From lords to servers, they devote
Some recluse in the mountains…
Some guard the Eastern sea…
Dew border’s eyes radiant of fire
A vast land of Tra Lan, a battle of Bo Dang
Epic victory of flaming Chi Lang
Blood spills on gateway’s surface
Ky Cung river carries a Grand message northward
Goblets of wine mixed with river water where generals and troops applaused
Went northward the North West borderland in days of warfare
See Pu Huoi Cho, Hao Trang carved words of the wise emperor
“Excellent defense of the border requires long-term strategy”[4]
Muong Le nine thousand high mounts
Da Giang three hundred waterfalls
For a Prince’s talent is the ability to tame the fiercest rivers
In earth’s beat there are hamlets that lighted night by night
In blowing wind’s beat the horses’ neigh and armies say Hura
In river’s beat, there echoes Ngoc Hoi Dong Da, Rach Gam Xoai Mut[5]
Human blood carved on rock
Layer by layer, germinated to stop enemies
….
River’s watershed is the furthest end
Ask where the marine beat take water to
Every ocean current brings flows of tuna that tumults the sea of Viet
For decades the whistling pine tree gargles tides and storms of the ocean
The red fiddler crab saccades its eyes as if it spins around in the sand dance
The children born out of seabed
From fish traps, sieves, baskets
From fishing net their strength thrives
The children hold concerns of a domain
Closed-mouth, holding on ship’s net like the bitterly salty grain of salt in evaporation pond
Having been beaten several times by the mournful white tides
Sea tears the flow apart to lay down and listen to the net breathing
Coldly grieve the tide’s heart
Dedicate the lullaby…
Bring me spirits of those who nestled in the tides!
Heigh ho… the funeral farewell sing
“Fortunate Eastern sea oh enormous Eastern sea
Hundred bounds before the Highness He
Pray for all the wishes and desires to become reality…”[6]
Heigh is sunlight
Shine on golden string
Heigh is rain
Boat hangs the wooden dream
Generous sea voice joins the open tide flow
Worship bell dedicate the deities praying for his protection over the nation, for the sanity of the livings
Tide transmits the state of the hurtful million…
After the swells, sea suppress the pain to split
The dock is once again crowded with silver fish, golden lobster
The island children, empty-island children
Thousand years silently connect the sea and the sky
Be a milestone of sovereignty that define our country
Sea pulse rises its beat that overwhelm the chest
Steady, paddle to the sun!
…..
Please halt before a house that wide opened toward the border
Fear no Laos wind, mind no Northern wind
More elastic than shadow
My compatriots crouch like corn stem, peanut string,
like bamboo rat, hill myna
Two feets mysterily spread
Crossing rock-strewn terrains, crossing woodlands blood shed of thorn…
Houses that wide opened toward the border
Against their tradition of thousand generations for Motherland’s territories
The houses that intershoot the cupgrass’s seedheads
Twilight trail hangs on rolling rock tips
In the land of the border a house certificate is inessential
Found a modest fact
That they’ve been silently keeping their country’s certificate
Long for the reportage house wall of the mountain
Passionate red dissipates the frosty cold
How lovely the confusing child’s eyes
Innocent but poor, my heart tremble
How lovely the shirt color that tediously labor among the leaves
Sound of buffalo tocsin leisurely touches the sun
…..
All along the known country
Mount curves the cloud ladder longing for the shoulders
wobblingly carry rocks to build flag pole of eternity
Despite Hoang Lien is no taller than a piece of termite mushroom
Despite Ky Cung pours water down the lowland
Wide opened toward the border for thousand years
Every house wall is a guarding post
Border’s night entrusts the dawn
[1] Tree that grows in the Northern borderland, its leaf is scarlet red the red of blood
[2] Tactic of not staying still waiting for enemy to come but to strike first to seize the initiation. Up to now, perhaps Ly Thuong Kiet was the first and only to have successfully applied this tactic against the Northern invaders.
[3] Scorch earth tactic of Tran dynasty
[4] After a successful campaign against rivals near the borderland, on his way back to the capital, the High king Le Thai To left a poem on two mountains of Lai Chau and Hoa Binh to mark his victory. That said “There has to be a good strategy for the defense of the border”. Much to say, it is still valid until now.
[5] Translator note: Famous battles of Nguyen Hue – Vietnam Emperor from 1788 – 1792
[6] Sea chanty of Quang Binh
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