Long Important Historical Verse:
CONNECTING THE VIETNAMESE SENTIMENTAL
ROUND ARMS
Author: HUYEN CHUONG QUY ( Ly Nguyen Thien Quy )
Translator : Chuong Huyen
1.
After years of wandering
On far away cities..
My legs were very tired/Mossy!
On the returning day
My skinny arms still wanted to hug the whole round of the Earth
Bolsa Street Quarter/As old time.
Sweats ran down hard
Laughs/Tears!
In my homeland,
My countrymen are still miserable!
In profound night
I wrote the poem “Trust & Love . . .”
In hope and search of
Round arms connecting round arms . . .
2.
Thirty years of refuge
I write some historical lines
April 20, 1975
The tank from wild forest which was still sticky with legs, pieces of skin,meat,
hair full of blood
Downed the Independence Palace’s gate!...
Some applauded, celebrated the victory
People were pushed to cultivated field ..
Big prison!
They nibbled humiliation and hate;
Allied forces ran away…!
The country was disinterated!..
3.
April 30, 1975
Old mothers, mild wives in the North
--After many years of curved back, tired eyes
Many years of curved back, tired eyes
Waiting for good sons
After many years of gloriously laboring ..
Expecting husbands’ shoulders--
On the day the news was heard that the star flag is floating in Saigon,
Received more the back bags having pairs of rubber sandals,
Blunt pencils,
Green military uniforms still smelling gun powder,
Some letters hastily written, bluring missing, loving words,
And received awards certifying that their husband, sons were died-in-action heroes!
Oh! Thousand years of sadness!..
4.
April, 30, 1975
In the South
Old mothers, mild wives, groups of innocent children
Wearing white funeral bands
Crying for husbands, sons
Too many Unknown Soldiers
“Died for the Country” in the 25th hour of the war!
Crying for heroes committed suicide
Crying for Fathers, Brothers who, after many years of valiancy and hardship,
forgetting themselves for Love, Homeland, and Freedom
Suddenly they became criminals!..
Crying for the miserable life ..
People from the savage jungle yelled and went into cities
People from cities staggered to wild places!..
5.
The Pacific Ocean with violent waves!
Its waves totally broke little boats
Its waves pushed people’s corpses far way from seashores
LAC (= Legendary Vietnamese) blood spread all over hundreds of strange harbors
Hundreds of strange harbors
Hundred million of VIETNAMESE tears!...
Floating-away destiny
Exiled
Primary day
SAD!
6.
Nineteen seventy-Two thousand five
Oh, thirty years!
Oh, thirty years!
Dead people’s souls from dried tombs, in the wild forests, and the sound of hatred
still echoed Horrified yellings still echoed in the Pacific Ocean!..
Still, there have been tears not being dispersed
Lost/Hundreds of strange harbors/Broken hearts!..
7.
Thirsty years
The lesson about the fate of weak, yellow-skin country
A card for the benefits of the French, American, Russian, Chinese officials!..
The light of civilization from the French colonists reflected in the advanced culture
of the Vietnamese race
But the Vietnamese have constantly lived in suffering
Being slaves; being treated very harsh, oppressed, exploited to the bones
Being brought to the war “Between Brothers and Brothers”!..
Devilish Russian, Chinese Communists took advantages of the Vietnamese so that
they could spread their
Communist regimes to the whole world.
T54 tank’s guns, B40 bazooka, 82 mortar..
Every night exploded, destroyed innocent people’s homes!
The USA, new colonist, in the name of protecting the fortress of Liberty
Watered dollars, arms, ammunication, ravaged the S-form body country!..
Vietnam was in the war! Vietnam was suffered!
The Vietnamese women became of delicious food for international men!
Blood and bones of Vietnamese youth fell down along the Long Range Mountains
full of wind and dust
They were full in the jungle, on the savage flaming hills
And also in the far-away salty deep ocean
-People with white funeral bands
Totally lost their golden dreams..
People with white funeral bands
Brought with them an exiled life
People with white funeral bands
Were in sadness for thousand years!..
8.
Thirty years
Floating life pushed them
Across the Pacific Ocean.
Victorious officials, on the superior seat, with a past of worshipping rigid dogma,
forced lost people in Labor camps
When these officials, who had no more power in their old ages, pretended to applaud
their decayed dogma for some illusive fame!
The group in power who passionately continues its glorious preys
Their mouths preaches Marx-Lenine communist doctrine
While their hands are taking European, American dollars
Hammocks and umbrellas
Good liquors,
Beautiful, young girls whose skins real white!
Their laughings resound all night..
They squeeze dry the innocent blood!
Day by day
Millions of miserable lives
Disease / Their skins are rotten!
Hunger and poverty! Crimes!
Homeless children wander on the street,
Not going to school!
They clean out left-over rice with flies on it!
They sleep under bridges
Family? Love?
Are only in their dreams!..
9.
Thirty years
Floating life pushed refugees
To the other seashores, to a small quarter, Bolsa
(In the richest, strongest country in the world
Which spends billions of dollars for military expenses all places and directions to
fulfill its super country dream to be the worldwide lord!)
There have still been many Vietnamese suffered lives
- A man with disease on the skin of his head
Day by day
Sits on the floow of a “Food to go” store
And mingles white rice with black soy sauce
“It is good to eat! As a monk! Having too much money is heavy. What’s for?”
On the other side of the street, in front of a variety merchandise store
A girl with a messy hair who sits with her feet, next to a heap of blanket and pillow
Laughs crazily, speaks to herself
“What? Vietnam? Are you Vietnamese? Go! Go away!
Go away! I do not talk to the Vietnamese!”...
Another woman passing her young, golden age in the spotlight
Whose hand pulls her bag of tore clothes
Her other hand holds some withered, black roses and invites passers-by to buy!
In the dim shadow
A young man lies down on the curve of the street
“I want to die! I’m guilty! I do not want to live anymore!..”
“Why do you want to die? What’s your guilt?”
“I’m guilty with the Vietnamese!.. I want to die!..”
In the middle of the night
An old woman seventy years of age, skinny as a dry wood stick
Drags four supermarket steel carts
Full of cardboards, cans, bottles
Where does she go tonight? Where does she sleep?!
In many mornings and afternoons
A middle age man shows his “homeless” sign at the corner, receiving 25 cents each time!
Several homeless young men, thin as a rake, green skin ..
Gather at a corner of the quarter, haggardly to find each “food to go” meal
So that they can go on each day and night …!...
Many people who have too much food and clothes, still ignore the suffering
of their countrymen
Some take advantage of “the suffering of their countrymen”, they cheat, buy and sell
These people crashed each other for their illusive fames!
Several teenagers who are not going to school anymore crazily dreams with
their guns of grass, heroin
Many of my young acquaintances do not know how to write the word “VIETNAM” !...
10.
Many years of wandering
New York , Chicago , San Francisco..
--Rich and beautiful cities of the country redundant of guns, ammunition,
airplanes, battleships and tons of atomic bomb--
I had seen a great deal of black, white Americans,in halft kilometer long line
Who stand under the night fog, in the cold wind, under the hot summer sun
Wait for charitable hands!..
And on the returning day in Bolsa, I saw my yellow skin fellowmen!..
I sat on my legs, on my buttock with these unfortunate people
To share whatever in my pocket, in my home ..
To contribute some of my energy, time which I have
For seeing some smiles on faces haunted by wretched lives!..
11.
April 30, 2005
I associated with hearts which still memorized the black April at three sites
In a school next to Brookhurt Street less than a hundred participants clapped
their hands to applaud the organizing group
In the Asian Garden Mall, more than a hundred people with their banners marched
and shouted “Down with Ho Chi Minh”
In the Vietnam War Soldier Monument hundreds of people solemnly processed the ceremony
In the atmosphere we heard the heroic marching hymn and song
Of so many Past Heroes who sacrified their lives for the right cause to protect their Homeland !..
I felt very optimistic
For a future! . .
12.
My legs were very tired/Mossy!
On the returning day
Some of my hair turned white
My skinny arms still wanted to hug the whole round of the Earth
I met YOU,
White dress Angel as “Sweet Hope”
Gave me a passionate love as in the student time when we strolled under a line of trees
with brightly red flowers
Gave me her round arms earnestly connecting mine for holding the Love of the Vietnamese..
13.
The Love of the Vietnamese!...
I and You, we have only small round arms!
After thirsty years of refuge
There had been, have been many large round arms
--Heroes who died on the way to reconquer our Homeland,
Such as Dead heroes Tran Van Ba, Hoang Co Minh, Le Quoc Quan--
--Valiant idealistic models who struggled for Democracy, Freedom,
Such as Nguyen Dan Quc, Ly Tong, Nguyen Chi Thien, Vo Dai Ton, Doan Viet Hoat,
Nguyen Vu Binh, Le Chi Quang, Pham Hong Son, Nguyen Khac Toan,
Nguyen Van Ly , Nguyen VanDai , Le Nguyen Sang , Le Thi Cong Nhan…
Were always courageous, unyielding before the brutal government!..
--Souls who conjoined the Love for Homeland and the Vietnamese,
Vietnam Human Right Network
Boatpeople SOS..
Singing groups as Hung Ca, Ve Nguon, Nguyet Anh & Viet Dzung
Voluntary groups helping boat people in Philippines, Trinh Hoi, Ky Duyen
--Charitable organizations and persons who love miserable people
Such as Friends of the Lepers in Vietnam
“Round Arms Helping Suffered People”
Ngoc Minh, My Huyen, Anh Dung, Thuy Trinh, Minh Phuong, Y Lan
Philip Huy, Huong Lan, Diem Lien, Orchid Lam Quynh, Da Nhat Yen, Trish Thuy Trang,
Little Quynh Nhu, Little Xuan Mai, Little Dan Vy, Little Bao Ngoc
and many other singers and musicians . . .
- Charitable Fund founded by Vu Thanh An
- Charitable group named Love Across the Ocean formed by Leyna Nguyen
- Charitable groups established by Phuong Dung, Ha Phuong, Phi Nhung,
Thai Nguyen and Bich Ngoc.
All of them have brightened the Love for the Vietnamese!..
- A youth organizations for Superiority, Charity, were full of young energy:
Association of Vietnamese Students in South California
Included many young men who like to throw oneself, who are self-believing, active,
Who were near by, attached with community sevices activities.
- And many more
Noble souls
Charitable hearts who secretly helped all over places.
THEY HAVE BRIGHTENED THE LOVE FOR THE VIETNAMESE!..
14.
The Sweet Hope!...
I still hope to find, expect
Wait, hope
More, much more
“THE LOVE FOR THE VIETNAMESE”
The Vietnamese traditional blood was run down in hundreds of strange harbors
Thirty years
Let us connect them! Let us connect them!
- We bring Love to solace bad situations
We bring Love to bury violence deeply
We bring Love to erase old hostilities
Happiness gets on the throne!..
15.
The Sweet Hope!
I heard the singing from the high SKY…
--the singing of miraculous GOD’S REASON,
the singing of JUSTICE FOR MEN,
In which humanity and good cause replace for brutality,
Love replace for rancour.
The Sacred singing which enters our life
Turns the Universe around,
Concentrates the NEW, SPIRITUAL, HUMANE LIGHT
Miraculous!..
The New,Holy, Distinct Light rises in the Easthern Sky
Clarity, Uprightness, Justice
Unite millions of the Vietnamese hearts,
Form Peaceful Life.
The New Light with HUMANITY, FILIAL PIETY, CLARITY,
INTELLIGENCE, VALIANCY
Brings good things for mankind,
Eternal Happiness!...
16.
The Sweet Hope!
Please connect round arms!
Round arms unite round arms
In foreign countries, Saigon, Hanoi, Hue..
We are from one Mother, AU CO,
With more than four thousand years of valiant history protesting foreign invasions
Let us connect each other..
- CONNECTING THE VIETNAMESE SENTIMENTAL ROUND ARMS!
Tomorrow ..
VIETNAM will be the Asian Dragon
With Love, Peace
For ever!..
HUYEN CHUONG QUY ( Ly Nguyen Thien Quy )
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