In Memory & Warrior's Homecoming

In Memory & Warrior's Homecoming

Cac em than men,
Ngay 11-11-1918 la ngay dinh chien ket thuc de nhat the chien (1914- 1918).  Phap goi la ngay Dinh Chien (armistice), Hoa Ky: Veteran Day.
Nhan dip soan  phong day ap giay va sach toi gap lai mot so bai tho cu khi toi chu truong to Bilingual Bulletin gan 30 nam truoc.  Doc ai thay co hai bai nay thich hop voi ngay 11-11 nen goi ban be va cac em doc cho vui.  
Van Su Lanh
Thay Lan
phamdinhlan (david)
TB: Cam on Pham Thi Phuong da goi thung hong gion qua buu dien.  

2 Tệp đính kèm

 

IN MEMORY

DAVID LAN PHAM, F.A.B.I.

I bow my head in memory

Of the proud soldiers,

The patriots

And those who were fallen.

*

How glorious and courageous

The soldiers were!

They died for their homeland

Without either statue or tombstone.

*

Listening to the call of their rivers and mountains,

Enthusiastically they started their departure,

Leaving their comfortable life behind,

Throwing away their golden age

To accept any hardship,

Imprisonment and banishment,

Dance in the smoke of cannons,

And make friends with thorny life.

*

They embellished their rivers and mountains

With their bones and blood

Without any regret

For they died for their country.’s survival.

*

They didn’t live for their own life

But for their posterity,

Their homeland’s peace and glory,

Their Vietnamese people,

Their happiness,

Their country’ s peace,

Justice for mankind,

The eternal truth,

The torch of conscience

Enlightening all the peoples in the world.

*

They were fallen with their smiles

In the abandoned graves,

In the virgin jungles and dark mountains,

Along certain paths of our country.

*

Their souls stay here,

In the wind and smoke of incense

In the musical sounds of requiem

And the farewell bell ring.

Adieu!  Dear patriots!

In memory of you all

Who were fallen

For the sake of our country’s glory.

   

THE WARRIOR’S HOMECOMING

DAVID LAN PHAM, F.A.B.I.

Peace re-established,

The warrior returns home.

He walks on the deserted path.

His body is partly mutilated.

*

The village bamboo hedge is burnt,

His home reduced into ash;

His friends separate from one another.

Everybody complains.

*

For the cause of his Fatherland,

He sacrificed blood and parts of his body,

Youth, hope,

And his first juvenile love.

*

Returning to his origin,

He deems peace is reigning,

Everybody is happy.

What a surprise!

Sobs, mournings,

Imprisonment, oppression

Are found everywhere

In his lovely Vietnam.

*

No more war!

But no real peace!

The war continues

Via delirious complaints.

*

Petrified, the warrior sits

By his mother’s grave,

Sobbing and holding his face in his hands.

His mother remains silent.

*

On the way home,

He deems he’ll take care of his mother,

Share joy and bitterness with her

In her twilight years.

*

What a sorrow!

His mother left the world

Without saying good- bye.

It’s no doubt she regretted

Not to see her dear son

The last day of her life.

*

From the bloody battlefields,

The warrior is still alive

Although some drops of his blood

Were deeply absorbed in the entrails of his  Fatherland.

*

In his quiet village

His mother passed away.

So did his fiancée,

Leaving an unfinished love symphony

And her last farewell words

Which are tragic and grievous.

*

How about his friends?

They’ve already gone

To a certain horizon

Without any promise of returning.

*

In a stupor the warrior

Meanders around the village temple,

And finds his lonesome rest

In the shade of the banian tree.

*

During his fatigue sleep,

Due to hunger and suffering,

He has a nightmare, seeing

Blood, fire and destruction.