The Drums of Mê Linh Village
(Vietnamese poet speaks)
Swords gleam in starlight
night after night--
the Trung sisters
practicing fighting.
At their call for warriors
thousands respond.
The earth shakes
with attack after sudden attack
sweeping away
the Chinese invaders!
Deep in our hearts
the sounds that have inspired
the Vietnamese love of country
for hundreds of centuries:
the battle drums
of Mê Linh Village--
--traditional poem translated by Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Journey's End
(Vietnamese refugee speaks)
At the end of the tunnel
of our lost years
we arrive in America
with our young son,
in old clothes bought
on a loan from a friend.
At journey’s end
we begin again,
the Golden Gate aglow
above the ocean,
summer grasses on the hills
golden, flowing--
(adapted from “Resettlement,” published in From Where the Wind Blows by Le Pham Le,
translated by Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot)
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2003
VWP 2023 First published in From Where the Wind Blows 2003
Lost Land
(Vietnamese refugee husband/father speaks)
Life’s so different
in this strange culture
parenting tough,
children showing little
deference to elders!
Our best is not enough.
In this land of the free
America, America,
why strip my pride
from me?
Without my country,
no place to call home,
I feel so empty, so all alone!
My thoughts churn and turn
to some future day,
my land, Viet Nam, so far away…
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Don't Worry
(Vietnamese refugee wife speaks)
Don’t worry, anh,
leave that to me--
Life’s been a flurry
of love, war and change.
I know how to keep strong,
how to keep on,
how to exchange
worry for gain.
Anh, dear, leave the worry
to me!
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
The Well
(Vietnamese poet speaks)
Do you hear the rhythm of my poems
through my singing,
the centuries of emotions in my words?
Do you feel the beauty of the language
I’ve loved since I lay in my crib,
an infant knowing nothing of life?
Do you hear, in the well’s depths,
rising up the cylinder of soil,
these drops of sorrow echoing?
--From “Rừng Thơ” by Pham Le, translated by Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot
(adapted from longer version published in Waves Beyond Waves by Le Pham Le)
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2010
VWP 2023 First published in Waves Beyond Waves 2010
~
Duty
(USN corpsman speaks)
I ran to my buddy,
my friend, a GI.
Gone. Wounded beside
him, a boy, VC,
twelve or fourteen,
UVA T-shirt,
shivering, bleeding.
I lifted his head up,
offered water.
He glared, twisted away,
faded. . .
by Contributing Poet Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Lost in the Jungle
(Vietnam Veteran’s wife speaks)
Where are you, my darling,
can’t you hear me calling?
Are you lost in the jungle again?
Fling aside its allure,
Hold me tight, dear,
stroke my face through the night, dear,
Stay with me here!
by Contributing Poet Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Welcome Home
(Vietnam Veterans speak)
Reading poetry on Veterans Day,
we see descending along the Wall
an immigrant family
and an American, sobbing,
arms around each other,
hands stretching to a name
etched into the polished granite.
We move toward them,
touch their shoulders.
Were you there?
we almost whisper.
You’re not alone.
Brothers, sisters,
welcome home!
by Contributing Poet Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
(Vietnamese poet speaks)
Swords gleam in starlight
night after night--
the Trung sisters
practicing fighting.
At their call for warriors
thousands respond.
The earth shakes
with attack after sudden attack
sweeping away
the Chinese invaders!
Deep in our hearts
the sounds that have inspired
the Vietnamese love of country
for hundreds of centuries:
the battle drums
of Mê Linh Village--
--traditional poem translated by Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Journey's End
(Vietnamese refugee speaks)
At the end of the tunnel
of our lost years
we arrive in America
with our young son,
in old clothes bought
on a loan from a friend.
At journey’s end
we begin again,
the Golden Gate aglow
above the ocean,
summer grasses on the hills
golden, flowing--
(adapted from “Resettlement,” published in From Where the Wind Blows by Le Pham Le,
translated by Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot)
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2003
VWP 2023 First published in From Where the Wind Blows 2003
Lost Land
(Vietnamese refugee husband/father speaks)
Life’s so different
in this strange culture
parenting tough,
children showing little
deference to elders!
Our best is not enough.
In this land of the free
America, America,
why strip my pride
from me?
Without my country,
no place to call home,
I feel so empty, so all alone!
My thoughts churn and turn
to some future day,
my land, Viet Nam, so far away…
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Don't Worry
(Vietnamese refugee wife speaks)
Don’t worry, anh,
leave that to me--
Life’s been a flurry
of love, war and change.
I know how to keep strong,
how to keep on,
how to exchange
worry for gain.
Anh, dear, leave the worry
to me!
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
The Well
(Vietnamese poet speaks)
Do you hear the rhythm of my poems
through my singing,
the centuries of emotions in my words?
Do you feel the beauty of the language
I’ve loved since I lay in my crib,
an infant knowing nothing of life?
Do you hear, in the well’s depths,
rising up the cylinder of soil,
these drops of sorrow echoing?
--From “Rừng Thơ” by Pham Le, translated by Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot
(adapted from longer version published in Waves Beyond Waves by Le Pham Le)
by Contributing Poets Le Pham Le and Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2010
VWP 2023 First published in Waves Beyond Waves 2010
~
Duty
(USN corpsman speaks)
I ran to my buddy,
my friend, a GI.
Gone. Wounded beside
him, a boy, VC,
twelve or fourteen,
UVA T-shirt,
shivering, bleeding.
I lifted his head up,
offered water.
He glared, twisted away,
faded. . .
by Contributing Poet Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Lost in the Jungle
(Vietnam Veteran’s wife speaks)
Where are you, my darling,
can’t you hear me calling?
Are you lost in the jungle again?
Fling aside its allure,
Hold me tight, dear,
stroke my face through the night, dear,
Stay with me here!
by Contributing Poet Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Welcome Home
(Vietnam Veterans speak)
Reading poetry on Veterans Day,
we see descending along the Wall
an immigrant family
and an American, sobbing,
arms around each other,
hands stretching to a name
etched into the polished granite.
We move toward them,
touch their shoulders.
Were you there?
we almost whisper.
You’re not alone.
Brothers, sisters,
welcome home!
by Contributing Poet Nancy Arbuthnot Copyright © 2023
VWP 2023 First published in VietnamWarPoetry.com
Bio: Le Pham Le spent her early years in Da Lat in the central highlands of Vietnam. She earned a B.A. in Vietnamese Language and Literature at the University of Pedagogy in Saigon, then taught Literature and Language in high school. She left Vietnam in 1978 with her husband and young son, eventually resettling in California where two daughters were born and all three children were raised. She served for many years as the lab coordinator for the English Departments at Contra Costa and Los Medanos Colleges in the East Bay. In addition to poems in literary journals, Le has published two collections, From Where the Wind Blows (The Vietnamese International Poetry Society, 2003, with English co-translations by Nancy Arbuthnot) and Waves Beyond Waves (Chikurinkan, 2013, with English co-translations by Nancy Arbuthnot and Japanese translations by Noriko Mizusaki). She has received awards from Vietbao Online Magazine and The United Poets Laureate International Society.
Bio: Nancy Arbuthnot is a poet, artist, translator and professor emerita of English at the United States Naval Academy. Her publications include Blue Rhapsodies: Poems of a Navy Life (Xlibris, 2020); Spirit Hovering: Poems (Tate, 2016); Guiding Lights: United States Naval Academy Monuments and Memorials (Naval Institute Press, 2009); two books of watercolors and poetry; and two volumes of Vietnamese poems by Le Pham Le, co-translated into English with the author. She is currently at work on The House on Dahlia Street, a memoir of raising children in Washington, DC in the 1990s and early 2000s, and a play with Le Pham Le about the Vietnamese War and the experiences of a Vietnamese refugee family in the U.S. An active member of the Military Writers Society of America, Arbuthnot especially enjoys leading art and poetry programs with military veterans and their families.
Bio: Nancy Arbuthnot is a poet, artist, translator and professor emerita of English at the United States Naval Academy. Her publications include Blue Rhapsodies: Poems of a Navy Life (Xlibris, 2020); Spirit Hovering: Poems (Tate, 2016); Guiding Lights: United States Naval Academy Monuments and Memorials (Naval Institute Press, 2009); two books of watercolors and poetry; and two volumes of Vietnamese poems by Le Pham Le, co-translated into English with the author. She is currently at work on The House on Dahlia Street, a memoir of raising children in Washington, DC in the 1990s and early 2000s, and a play with Le Pham Le about the Vietnamese War and the experiences of a Vietnamese refugee family in the U.S. An active member of the Military Writers Society of America, Arbuthnot especially enjoys leading art and poetry programs with military veterans and their families.
Except where otherwise attributed, all pages & content herein
Copyright © 2014 - 2024 Paul Hellweg VietnamWarPoetry.com All rights reserved
Westerly, Rhode Island, USA