Top 10 Best Poems by Author Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường

Is there an evening like those of the past?
You return on the scorching sand
The road long, lips parched
And you arrive gently like a rain shower

Is there an evening like yesterday?
The heart brimming with affection
Carrying the whole spring, you arrive
Fragrant like a flower

Is there an evening when one forsakes merriment?
And offers me a fiery kiss
Pain begins from there
Sweet like fresh grapes

Is there an evening when dreams surround
Half-curved eyelashes resentful
You untangle late sorrows on the pillow
Tangled like a bundle of green silk

Is there an evening that seems endless?
The moonlight shines perpetually
You pledge devotion
To me for a lifetime

Is there an evening like today?
Your room filled with darkness
You silent like a shadow
Flowers withered alone, unknown to you.

This poem has been adapted into a song by musician Phú Quang.

Gathering branches of white jasmine,
Offering you a hand of joy,
Flowers' hues akin to sunlight's blaze,
Evenings suddenly tinged with violet's coy.

Gazing at flowers, wistful, you spoke,
Just begun, yet it's been a day.

Fields we sow, yearning for rain's grace,
Fields we reap, longing for sun's embrace,
Tending to love's verdant expanse,
You count each bright moonbeam's trace,
Tenderly speaking to the moon's face,
Just begun, yet it's been a month's pace.

Spring ascends hills with fragrant grass,
Summer skies behold clouds' misty mass,
Purple clouds over bridges, purple hills afar,
Winter far, days of white rain amass,
Gazing at the sky, you muse,
Just begun, yet it's been a year's dues.

A day will come, silver locks in array,
Yet your heart's fire will never sway,
Time, how foolishly it goes astray,
Just begun, yet it's a lifetime's play.

Be it years, be it months, oh beloved,
My heart beats for a single lifetime's thread,
Yet within beats eternal,
In every drop of vibrant red.

1.
Often in sorrow I find myself lost,
Longing to sit beneath trees of old,
Do you send messages with the falling leaves,
Which memory gently stirs my shoulder's cold?

Whose figure, like mine, crosses the field,
Autumn gathers me up in the breeze's fold,
Like that sparrow, returning home,
Gathering dry golden strands it beholds.

2.
Often in sorrow I find myself lost,
Desiring a circle where I may rest,
Where many a grass blade may rise,
Ugly trees, what pain do they confess,
I bend over, under my own shadow.

No laughter reaches my ear's rest,
Why should I sit alone, so oppressed,
Biting fingernails, each frail memory,
Like that cricket, endless leaves it digest.

This poem has been set to music by composer Phú Quang into the song 'Sorrow'.

There's a boat in the white mist,
Drifting like a bird in flight,
With you, the boat's white-robed oar,
Fluttering as if in hide and seek's delight.

There's a sunburst shining bright,
Fluttering like a heart's wild beat,
You row towards the eastern light,
Dabbing a bit of sun's glow on your cheeks,
Sun's dust dances on your feet's rise,
Imprinting floral traces on waves' eyes.

I've always heard from the depths,
A faint hue of dew,
A love song awakening a crimson hue.

Since when did the universe begin,
Yet the sun each day remains young,
Yet I, millennia upon millennia,
By this river stand singing,
As the sun ascends.

Forever wandering in boundless realms,
The moon a mirror,
Solely reflecting the earth,
Earth drifts like a strawberry leaf,
Sun sometimes swells with breath,
Lost in longing for celestial spheres.

Planets ponder then find it strange,
Drifting yet still together they range,
You and I, yes, it's strange,
Drifting until tomorrow comes.

And the leaf you held that day,
Has been carried away to the distant sky's play,
So this evening, as the wind whispers by,
I hasten to greet the falling autumn sigh.

Sometimes I visit the old garden,
Asking the passerby if she returns?
The grass replies: - She revisits once in a while,
Igniting incense smoke, then flying away.

I anxiously ask the ancient tree:
- Does the old path still gleam with fading sun?
The sun replies: - She recalls the old autumn,
Still gazing towards the sky, awaiting the gentle breeze.

Once crossing the river, I ask the wind:
That months and years flow like water under the bridge,
The wind whispers: - She awaits an old friend,
Though time flows, where does it return?

Many days I yearn for her passionately,
Burning brightly like a flame in my heart,
A wandering life bids farewell once,
To let go. To wander in search.

Many nights I return to meet myself,
- Who are you? You are the firefly by life's edge,
Oh firefly, every night you flicker,
Remembering someone. And forever ceaselessly.

Strange! Why does my heart yearn so,
For the figure standing amidst the cornflowers,
A smile fluttering with the color of attire,
Leaving me only with memories of pink.

In a fleeting moment, life rushes by,
Immersed in the memories of blossoms,
A smile fluttering from past springs,

Leaving in me a faint hue.

Years pass with the flowing stream,
Cornflowers fall in gentle clusters,
Far gone is the youth's silhouette,
The river still flows long amidst green smoke.

Living in the countryside, do you know?
I often seek out the cornflower fields,
Asking if the trees remember that old person,
Standing, singing of spring, by the riverbank.

This poem has been set to music by the author's wife, poet Lâm Thị Mỹ Dạ, into a song of the same name.

My home lies on Dam Tien Street,
Beneath the flowing water, a bridge is fleet,
A scent of grass in deep night's keep,
A flower species nurtures sorrow, year on year.

I return to sleep under the moon's light,
You from eternity's perch gaze at my sight,
Love distant, distant throughout life's flight,
Fair maiden's locks tangle upon my hand's right.

I still have candles dwindling thin,
Flowing like tears since life did begin,
I ask of you a bit of true heart within,
To pin upon a petal, love's poignant spin.

Evenings at Ben Ngự draped in rain,
As if someone hazily calls my name,
I rush to open the door for your claim,
Only the wind's whispers in the hallway frame.

My home rests on Dam Tien's lane,
Beneath flowing water, above a bridge's domain,
Sorrow trees, sorrow's pain,
Sympathetic, blooms adorn their refrain.

Hue 1989

A dreamlike hue in the spring evening sun,
The sun sets softly, veiling mountains and hills.

Autumn departs, yet the swallows' calls persist,
While on the rocky ledge, footprints fade away.

You returned from the shores of youth,
Our souls shared a part of each other.

You've been away to a distant land,
The moon's former haunt now desolate.

Who came to deliver a message of roses?
Outside, the rice fields have tasted the essence of youth.

I ask you to don a four-fold dress,
To lengthen the song, to grace the cloud-like hair.

The spring evening, both awake and in a daze,
I remember you, even as I drink the shadow of cornflowers.

Source: People's Newspaper, Lunar New Year 2010