Top 10 Exceptional Poems by Poet Nguyen Si Dai

Green Leaves

People mend the sky, filling the sea, Some build dykes, erecting cities, I am merely a leaf, My task is simply to be green. 1997 Source: The Soldier's Heart (poetry), Nguyen Si Dai, Thanh Nien Publishing House, 1998

Loving Each Other Feels Like This

With you, I became accustomed
Now, in emptiness, the home feels meaningless
Not knowing why the fire dims
Alone, even sleep feels lonely

Tonight, the moon rises again
The streets flow like a river
I don't know which path to take
So, I'll just go back...
The book pages seem sadder.

Flipping through a picture, I meet those dark velvet eyes
The white shoulders still seem to pulse with breath
If you knew the longing in my heart
Could you become Cinderella to be by my side?

Your name, mentioned fleetingly by a friend
I chase after it like a wild goose
Seeing us drift apart, days turning into months
How can you endure this separation?

Your hand, I cannot hold
So the melody echoes with a sigh
The clouds drag the horizon restlessly
Loving each other feels like this, doesn't it?

If You Knew How I Miss You

If you knew how I miss you
Letters wouldn't arrive late by chance
If you knew how I can't sleep
Would the blanket feel lighter upon my chest?

1990

Source: Soldier's Heart (poetry), Nguyễn Sĩ Đại, Youth Publishing House, 1998

Where You Return

Where you return, there's a swaying swing
Falling silently into the dewy garden
My childhood, once caught the soaring sound
Of rustling leaves against the azure sky.

Where you return, spring tinges the lemon orchard
Purple azaleas, green lilies also tinted
Little bamboo branches once welcomed passing birds
Still waiting till now, trembling...

Where a day once caught a golden mantis
I plucked its wings to feed the ant colony
Where unaware of the future's size
I became a thin-winged mantis in life

Where you return, my mother's lullaby oh dear
I hear it through another baby's lullaby
Over time, the lullaby turned into tears
Tears of deep compassion within me.

Where you return, a small stream, the grass still green
The purple ink flow has drifted to the past
The sunset glow still shines brightly
On the grass where eyes sip distant stars.

Where you return, the persimmon still as before
Each loves the other, the persimmon and the viewer blissful
Sweet persimmons in sour soup my mother cooked
Golden bag filled, always full to the brim.

Where you return, summer remains naive
Cicadas sing softly under the canopy of ancient trees
Cicadas, oh cicadas, your eyes so pure
What can you see in the eyes of a cicada?

Golden autumn afternoon, pumpkin blossoms, bees flying
The sound of the rooster crowing midday, nestling the nest...
The house deserted, curtains left ajar
Many colors, clear and distant, forever flooding...

Where now leaves cover a thousand clouds
Green shadow of sunlight, father's hair evening silver
Fistful of homeland soil reflects the water's depth
I march along the plowed field.

Where you return, gusty winds of changing seasons
Rain on the fields, bowed faces of people
Thunder in March, the rice shoots in puberty
Your friend's eyes, when did they narrow like a bird's leg?

Where huddled around the kitchen fire in winter
You may stroke your hand to the warmth
You may become a memory
In the many fondnesses of my homeland.

Source: Soldier's Heart (poetry), Nguyễn Sĩ Đại, Youth Publishing House, 1998

Returning Sixteen to You

We return sixteen to you Where clouds are like blank pages of students The blue ink flows in distant colors Every sky blossoms with thousands of flowers We return sixteen to you Lips reminisce when remembering someone Sweet spring, sweet winter too When alone, call out to the absent gaze!

We return sixteen to you Loose hair hints at a distant sail Thinking of you, feeling guilty Petals fall gently in front of the house...

We return sixteen to you What's past is already tightly lost We return sixteen to you Feet step into the vast horizon!

We return sixteen to you Packed luggage filled with memories Village and city, old friends, old school Childhood warmth clings to an embrace!

Who knows after twenty years old Stepping into life, everywhere facing adversity Hoping for death as redemption The sky of crystal shatters under our feet

Here, we return the green canopy Preserved after many storms Return to you the paths of red twilight Falling like rain on a student's white shirt

We return to you the age of autumn New rice fragrance, the first lotus leaves Returning ten fingers to comb through your hair Gazing eyes, sparkling night stars

We return to you the tender green leaves Lips tremble with the unspoken We return to you all the trivial things Embracing time while holding a full moon chest

We return to you the sultry summer Riverbanks fragrant, Trương Chi evening singing Thousands of stars burn, how can we endure Dreams must cry in apology to the dewy rain!

We return to you the silver hair on your head Waiting forever, so many tears shed Everything remains when you just arrive All dissolves into sixteen, the moon...

Source: Soldier's Heart (poetry), Nguyễn Sĩ Đại, Thanh Niên Publisher, 1998

The Rice Plant

The slender rice plant of my homeland A thousand years of storms and floods have swept over this land Parents lean over the plowed furrows Turning both sides of the earth to cultivate the seasons Standing tall against time's passage Through a hundred erosions and thousands of bombs falling Green leaves shoot straight up to the sky Golden grains spill down for the hands to hold Strong roots cling firmly to the soil Becoming old trees with life, oh rice plant Debts paid with tears, sweat Loyally spreading warmth on the shoulders of those who toil Tearful, the rice plants of my homeland I grew up from the shade of rice to face life Phú Lộc, February 1983 Source: Soldier's Heart (poetry), Nguyễn Sĩ Đại, Thanh Niên Publisher, 1998

You're a Pool of Clarity at the Bottom of the Starry Sky
You're a pool of clarity under the starry sky's light
I'm the thirsty deer of the night
Quenching my thirst, mesmerized by the beautiful moon
Standing for a lifetime, drinking up an emptiness
1986
Source: Soldier's Heart (poetry), Nguyễn Sĩ Đại, Thanh Niên Publisher, 1998

Outskirts - I Shall Not Return to Visit

Outskirts - I shall not return to visitClaiming to be busy, that's just how it isClaiming distance, far and wideHere and there, mountains and hills tinted orange!Outskirts - I shall not return to visitThe village lane, a pair of daisy stools, deeply missedGolden thread from days gone byMoonlight cuddled, dreams already lingeringThe field cries out, rice flags flutterSeven red rice grains through green rice seasonThe pink na tree whispers branchesA bunch of goodies, Mom selects, sets aside for meOutskirts, I shall not return to visitAn acquaintance suddenly asks, quietly curiousThe verses I sing with my heartIn the evening, a star drop, the Last evening in the skyKnowing there, is there happinessKnowing there, is there someone, with me?Here, still the vast blue skyThe village eyes still hold neighborhood affectionKindling morning fires, lamps at nightOutside, someone's footsteps, mistaking for me...Thanh Tri 12-1983

This Autumn, Hanoi...

Like a poem from ancient timesI embrace the autumn of HanoiThirty-six streets, that yearRed hues dancing in mother's eyesI grow up by the green banks of the Hoan Kiem LakeAutumn sky spreading over a white canvasFive-panel folding doors proudly display blossomsTender grass sings along the Red RiverMy heart, like a flag, without a wrinkleSeventeen years old, first kiss forever disguisedBooks cast aside before the flamboyant seasonTruong Son Trail, Pen Tower erected in my soulI return along thirty-six fragrant streetsAutumn clouds whiten a halo over mother's hairYou emerge in the eyes of a thousand maidensCo Ngư Street, half the sky painted purpleIncense rises over the rooftops of bombed streetsOld autumn rises, new scaffolding risesI still know there's a love waitingThirty years in the dusty streets...Autumn's words sing to me againLittle doors, freshly bloomed daisiesThis autumn, I am so fulfilledHanoi, oh Hanoi in my hands...1980Source: Soldier's Heart (poetry) by Nguyen Si Dai, Youth Publishing House, 1998

Farewell

Let's bid farewell, a crimson sail
A river of indigo flows beside the sky
The flowers of that year, holding white blooms
One day, white flowers turn into drifting clouds!

Goodbye, my love, farewell to my heart
Fondness sent back to the days of red phoenix
No one remains there, sadness on tiny stones
Leaves carry souls, falling down then rising up!

Even if I have no heart
After crumbling, a resurrection will stir again
Then you'll be in the eyes of indifferent evenings
And I, the wind, won't choke a horizon.

Goodbye, my love, there are countless others there
And also a spring awaiting
I return to that white flowered soul
To the indigo river dried up in life!

27-11-03