Top 12 Finest Poems by Author Trần Việt Anh

Perhaps you've forgotten,

The city corner at 5 o'clock,

Where the sunlight falls on the old town cafe,

Watching the bustling crowd,

Feeling truly fortunate.

At least in a city of 8 million,

There are many quaint corners

To make us feel alive.

Maybe you haven't realized yet,

The wandering memories,

Like the stray cat on rooftops.

One evening at Tạ Hiện with beer,

Under the electric lights,

The fish vendors persistently invite,

When you speak, when you laugh,

Your glance is carefree and strange...

The city is too melancholic,

One rainy afternoon, you messaged me.

The sadness envelops,

Like an ant wanting to crawl towards the rain, then suddenly turning back,

You said you're sad because the reckless youth is gone,

Thinking is not the same as when we were mature.

If only you could maintain your radiant smile...

Turns out, we're just a bunch of withered souls,

Gradually losing faith,

Compromising with silence,

Too lazy to seek medical help,

Seeing life in a monochrome,

And doubting each other's kindness.

Perhaps that's the source of pain,

When one day you look at me with different eyes?

Our city is sorrowful,

And many souls are lost,

You sometimes understand this more clearly than I do.

But one cannot burden the mind further,

Nor easily forget the unforgettable,

If a reason has been found,

Then what need is there for clinging hands?

And if you truly wish to leave this place,

Then go wherever you desire...

This city of mine,

Has seen countless missed appointments,

And many silently forget each other?

(I thought it was simple, but I don't know...)

What to do to feel serene?
Or sit together at the windy day's end
You sketch bunnies while I draw suns
Walking side by side in life
Guiding each other with every ray of sunlight...

What to do to avoid the emptiness around?
Play old rock records?
The long-haired artist's hands died young
Filled with the screams of torn sounds
Into the guitar strings
I startle as time falls silent.

How many beloved things have slipped away?

What to do to make distant hearts beat as one?
The last bus leaves the city
Your shadow's there but not mine
Hanoi, one night
Drifting with memories
You carry a tiny sorrow
Heading towards a dawn's silhouette.

What to do to keep love alive?
Keep you by my side as obedient as a child
Outside, only rain and wind
Is anywhere as peaceful as my heart?
Don't go far, my dear
Let's accept fate's decree
Binding ourselves in destiny's thread
Binding my heart to the blue sky.

What to do to end these entanglements?
What to do to make you happy and us blissful?
What to do to make these eyes meet and know this love is real?
What to do to spend nights not feeling alone
For in this place, I have you...

Perhaps, just love a little more...

You return silently to the night's embrace
Shedding the cloak of mist, longing to be ordinary
Life spins aimlessly
Gathering fragments of loneliness.

Could it be that you shouldn't think too much, my love?
Just stay together until we can
Love so intoxicating
That it's bound to last?

People stay together
When love is deep enough

Perhaps you arrived too late
When her heart skipped a beat.

What should you do? Call her back?
Or silently watch the distant echoes...

Love lingers on the lips
Like a distant breath
Yearning seems groundless
Years slip away.

One day I found myself in a drunken haze
Blaming myself for days of separation
Where did I go wrong?
Seeking myself amidst the human suffering.

It seems I smiled
It seems I accepted the bitterness
I wandered for months and days
Unable to bear the suffering together.

Up the high mountains, down to the deep sea
Falling asleep on ships sailing far
One day I return home
What love will be mine alone?

The familiar streets, the faces
No one beside me to heave a sigh
Realizing I am also lost
Like a kite drifting aimlessly in the sky.

I fear living half-heartedly
Knowing everyone has only one life

What more do you need from me?
When you've decided to leave with a word.

The coldness of two words of parting
Oh, you don't need anything from me
Tonight my body feels desolate
In dreams, I've spent a lifetime searching for you.

I search for you amidst the night
Then seek in the threshold of the garden of love
I search for you amidst frivolity
Searching in breaths like doses of anesthesia.

I search for you amidst confusion
Looking for someone who won't return

Who will soothe the pain?
Easing the chill of winter, lessening the burden of sorrow.

Who will bring warm breeze into the heart
So the gentle heart sleeps within the gentle heart

I've traveled across the world
Exploring even into distant paradises.

One day I found a smile
Whence amidst a melancholy life...

In the place where we once met,
The old café has changed, painting over memories,
A kiss dropped, chilling my chest,
The strange years wait for no one.

Do you bear the weight of silence, hearing the fading?
The city in winter, what chilling winds,
Numbness sets in as hands slip,
Love fragile, threads entangled...

I miss you, even those winter afternoons,
When a message at day's end warms the heart,
How I wish time would slow,
To prolong our moments together.

Dreams of deep affection,
Fleeting past like hurried rain,
Love, fraught with confusion,
Many green hills, and moments of anger.

One day you left, taking all sorrow,
I stood watching in an enchanted realm...

The mossy brick wall,
Time embroiders shades of blue on ancient bricks,
A red-beaked bird,
This winter, it doesn't fly south...

The tune barely remembered,
Lost melody on chilly piano keys,
Eyes wide,
The artist stops playing.

Kids below the yard, chasing with laughter,
Bustling through the early December afternoon,
From someone's balcony,
The old radio hums.

Over there, a female singer,
Soprano voice resonates,
Practicing at seven,
In both sweltering heat and chilling cold...

Sometimes,
I find myself strange,
All melancholy,
For those who sing love songs...

You know, don't wait for me anymore
The platform dimly lit by sparse lights
I can't, a thousand times I can't
Come back carrying that familiar warmth.

The long streets I can't even remember the names of
The stray threads of fragrance following the wind to the window
All the birds choosing their nests on rooftops
Will eventually fly south.

I know too, I'm just the wind
Leaning on life, touching wandering shores
I know a couple of times you've been perplexed
Know that your eyes still quietly look at me.

Although you yearn so
I still want to leave
Don't hold me back in the fear of parting
If possible, just follow me forever.

Through childhood realms
Through foolish life stages
Through times of hesitancy
We couldn't give each other trust.

If we keep drowning in habits
How can we escape life's silent pond?
And if one day we cease to hope
I don't know what our lives will become.

Like a kite severed from its string, swaying in the sky
Or like a river unable to return to the sea.
Don't let sadness haunt us too much
When tonight I can't return.

The autumn wind still evokes passion
The restless heart still needs some sleep
And most importantly, stop being disheartened
Don't get lost in vastness.

Do you know?
All the paths you choose
Roads lead to dawn...

It's a day when we reminisce about time
Remembering the days of green hair, remembering the fiery summer

Remembering a figure no longer by our side

Recalling distant memories.

It's a day when we feel bitter on our lips

The kiss from yesterday tastes bitter

Your tears fell on a day when the grass sings

What sadness lingers in our hearts.

It's a day when the road is not lined with flowers

Because the road ahead seems too far to tread?

Or because we regret the beautiful days

There are a few things we must say again…

It's a day in June without rain falling

A day when smiles fade away with joy

You said: love with you is all about honesty

Is it true? I am compelled to believe…

It's a precious period of silent tranquility

Seeking peace for a tired heart

Well, let's sleep away the hurried days

For the journey back to serenity…

It's the days that will eventually fade away…

Time keeps flowing
Where I reside
Still the laughter of children on the street
And the new stove sizzles
for the night's pho vendor
With its rich broth.

Hanoi suddenly feels melancholic
Sparsely scattered late-season flowers
Leaves rustling as they fall
No playful dalliance
The girl next door
No longer practices piano in the evening.

Then a few days later
The old security guard no longer goes to the beer joint
Laughter missing like in the old Soviet Union
Sad street, anticipating,

This mood is unsettling.

The poet has stopped writing
The pretty girl he fancied
Just got engaged yesterday...

Time keeps flowing
Human fate neither as fragile as lime
Nor as steadfast as leaves.

The old folks
Used to tell tales of yore
Now they're ancient beings.

The youngsters have grown up
And left the street behind.

November seems reserved for farewells?
Yet the sky this morning looks like it wants to weep.

Do you know there's a strange wind season?

Wandering through the path of love

Dazed and melancholic when I hear you ask

How much do I miss you?

Do you know there are some very odd days?

I miss you, and I don't know what to do

The text message drafted, yet hesitating endlessly

Not knowing when I'll dare to send it.

You know, life is so strange

Always obsessively searching everywhere

Happiness is clear and real

Yet we're busy chasing dreams.

I don't know how to make you understand

Or what to do to make you believe

All I know is one thing earnestly

Those who know love will eventually learn to forget.

The season returns on the soft grassy verge

Comforting you gently, listening to you...

Another day, rain falls again

Yet, you shed no tears.

Last night, loneliness knocked on the door

Asking if you're sad

It's been so long, the winters

You've always left the door open

What are you waiting for, you don't even know anymore...

You, today, are different from the past

You've weathered storms and stopped crying

Youth silently

No longer sighs with exhaustion

You return to nurture your green hair.

A poem you once wrote for me

Now becomes a poem for countless other girls

Everyone has loved, regardless of mistakes

Once foolishly housed someone in their heart

Even though the boy is like a bird

Nowhere is a resting place.

A pot of yellow daisies

This evening, scattering golden pollen

Let it be, don't blame time

The past is past, let it not be stirred up again

Dawn knocks on the door again

Opening up myriad days.

You're still you quietly here

It's been so long since you stopped crying

Though sometimes life is all weary

The entanglements, fears, and ordinariness

You silently gaze at the reflection in the mirror

You're fragile, yet you no longer cry...

Someone is repairing

The wounds of love

You've grown accustomed to solitude

And you're content, strange

Don't hope too much

For what's fragile

You still have love

Why cry for him...

Sit with me at day's end

When faces have worn weary

Just sit beside me, don't ever ask

Why?

For the days of low lands and high skies?

For the grand dreams

Yet the reality clings close to the earth

For putting all in for an honest gamble

The coldness of defeat

For the eyes of the girl now a stranger?

Indifference feels scary

For youth passing by

Racking up countless debts...

And also for fear

A day fading into the vast unknown.

Come closer to me a bit more, won't you?

Tell me about the days you and I once lived?

What color was the sky?

What color were the clouds?

All the faces we've encountered

Everyone remembers, forgets.

Appointments like habits

Cold handshakes

The person in the mirror smiles so sickly

What do you want to do? Be a hero like Thach Sanh?

A type of hero, blood for the sake of the innocent?

To plunge the entire populace into misery.

Later, will anyone love, remember?

Is there a story for the deity to reveal?

Bestow a miracle as a gift?

That's impossible

Just as justice is

It doesn't belong to this life...

Stay with me at day's end

As the last light of day fades

We just listen quietly and close our eyes

See what the wind whispers

It might be murmurs

It might be laughter mocking those of high talent but low character

It might be the breath of Mother Earth

How much life emerges every day.

Like darkness, like light

Like love, like farewell

Like nurturing only to crush

Like death and also like life

Like peace and also like uncertainty...

Each day like a step

Bringing us closer to a place unknown

Dark abyss or nirvana

Bliss or agony?

Does it matter?

Just stay with me, don't rush away

For we both understand what matters most

Forget both sorrow and joy, even the lost

Forget all the faces, all the handshakes.

Only the single joy at day's end

Knowing we're not alone.

If weary, please halt your steps

Sit with me a bit at day's end.