Top 20 Exquisite Poems by Poet Dương Khắc Giao

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Night sketches Hue's charm
Scripting verses at Trang Tien
Knowing when drifting to the dock
Whose hat adorns the gentle hair

Which crescent moon gracefully curves
For the Perfume River to sip waves
Whose sail in the strong wind
Carries your image into the heart

Lost at the end of the bustling market
Autumn is about to wane
Which gaze is she selling
The tree planted in my heart

I am all purple inside
A color you charmingly wear
A voice filtered just right
A block of pure affection

Oh, do you know
The stream of sun changes to rain
Ao Dai spans morning and noon
For Binh Mountain to sculpt....

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Unveil the curtain
Night escapes the swarm of love
Innocent
A piece of moon hangs the frame

Buttons hold the whole virginity
Avoiding the pandemic storm of love on Valentine's Day
Roof covering layers of green grass
Who breaks open
To welcome the blooming flower season

The moon just slightly reveals itself
A year accumulates all jade into spring
The mortar and pestle made of bamboo
Move the feet
Tonight, the moon is white, a myriad times brighter than the stars

Rendezvous
Seven periods, five days
Twelve complete, the sky high, the land thick
The shimmering moon cracks the boat
Merging into the very moon of the Lantern Festival night

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Post full moon
Losing the moonlit region
Midnight filled with the sound of spreading rain, decorating the season
The verse fades, no trace of the spell
Did she release it to the monk in the pagoda?

Post full moon
Must spread affection
Enchanted by the silk-like apricot dress
The mortar and pestle know where to send
The wooden pestle to the eye, the knife secretly glances

Apple offering to the temple too mature, too deep
Bitter sweetness wraps the meal, intertwined with karma
Salty vegetarianism stretches on both sides
How to bear the meditation block on the shoulders?

Full moon passed, New Year is approaching..

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Let's wrap the leaves, my love
The dong leaves are still lush with the color of our homeland

Fragrant aroma of pure white rice grains
Wrapped in golden mung beans for a blossoming love

Let's bind love with affection
Rich and salty, still familiar to the depths of our souls
Square, round, until silver hair

Soft and flexible, tied tightly for a lifetime
Let's ignite the fire
Conversations under the full pot

With makeshift legs, the fire burns, simmering the cooking water
Heavenly aroma, earthly taste, boiling together, village spirits

Delicate fragrance from the Liêu Lang session
Extending the beautiful fate of the bride and groom into spring

28th day of the Lunar New Year

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

I return

Picking up words

Falling myself

Collecting old things

For drying

The village gate

My words

Father filters, ancestors sift

Seven generations

Four lives

Teacher, diviner

Mother still

Plants rows of poems

Assuming green

Green until now for me

The green flow

Father irrigates, mother nourishes

Silk worm breaks ties

But life is not spun

Life water

Leaking, sinking the boat

The dock tomorrow is crumbling

Verse doesn't complete

Deep bottom, sinking and floating

Fame rhymes

Swinging with water

Beating the destiny drum

Now

The river is shallow, my heart

Scooping up many words

A lifetime counting

Collecting two, four

Phonetic sounds

Arranging into one piece

Deep cyclic life scenes

The moon full on the body

Bamboo high

Sighing

A hundred threads of life repay

Mid-autumn or moon

I am here

A verse

Defeat

Rhyme flies without a way back

Older

Six, eight swaying

Verse still

There but no way home

Thơ 2020

Dương Khắc Giao

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Behold, a bunch of squares and circles
Adding to life's delicious and flavorful moments
Seven, three transient lifetimes
Complicated yet pure in an era gone by

Already sieved and filtered through
One or two dewdrops in the harvest season
Boiling water for floating dumplings
Even crushed snake oil becomes a distinct dish
Spicy ginger, sweet sugar, adding to the charm
Cooling the hearts of guests across the homeland

March, indulging in sugar dumplings
Touched by heart, reminiscing about Sister Xuân Hương of the past...
Heart of gold, longing
Verse courageously sent into the floating dumpling

March 4th, Year of Metal Rat 2020

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Two shoulders
Heavily laden with life's affairs
Pomelos dangling
Bearing my mother's load
Day in, day out

Hurried steps
Short legs, tall legs
Rural roads
Mother using starlight instead of lamps

The family's pomelo picked at
Midnight
Tenderly carrying my mother
To the market where wares are displayed

Ô Market, Xá Market, Đầng Market
Deep in the alley, my mother's eyes
Every wrinkle speaks of worry

Small fruits, then big fruits
In the midst of a five-fruit tray
Fragrant
The vendor

Green trees
My mother nurturing day after day
A load of pomelos
A load full of sweat

Whoever bought pomelos
From my mother
Surely remembers
Lime marks etched in

Shoulders carrying
Head covered
Days gone by
Bitterness burdening my mother
Sweetness, child of the pomelo

Written on January 22, 2020

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

I return
Wrap the village field's wings
Into the sky and earth
I offer to life

This field, honeyed and fringed with rice
This field, height and lowlands, distant replenished
This field, along the path near houses
This field, sour and bitter
Chicken liver tightly clamped dry

Encased with more sunlight and rain
Stars twinkling in four seasons of illuminating glow
Brown and yellow, a salty lifetime
The bamboo fish trap disintegrating into the flood of life

Fat color of the month passing by again
Oh field, forever remembering the brown color
Canals crisscrossing, hollow within
The stork perched on the buffalo back flowing toward the distant sky

Frogs croak, thunder in March calls
Rain trickles into the vast fields near and far
The sun pours sweetness into spring
The village field of rice is becoming more curved and young

Plow up to reveal the source
The field tightly embraces square and round, the soul of the homeland
Dyeing with clarity on the way back
The village field forever etches the village's figure

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Ghostly rice stalk, divine multifaceted stem
I return to pick the village's grassy flowers

Tile covered in moss, a dignified roof in the distance
The body is tough, thorny corners that wrap around eyes and lips

The road is like bloodstained flowers falling
Fragile bells complete the scripture's perfect words

Resin overflowing from the roots threading the branches
Providing for a myriad of delicate pink hues

A game sharpens the fate of husband and wife
Hence, a pair of chopsticks, a communal plate, and a bustling pot...

Deep red like a stretch of sky within
In March, thunder and lightning but a young heart

Green grass is preparing to unfold its flag
Dreaming of a new sky, every hour revealing its green

Old roots testify to a life of birth and death
Pain from the rooster announcing the morning in the village

Whose pants are drawn tightly at the waist
Many times tensely held, awkwardly fumbling...

The village now dries up, even the bamboo shoots
The rice once red, where is it now!

Well, the leaves know the red color
Old stories of the rice plant, where has the homeland gone
The sporadic wind from the embankment
The ancient red flowers searching for poetic verses

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

I return selling sunlight for rain
Selling straw for fields, selling noon for the evening

I return selling dislikes for love
So that I buy things contrary and unique

Village market, a place of deceit
Where do you hide the myriad things you bring?

Đầng market buys cotton, shops for oil
Nights illuminate our hearts as they flicker

Heat simmers in the summer pot
A lone fan beats rhythm for the dry affection

Yes, I bear, and you endure
Soy sauce pairs with vegetables, life's duo

Which betel leaf awaits the scent of yellowing?
Fate trades, selling red lips, capturing hearts

Yes, let me bear, and you carry
We buy each other in Đầng market, meant for two

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Oh, dear
The crickets have entered the field
Where a thousand phoenix dresses ignite the rosy season

Your white dress is so astonishing
The basket on the bike spills the wide-reaching adolescence

Oh, dear cricket, calling the exam season
Leaving marks in notebooks, silently professing love

Oh, dear cricket, calling the kite
You and I send a message up to the clouds

Oh, your hair dances in the wind
My kite seems to have lost its string!

Oh, playfully, you, my dear
The money button on your cheek just fell on the lecture floor

Oh, cricket, crying at the school gate
I return to the old village, purple road with betel palm

Oh, dear, two moons, two fashions
The cricket still chirps for the serene mirror on the full moon

Passing through the steep path
She's already rested against the house's field ditch

Oh, cricket, sing your song
In the evening rain, let the cricket lull our love

A poetic page filled with green dreams
This evening, seeing the shadow of Vang Anh passing by

Oh, dear, a sparkling candle
Lull me with a self-composed melody in farewell

Freezing sky, a myriad of cricket sounds
Her dress
White as the summer sky
Evening rain

Reminiscing H. A, a student's love

May 2020

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Ten years nurturing painful buds
Allowing days to lean, colors fading far away
I return, visiting the rustic tavern
Buying a pound of storm as a gift for her

Autumn dew moistens the moon sickle
Loneliness untangled with the night's love

Rain pours, silvering the temple gate
Who hurries steps for their own mossy path?

The flood rushes, the tavern collapses, bridges swing
Words of love swiftly float, accompanied by reinforcement

Drowning verses in a lifetime's worth of emotions
There, the Ô Thước bridge is sky-sealed in farewell

August 3, 2020

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

It's the aroma of drifting straw
Guiding me to gather in those fragrant days

Since the rooster learned to wear a hat
Moss-covered tiles have embraced the temple roof
Father's plow tills with a sour taste
The brown color, ancient as the bell, seeps through

What's left behind, what's set free
It seems what's lost still holds hands
Deep in the furrows of the plowed path
A lofty grain, moving amidst challenging clouds
Father's plow understands many paths
To unveil the philosophy of a farmer's cyclical life

A bundle of straw smolders gradually
It seems the fire is nearing its transformation into ash...

Harvest season, September 2020

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Returning to Đạ Hill this afternoon
A gentle melody flows through the slender, murky river

The teacher lies down
Resting beside the canal
A boat of memories sways under the nostalgic roof

A thread of wind flutters by
The teacher's silhouette faintly recalls the past

Oh teacher, golden chrysanthemums and lively crickets
Beginning with the alphabet, A to B, commencing
Across the river, the teacher builds a bridge
Essays and calculations intertwine in a colorful rainbow
For the child to cross the flowing rivers
To reach vast fields

Half a lifetime of wind and rain has passed
Returning to gather the sunshine of homeland

Returning to rediscover the river
Who once navigated through winter's frozen boat

Now
Grass soaks, bells ring
The kind earth holds noble principles

The river still flows sweetly
Words of gratitude sent into the winter evening...

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

And so
Winter is drawing near
The jackfruit's eyes crack
The persimmon's skin moistens

Seems like the sun is about to bid farewell
The pig, unsure, wanders in the courtyard's mist
Rain pours for a few restless minutes
Along the red road, young banyan leaves beckon the season

The sound of the doorframe meeting the wind
Fall still has more to blend into winter
Who still plants cabbages by the river?
To leave the old dock for the nostalgic path?

Fluttering through the changing season's canopy
The yellow chrysanthemums are yet to fully bloom
Does the moon sparkle at night?
Does the sky at your feet
Summon an image for me?

Fall still has more, oh fall
I still have a little left, probably just until winter arrives!

September 19, 2020

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Weave words into a poem with care
A lifetime carrying uncertain letters on shoulders bare
The short days, long nights of a minor cold
The verses tighten, an extra belt for the cloak

It seems spring is in no hurry to arrive
Winter, still cutting through flesh, tearing hearts apart
Is there any warmth in this foreign land?
This place, where a river winds, winds of chill scrape

Moaning doors echo beneath a lofty arch
A frigid night, like myriad stars falling, rupturing emotions
Our hands, holding our own hands
Dreams of icy winds shatter, the cold becomes real

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

I return
Seeking the buffalo's footprint
In days of old, footsteps pressed deep into muddy alleys

I return to find a plowed field
My father's shirt in June
Drenched with the toil of the fields

I return
Stirring the edge of the pond
Shrimps and crabs rustle like stars in a summer night

I return to harvest a bunch of water spinach
Boiled green, dipped in Ngâu sauce
I return

Planting the betel palm anew
Shielding against the salt mist, awaiting the cau net's embrace

I return to Suong Bathing Bridge
Your laughter coloring my sister's cheeks, releasing the thread of love

I return to draw water from the Đình well
For you to wash the pristine white as you awaken

I return to rediscover the steps
When I was still hesitant, following Aunt back to Grandpa

I return to find a stretch of river
A lifetime still owes a stream of gratitude to kin

I return to trace footprints
Childhood engraved on the bare head in the village

I return
Seeking a cluster
Of green bamboo
Green
I carve
The soul of the village into my heart

(Published in Lộc Phát Lục Bát Vietnam/ Information and Communication Publishing House - 2020)

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

“A hundred years”* filled a lifetime
The undulating laws of laughter and tears in endless rhyme
“Oh, our ancient kin”
A verse that extracts the essence, stirring the heart

A journey through the vast expanse
Across the turbulent waves of the Tiền Đường River
Echoing the two words of love
Who made Từ Hải linger in the midst of death?

Even today, even tomorrow
Whose heart doesn't desire the union of talent and soul?

A few words of homage whispered
The poet's soul resonates through the ages

Oh, those who traverse the cycles of life
Who values Filial Piety more than Love as of old???

The sky still has sun, the sky still has rain
Two hundred years, has it captured all of Kiều's fate???

In life, living and dying for love
Creates enchantment, a gesture of love!
In the sky, there is a River of Silver
Under the earth, myriad pains unfold

Still, it's a sea of mourning - a field of mulberries!
———————————————————

With profound respect to Master Tố Như
August, Year of Canh Ty - Commemorating the Great Poet's 200th death anniversary
Descendant, Dương Khắc Giao
———-
(*): Nguyễn Du's poetry
() : Tố Hữu's poetry

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao

Gentle, enchanting, your eyes so divine
In their gaze, you bewitch every admirer
A graceful neck adorned with layers of charm
Countless cars stop, captivated by that allure

Pretty eyes, pouring sunlight into others' gaze
Wishing for distances to shrink, closeness to extend
The wind whispers, blossoms blush in response
Your eyes, a muse for the mirrors to unfold...

Deer-like eyes, streaming affection
Blink, and heaven's tears moisten the intertwining path
Squeezed within, like the Cầu River's surface
A myriad of stars, tails entwined for love's sake

Your eyes glance, the tavern falls silent
Your pink dress akin to a movie star on set
Memories wrapped, sentiments packaged with care
Unveiled, it paints a closed path in the eyes' print

Glistening, whose eyes are gazing
Piercing deep into the heart's abyss, captivating every soul

Poetry by Dương Khắc Giao
(Rondeau quatrain)

Essence
Delicate....
A night's stage with moon and stars
'I melancholically inquire, why this sadness?'
A message
Southern direction
Remembering you in your thin attire like mist
Your eyes, once azure, lips sweet as moonlit kiss

Moon of memories
August full moon
We shared the harvest's last pass
Mortar and pestle busy, clothes fluttering in the breeze
Tied with a lily belt, your heart so green
A picturesque, charming area
Hills and mountains seem to fall in pairs

Bamboo and moon coupled
We, a pair long ago
Wishing to share the load together
Smiles forever blooming, like 'thụp thùm'

The source, where the old boat got stuck
Exploring the old shore, sinking in mud
I return to sleep in lonely quarters
While you guard the balcony, adjusting neatly arranged hair

Honey tastes bitter on the tongue
Pomelo, sour, numbs the teeth
I return, cutting leaves in the month of May
Days blend, wrapping meals and moments together

Village wind, once bold, blows in silence
We both endure loss, hearts in pain
Sorrowful as purple hyacinth over the bridge
Our verses trapped at distant ends

Fate spent, why endure separation's plight?
Love fades, destiny still clings tight
Heaven discards its dried twigs
That era, pure and simple, now rests in poetry

Dương Khắc Giao
(): the words within double parentheses are inspired by the poetry of Xuân Diệu and Nguyễn Lâm Cẩn