Top 10 Best Poems by Poet Bình Nguyên Trang

Across the vast green fields
We hear the joyful sound of the nightingale's wings, flying in a ribbon-like shape
It feels like the princess's belt
That arrived just in time last night to the village

Spring unexpectedly arrived from a budding tree
Like an eye awakening after a thousand days of waiting
Strangely, the wind blows warmly, spreading over
As if the whole field was filled...

It feels like a bell is ringing in my heart
At five in the morning, suddenly ringing with a miracle
Outside, the pink peach blossoms are like a drunken woman's cheeks
While the lazy cat strolls from the kitchen to the yard

All dreams return on the wings of spring
In an instant, my mother seems to be young again
As she stands by the doorstep, the wind blows her hair
While I wear my scarf on the first day of school
Sitting and talking with the cat

Spring brings so much novelty
After the rain, the earth is magically transformed
The sunlight shines brightly in the cold garden
And the laughter stays in the house, in the pot of cakes that is happily boiling...

Oh spring
The one who sows seeds across the fields of memories
March mist and fog, just like my heart
I let my love drift on a river
As the evening sky paints the color of purple water flowers

Time passes, day and night
Memories stretch like green shores
A longing for the blooming flowers of the fields
The shape of the boat is as thin as my sister

Golden sunlight, oh
Let my sorrow shine with hope
I wander with my heart, drifting on the waves
Listening to the bells of origin calling my name

Let me begin with the two words 'dawn'
For a nostalgic song of the old hometown
Even though years have never rested
In me, the red flowers still struggle

I journey far to be close to a thousand years
The ache of an exile
New days are born in the twilight
Calling for spring in the voice of leaves turning green

Source: Bình Nguyên Trang, Only You and the Crystal Vase Know, Literature Publishing House, 2003

The school gate closes behind me
I walk through the busy streets, lost in thought
Now, not just meals but even verses rush by
My footsteps feel unfamiliar in the morning light

Happiness and sadness fade, but the longing stays
Oh, the struggles of daily life are no joke
On some nights, my heart listens to the sound of cranes
Echoing from the old stories of Andersen

Childhood is now just a gentle breeze
Occasionally lonely, it blows a little memory my way
Facing all roads, I became a person in debt
For all the love that was once mine

Busy with life's worries, forgetting both morning and evening
But one day, I realize I’ve become as old as the past
Leaving behind the dream of elegance and wealth
I head back to the remnants of my old self

What’s the difference between tears and rain?
Oh, the years have closed the door behind me
My heart remains like a house still carrying the scent of lime
Built from the foolishness of youth...

Why do you wait for me?
Like a lover waits for their beloved
Like the blue sky dreams of a kite
Like a traveler dreams of a cool stream

The city lights up, the trees are drenched
A summer night full of weariness
Why do you sit alone
Feeling for the train about to leave the station?

I don’t think of you as a home
That shelters me from rain or shine
I don’t think of you as a quiet harbor
Where my boat would find peace from loneliness

I just wait for you, with nothing more in mind

I don’t need you to come
I don’t need you to speak
And I don’t need you to know the pain of waiting

Why do I still sit here?
With a lingering feeling above my head
The full moon, yet my heart remains incomplete
And the Milky Way scattered in disarray

You’re so close, yet so far away
Only thoughts of you take the shape of wings
My heart is tangled in a thousand silent words
Days pass by like a sigh

Like an afternoon weighing down on my shoulders
Could it be that I miss you this much?
That look of yours, don’t return with an impending sorrow
So my heart can be free of its burdens.

I don’t know why I love you?
Even though for four years my vase had no roses, you came to fill it
Even though our encounters
Were counted in months and years.

I don’t know why I love you?
Even though the only flower I had was one plucked from tears
That bloomed in me as two words: ‘unintentionally’.

And sometimes, alone, I dry my hair
I think of my vase
The crystal vase...
Preserving it is as hard as keeping happiness
If it falls, it shatters into a hundred drops of tears...
Sad drops, proud drops, offering drops
But how lonely it is!

And after all the pain
The vase patiently blooms a flower of hopelessness?

I’ve watered it with my own tears
And only you and the crystal vase know.

(1997)

The autumns that pass through my life
Spread peaceful sounds
Ripe fruit falls, filling the paths with their scent
A small pond bridge stands unsteadily

Sitting with autumn, I wait for my mother to return.

Following the familiar path, rough with gravel
I walk between two sides full of wildflowers
But the sad fairy tale keeps following me

Lost on a river without a boat to return.

Father searches for me along the dike
Where silent crickets don't sing
The waiting brings the morning glory's color to fade

The purple sadness touches my heart sharply.

I cry out without sound in the silence
Father does not see me lost at eighteen
Mother does not see me wandering alone

Who passes through autumns without cool breezes?

The eternal river beats its rhythm, ebbing and flowing
I drift between the banks of my parents
Then autumn passes, and autumn quietly
Releases its private sorrow to the winds and clouds.

(23-10-1995)

Suddenly, the cold winds
Chill the heart and soul
The last day of the year, I miss mother
As the smoke rises to the sky

The flowers have bloomed, oh mother
The season is green in my eyes
It has filled the earth
With the intoxicating scent of peach wine

The trees are buzzing with life
The corners of the street are warm
On the last day of the year, amidst the market
Lost, with no place to call home

In my mother's garden
The pepper tree blooms sparsely
Outside the porch, the evening lingers
Throwing hues upon the house

On the last day of the year, far away
I feel for my poor mother in thin clothes
Her hands cold and numb
Warming them over the dying fire

I left without titles or riches
I return without a crown or robe
Forever a newborn
In my mother's loving arms.

The city fades away, worn out
And my weary feet have wandered through the years
Going, not knowing where I’ll end up
All I want is a stream to rest by

Does love wear away with time, just like stones?
Our passion drained, its intensity gone
Why does it feel so lonely as I go?
My life casts its shadow on the river

Sometimes, when I’m too tired, I kneel
And dream of the old days on the yellowing leaves
Sometimes, when I’m too weary, I watch the streets
The flowers, half bloomed, drifting by

I pity my wandering feet
Ten years lost, never reaching where I belong
The ones who walk the same path see their boats docked
But the road stretches endlessly ahead of me...

Days twisted with longing
Nights stretched with yearning
The full moon shattered
And I quietly entered

At the end of the winter road
The streetlights never rest
Like the eyes of the past
Still echoing until now

The person walks away, like a forgotten tale
No words left behind
The years fade further
Seemingly sinking into peace

I thought I had forgotten
The naive love of old
Yet the nights stretch on
And my heart still aches

Yet my steps keep going
Never quite beyond the first love.

Perhaps it is a long tale
Haunting me with drizzling rain and red silk-cotton flowers
And a ferry wharf that has kept its color for centuries
Even the posture of lying down is ancient, covered with moss

My soul is a vast field
The peaceful sound of bells in the misty afternoon
My sorrow is tinted with nostalgia
Flowing sweet and heavy like a river

My heart is as red as the silk-cotton flower
Beating with the hardship of March, the season of scarcity
I am not allowed to forget even a small stone
Enduring the endless afternoons of flowing water and drifting reeds

Mother’s rice, Father’s clothes—this is the first lesson of life
I hold on to it to avoid growing cold with the past
The smoke of the kitchen on stormy days
Sweet potatoes and cassava—the love of people who raised me up

I hold on to the past to anchor my soul
So I don’t get lost in the bustling streets
So every morning, I hear the birds calling
A song as fragrant as a betel nut

There are times when I lose myself in days gone by
Wasting time and youth
But every March, my heart aches with the sight of flowers
I return to gather the silk-cotton flowers in the lime pit

One thing will always haunt me
After all the joys, sorrows, and mistakes
The past of March returns, undeniable
I have never grown up beyond a little grasshopper

I have never grown up in my parents’ eyes
Yet the world doesn’t see me as a child
Oh, let sadness always remain in green
So every March, life begins anew.