Top 10 Best Poems by the Author Le Dat - Dao Cong Dat

(Excerpt from 'Poetry to the Vietnamese People')

Late at night
The shadow of your head
Imprinted on the small page
Like the shadow of trees
Swaying with the wind
Falling onto the road.

The vast storms
You gaze at the homeland
Tonight, the nation carries the weight of the pen
Thousands of verses filled with human emotions
You hear the sounds of the earth and sky
The rustling of trees and grass
Like an operator
Staying awake through the night
Recording the words of life
The electric calls
The heavy voices
The harsh, frustrated sounds
The voices of bitter hatred
The voices of love.

Each day brings so much joy and sorrow
Weighing down on your thoughts
A strong man
Can carry a thousand kilos
But you, month after month,
Carry the world in your mind.

You remember the day when she cried
Holding her stomach, crying out
The midwives whispered
'The baby is too big
Both mother and child may not survive.'
Every childbirth brings such joy and sorrow.

The poet endures the burning sun and rain
Lives through life itself
Carrying the weight of the land and sky
Giving birth to life
Expressing the thoughts of millions
It hurts more than ever.

My dear!
You stay awake all night
Digging into your mind to write poetry
Digging into your heart to write poetry
Like a miner
Diving into the depths of the mine
Extracting coal, extracting fire
Lighting up the world.

You wish the Party would call you
For a meeting about life
Deploying you into the People's Soul Ministry
To help the Central Committee
Build
New people.

Every drop of sweat
Soaking the map of policies
You carve paths through the nooks and crannies of life
Your mind is a construction site
Each verse is a new milestone
On the road ahead
A gunshot of the future
Explodes into the past.

You carry the pen, following the Party
Charging to the frontlines.

January 1956

Source: Giai phẩm Mùa Xuân 1956 (Second edition), with contributions from Văn Cao, Hoàng Cầm, Lê Đạt, Nguyễn Sáng, Phùng Quán, Trần Dần, Sỹ Ngọc, Tử Phác, Tô Vũ. Included: 'Lúa Chín' by Nguyễn Sáng, printed at Tiến Hưng Press, Hanoi. Cover by Sỹ Ngọc, Văn Cao. Engravings by Nhà Tiến Mỹ. Published by Minh Đức. Printed at Sông Lô Press, Hanoi. Completed on October 8, 1956. Dimensions: 16x24 cm. Print number… Publication number 50, archived in October 1956 in Hanoi.

The economy cannot be carried in a backpack
To complete a two-year plan.
A new life requires a train
Express trains,
Building quickly
The country, scarred by ten years
Of bombs that have scarred our bodies
With tears reflecting smiles
We march forward in rebuilding.

Roads that once lay dead
Now cry out for revival,
Clearing the grass, standing tall,
Raising hands to greet the work sites.

We march under the scorching sun,
With cracked feet upon burning stones,
Sweat covers every inch of earth,
Hands empty but shaping the roads.

Trees grow in the forest
The forest has no path
Only the winds blow morning and night
The monkey climbs
The bird flies
We are neither monkey nor bird
But we climb as well
Chopping wood to lay tracks
Skin torn, muscles bruised
Malaria shakes the bed.

The bridge falls into the river
The water swirls and ripples
Both shores, white sand
Ten years of memories
Big waves, deep rivers
The bridge sinks beneath the water
Our hands build cranes
Hoisting the bridge across
Making way for the trains to pass.

Those who hold machines today
Once carried plows yesterday
Hands once wasted
In the house of the landlord
Still uncertain, yet now workers
Leading machines like guiding oxen
The electric fire sparking above
Illuminating the hands of the liberated.

The people's life grows bigger each day
We take giant steps,
Turning dreams
Into reality
Turning them into bolts and nails
Rebuilding our lives.

The colonists took twelve years
We completed it in four months
Every day is a revolution contest
Worth dozens of normal days
We grab time by the neck
Spurring it forward
Bringing tomorrow closer
Driving life forward
With machines running toward a communist horizon.

The whistle calls through the light
Inviting all aboard the train.

(February 1956)

(To Vu)

Nothing is more beautiful than a human
Nothing more precious than youth
With strong feet
Charging forward into life
Eyes fixed ahead
Full of dreams
Wings spreading, ready to soar.

The days and nights
Sun and rain, relentless
Our hearts burn
Like the most explosive of bombs
As we step into life
Spreading fire
Clearing paths, breaking barriers
Opening new horizons.

We must protect the age of twenty
As we protect life itself
Each day bringing dust
Falling upon us
Chains of tradition
Binding our steps.

Don’t call me arrogant
Don’t accuse me of preaching from a pedestal
I haven’t worn glasses yet
I haven’t joined academia
I’m still only twenty-five
Surrounded by weary lives
Defeated, heads bowed
Following the path like a herd.

Those who live a century
Are like ancient jars
The longer they live, the worse they become
The longer they live, the smaller they get.

I’ve lived through many days of failure
Wisdom hasn’t made me human
So many times I wasn’t truly myself
My heart hardened in customs
White nights burning fiercely
Not wanting to face my reflection
The sky shines so brightly
The sap of trees smells so sweet
Spring nights burning
All the yearning to be human.

But the river flows
And drags me back to the old shore
Dreams I’ve nurtured
Die like unformed children
I wander through well-worn paths
Hoping for a peaceful life.

The old ways are bitter and blunt
Crushing the fate of mankind.

For eternity, one life passing to the next
Handing down the burning words:

New! New!
Always New
Fly higher
Fly farther
Over the worn, the old
On rusted roads
Surpass today
Surpass tomorrow, the next day,
And forever…

Source: Spring Journal 1956 (second edition).

You are forever distant
You are forever close
My skin, weathered by the sun, forever remembers the rain
My eyes gaze far
The moon waxes, and again we part.

Throw the heart
Love, a boat on the waves
The ocean sketches waves in five colors with circus lights
Flowered background with a bright blue trumpet sound on the glittering stage
Love ends as the heart runs aground, lost to fate
Hair tossed in the wind as the market streets blaze
The waves on the shore curve, strange waves crash on the chest of the lake
The riverbanks sparkle in the cool shade, a river of white water laps at the body
The kite dreams and flies in the moonlight, drifting through the fall sky
Love swings high, pulled by the wind, a steady rhythm of gusts

She opens her hands, revealing a bird with red wings
Clutching my heart, flying thousands of miles through the heavens
Love wanders far, through long and empty paths
Watching the bird's shadow, seeking a shadow of the heart.

Source: "Kiến thức ngày nay" magazine, Spring of the Year of the Pig, 1995

No one chooses the land where they are born
Just as no one chooses their mother or father

I return to the place of my youth
A mountainous province with red dust
The riverside of Au Lau, Red River
Recognize me
As only the stump of a cotton tree
Half-dreamed sky before we reunite

A young girl looks at me in surprise
When I used to buy her candy to eat
Walking hand in hand with her down the street
Only ten years passed
She now calls me uncle
Her cold forehead shows the crease of time's weight
Wondering about the strands of hair
That turned gray too soon

The Silver River is wide enough to divide us
Into two generations
She laughs brightly, like the sound of spring
"I recognize you now
Why do you look so young?"
And swiftly, spring rises with the sun
She raises her hand in a military salute to me
Who dropped those petals of red kisses in the grass
Flowers at ten o'clock
Girls' lips ripening on the tree

She takes my hand, leading me on a walk
Through a garden where stars bloom brightly
As if her age is still under eighteen
As if those days of the past
Come back again with every passing moment
Did she recognize me?
Did I recognize the young poetry in her
The Green Years
We are born again.

Source: Le Dat, The Shadow of Letters, NXB Hội nhà văn, 1994

I pick the morning glory
The flower blooms when I am seventeen
But my heart can't find you
The flower remains the morning glory

I plant the morning glory
The flower opens for you to pick
My eyes flicker as spring comes
The flowers run softly across your cheeks

The flowers I give you in return
Smell sweet like morning glory
The rain washes them clean
White flowers forget the past.

Source: Le Dat, Bóng chữ, NXB Hội nhà văn, 1994

It wasn't until we were far apart that I realized you
Were like a fleeting moment from my childhood
You returned, full of memories, wrapped in nostalgia
With rain and passing seasons

And the clouds of autumn
The garden holds the scent of flowers that have faded
You're still here, but you're far away
The afternoon in Au Lau

Shadows of words echo in the archway.

This poem has been set to music by composer Phu Quang, with the same title.

Source: Le Dat, The Shadow of Words, NXB Hội Nhà Văn, 1994

I arrived at your house in autumn
The chrysanthemums bloomed, scattered on the small patches of ground
And there, a gentle breeze brushed through my brows
The season changed, with autumn's first chill

Night rains filled the ponds
The hill roads curved, leading to grassy paths
Butterflies fluttered among the flowers of the day
Is it the golden pollen or the wind of autumn?

Your hair dried with the scent of old folk songs
Autumn is so much you
And the sky is so high

Source: Le Dat, The Shadow of Words, NXB Hội Nhà Văn, 1994

The moonlight reached its peak, illuminating the pure white sky
Bai Ju Yi

Each sleep became shorter
My thoughts grew more restless
Silver hair glowing under the moonlight
My weary head rests on a pillow of doubt.