THƠ “LỜI MẸ DẶN” Của Cố Văn Thi Sĩ Phùng Quán – HƯƠNG CAU CAO TÂN Chuyển Dịch Anh Ngữ & Thơ Cảm Tác Phương Hoa

A Mother’s Advice

Phung Quan (1957)

*
When I was two years old, my father ceased to be
My mother has not remarried since, out of her love for me
She since has grown mulberry, cared for silkworms, and weaved daily
To bring me up until the day I have grown fully.

*
It has been twenty years, I still remember, since the day
I was only a naïve boy of five years of age
I did not remember why, but to my mother did I lie
I thought I would get the spanking I deserved that time.

*
My mother did not deliver it but with a sadness in her eyes
She embraced me, and kissed the hair of mineMy son, before your father passed away
He said that in all your life you should strive
To remain a person of honesty, and should never lie.

*

Mommy, what is honesty? Why?
My mother kissed me on the eyes

My son, an honest person is one
Who would smile when he feels like smiling
Would cry when he feels like crying
Would say, I like, to someone he likes
Would say, I dislike, to someone he dislikes

*
Despite anyone’s sweet talking and appeasing
He would not switch liking for hating
Despite anyone’s knife holding and threats of killing
Would not switch hating for liking.

*
Since then, whenever someone asks me:

Little boy, who do you love most, who would it be?
I answer them, remembering what my mother has said:
I love honest people, who would call a spade a spade.

*
Grown-ups look at me in disbelieving
Considering me just a little parrot in my talking
But what my mother has said remains
Imprinted deep in my brain
Just like onto a bright white piece of paper
A bright red seal is permanently imprinted forever

*
This year it is twenty five years in coming
The orphaned boy becomes a writer in his living
But what my mother has said since I was five
Its crimson colour remains intact and bright.

*
Though the tightrope walker’s work is difficult in his walking
But it is more difficult for a writer in his writing
Who ought to remain totally in honesty in his living.

*
Who would say, I like, to someone he likes
Would say, I dislike, to someone he dislikes
Despite anyone’s sweet talking and appeasing
He would not switch liking for hating
Despite anyone’s knife holding and threats of killing
Would not switch hating for liking.

*
I want to be an honest writer
All my life and perhaps forever

*
Fame’s sweetness and honey cannot sweeten my tongue in bitterness
Lightning cannot strike me down and make me depressed
If someone snatches away my pen, paper, and instruments for my writing
I would use knives to write on stones with my carving.

*
Translated from Vietnamese into English by Hương Cau Cao Tân on 27 July, 2019 in British Columbia, Canada