Sea’s Souls
The night detaches itself from me
Mutely a piece of bark falls into the grass
The wind soars up in the sky
What’s strange in tonight’s rain
The falling bark never gets the ground
A girl lights a candle on the white sand
In front of the sea praying for her love
Storm offshore
Pain offshore
Please let me be quiet
Lighnings scratch poignantly across the night
The fleeing waves
Turn round to get to the shore
What’s strange in tonight’s rain
So that trees frightened
Blowing out candles and the white sand
The frightened girl goes into her house
Waves accumulated in her eyes
And the black of the sea on her skin
The night detaches me from the man loving me
When the rain pours loudly on the thatched roof
The bed finds itself immersed under the waves
And I am tormented like the open sea
It rains it rains unceasingly
Stirring the block of nightly sea
Mutely I pray for lost souls
It rains it rains unceasingly
Stirring you and me
The dogs wailfully howl in the night
It rains it rains unceasingly
But the rain can’t detach me from the man loving me
But the rain can’t detach me from the man I love
Mutely I pray for the freeing
Of damned souls
Phu Quoc, 2002
(Trans. by Hoang Hung)