HUỲNH KIM HƯỜNG

 

Lingering

 

I’ve never once returned to Huế—your hometown—

so how could I know

the twelve graceful spans

of Trường Tiền Bridge,

or why the Hương River

shimmers blue,

why Ngự Bình Mountain

glows gold or purple

as evening falls?

I’ve never travelled north

to visit you in Huế—

to share a raincoat

in the July monsoon,

cross Cầu Hai Lagoon

or Tam Giang Marsh—

none of that would frighten me.

Only meeting your mother…

Would she accept me?

I’ll come to your home

when the ngô đồng trees bloom,

to see the soft lilac blossoms

drifting in front of the university gates,

and wander into Huế’s stone gardens

to laugh and cry with the stones

on a winter afternoon.

I’ll come during festival season,

to hear Huế girls

sing royal court melodies—

their black eyes, their gentle smiles,

their voices light

as mist and smoke.

Or perhaps… no.

Don’t wait for me.

Southern weather is fickle—

rain and sun wrestling endlessly—

and your love, like the Hương River,

drifts slowly, hesitantly,

its depths uncertain.

 

Hue In The Rain

 

Out there,

this season,

rain whitens sky and earth.

Trường Tiền Bridge bends heavy,

soaked through.

The Hương River, Ngự Bình Mountain—

all wilt beneath the gray rain.

Have you gone home to visit your mother?

Please send her my wool sweater,

my warm scarf.

Fishermen must be living on thin porridge,

hungry through the six-month monsoon

when the Hương River

has neither shore nor landing.

Send her

rice, sticky rice, dried fish—

and fruit from the South,

a little affection,

a little love…

When you travel through the rain,

riding a Huế rickshaw,

remember to pay extra—

don’t bargain, my dear!

Huế grows sorrowful,

quiet beneath the endless rain,

weeping for someone

without pause.

Here in the South,

the sun burns like fire—

how can I send sunshine

to your northern sky?

Oh beloved Huế *

how I ache for you

in this long, drenching rain.

 

- * Hue is a city in VietNam 

 

HUỲNH KIM HƯỜNG 

 

Huỳnh Kim Hường (pen name Kim Quyên) was born on September 9, 1953, in Mỹ Hạnh Đông Commune, Cai Lậy District, Tiền Giang Province, Vietnam. She is originally from Southern Vietnam and currently resides in Ho Chi Minh City. She graduated from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education,Faculty of Russian Studies, and earlier from Tiền Giang College of Education, Faculty of English. She worked as a foreign language teacher before dedicating herself to literature and writing. Kim Quyên is a member of the Vietnam Writers’ Association (since around 2000) and the Ho Chi Minh City Writers’ Association. She is also a member of the Vietnam Cinema Association. She has received numerous national and international literary awards, including the prestigious Mekong Award of seven Southeast Asian countries, and has published many highly regarded poetry collections and novel.