poems from an Asian war : the present, a poem by a high school student from Da Nang .

 we promise one another - poems from an asian war -
selected ,   traducted   by don luce and...

                       t h e   p r e s e n t 

                                                a poem by 
                    a high school student from Đà  Nẵng

I sit down to write for you a poem
At the sounds of AK 47 rifle fire pour into my brain,
As the sounds of  the  R 15 machine guns pin up my heart ;  
But my hand doesn' t  shake .
Because of mortars and cannons ,  artillery and tanks ,
Outside,  they are fighting,  for glory in battle ;
On this side one person slumps down,   dead  ,
On the other side one person still lives .
There another groans and cries out .
Here one preson laughs loudly in victory.
And it all starts over.

                Oh my loves !
                More than twenty years
                And today it still goes on .
                I search by brain
                Looking for a small quiet place
                To remember for a moment my native village .
                But my love  ,
                That part of my  brain
                Has been filled with smoke of bombs and bullets
                For too long .
                The fields ,
                The bamboo bridges ,
                Flowing rivers ,
                The higlands with their little trees  ,
                The cities big and imposing  - -
                All battle grounds spread with blood .
                Each decimeter of land
                Has its corpses .
                Yet what glory have they won :

                        They are died ,  killed
                        By a Communist 's   AK rifle
                        Or by a Republicans 's  gun  ;
                        By an ally' s bullet
                        Or by the shrapnel of a bomb .
                        They slump and fall
                        Without having known the ennemy .
                        Mesmerized by a big words :
                        PEACE ,  FREEDOM,  and UNIFICATION .

                This poem   comes to you
                Whether my village lives or dies ;
                The fire burns high ,
                I stop here,
                Please,  love,  don' t ask why
                Some day when there 's peace
                I will write you a different poem.
                      []

                      ( from WE PROMISE ONE ANOTHER /  poems from an Asian war -
                       selected , translated   from the vietnamese  by  DON LUCE, JOHN C.  SCHAFER
                          &   JACQUELYN CHAGNON -
                       Published by The Indochina Mobile Education Project,  Washington, D.C. 1974  - p. 59- 60)