the cycle of life and death / a novel by thanh thương hoàng

                                   the cycle of life and death
                                             a novel by   thanh thương hoàng


In the very early morning,  a group of five persons : two undertakers, Phuong's mother, Phuong' s sister, Khanh anh Thanh went quietly towards a grave lying beside the edge of an immense rice-field.    The grave was hidden in a clump of grass having a dark green colour, the same colour as the rice.
Having arrived, after the traditional worship, the two undertakers began to dig the gave up.
Although Phuong had passed away yeras ago.   Thanh deep love for her had not faded a bit.   Her beloved always existed in his mind .
One evening, Phuong's mother had come to see Thanh ' last night in my dream, I saw Phuong return home,  she complained about the humidity and coldness in her grave.   So the day after tomorrow  good day, I'm going to have her grave exhumed and moved to a dry place.     Would you mind going with us " she said.  With his whole heart, Thanh had accepted her proposal.
Thanh had an inexplicably uneasy emotion while watching the two men striking strong blows with hoes into  the grace .   The happy memories of the past, appeared clearly in his mind.   How could he easily forget their trusts, their journeys for pleasure, their nights of passion they would have to wait for only one year to celebrate their wedding when Thanh had graduated from the university, but Phuong could not wait till their happy day, she died of a serious disease.
The sun like a red ball was slowly rising in the East when the blows of the hoes hit the coffin.   Phuong's mother burnt a lot of joss sticks and fixed them into the ground around the grave.   Khanh, opening her big black  eyes  wide, curiously waited for  what was going to happen.  She was just 14 years old, too young to know the suffering of life and death a human being had to undergo.
The lid of the coffin was prized off.   The coffin was full of water.   Phuong was calmy lying down as if she was  asleep.   Thanh felt dazzled by the sight .   Not believing himself, he rubbed his eyes to look again.   But everything was the same as it had been.  He nearly jumped into hug Phuong.
One of the undertakers poured alcohol into the coffin.   The surface of the water gently stirred  and Phuong's figure disppeared, too.
A stink was emitted, evryone hurriedly covered their noses and tried hard not to vomit.
One undertaker put his bare hands into the troubled water in the coffin.  Firstly, he tool up dirty, curved ribs, then skinny humerus, radius, thigh bones, slim bones, pelvis, spines and others.   He gaves them to his colleague to wash and put into a small glazed-terra cotta pot.
Looking at these bones in horror, Thanh thought of Phuong's soft curves with the full breast, long tapered legs and beautiful fingers tapered like a bamboo shoot.   He wondered in
 puzzlement , :' Whether these bones used to be her body and she's ever stood and walked with them ?' .  Her skin and flesh were no longer fragrant as it used to be.   The smell made everyone feel sick.
Her body now was terrible to look at.   However, that could not erase from Thanh's mind the image of Phuong when she was  attractive and beautiful.   When the undertakers took up Phuong's soaked hair which had not the purely black colour any more, Thanh tenderly and gently stroked her hair though it had become coarse.
Suddenly, seeing her skull full of black and white patches, Thanh trembled with fear.  The month of the skull opened wide in a ghostly way, two eyes holes were deep and black and he was unable to stand any more, he turned his eyes away, but turning back, he was even more fearful seeing the mother's skinny and bony face with sunken cheeks prominent cheek bones and deep eye holes was nearly the same as Phuong ' skull.   Obviously, the death-knell for the mother was going to peal out !
When alive, Phuong was well-known for her beauty.   She had had a regular and very white set of teeth which Thanh often jokingly regarded as ' The God-bestowed diamonds' and fresh rosy lips on which Thanh had innumerably kissed.   Now, her rosy lips and the 'glistening diamonds' had disappeared .   Her mouth was nothing less than  a plumpest and dreadful cave !
Thanh glanced at Khanh,  how much she was like her sister- Phuong.   Her eyes were also big, black and sparkling, her mouth as rose petals in spring.   But her face was exuding extensive vitality, without any deadly sign on it.
A horrible image suddenly came into Thanh's mind while looking at everyone.   He bitterly thought ' Sooner or later, all of them will inevitably be dirty, stinking and completely in animate skeletons' .  That image made him get goose flesh and his hair stood on end.
Dizzy, he closed his eyes, tried to forget  it, but failed.   He did not know what to do, but to run away from that place.   He forded the field knee-deep in water.   The mother, Khanh and the two undertakers watched his action in surprise.
'What are you going ?' asked the mother, in a high voice.
Worriedly, Khanh yelled ' Thanh ! what are you looking for ? return to everyone, now '.
Although, Thanh heard all,  he did not bother to answer.    He  just mumbled to himself  ' What I'm looking for is myself,  but I'm running away from myself.  Too '.
At that time, the Sun was giving his splendid light to the rice field full of life.   A breeze was gently caressing the rice tops.   Thanh saw his figure up side down in the blue sky with the masses of white cloud floating under the pure water of the rice field.
Each of his step made the watwer move, forming the round shaped wawes these circles.   One after another they spread farther and farther.  At the same time, Thanh's figure, the blue sky with the masses of white cloud reflected in the water also flickered with the wawes.
Thanh with face looking down, was heavily because of the mud and the tufts of rice that seemed to hold back his legs.
Some where, in vagueness, there was a call as Phuong's voice called :' Thanh ! Thanh ! return now, please '.
Thanh seemed to hear someone wading behind him .

[]
THANH THƯƠNG HOÀNG .

nguồn:        trước khi  sang Hoa kỳ  định cư ( 1999 ), Thanh Thương Hoàng  ( 1930 -           )  trao tôi  truyện ngắn
' the cycle of life and  death'  đã  chuyển ngữ.  Không thấy  ghi tên người dịch,   tên  tác giả dập dập , bôi xóa .  
  Sang Hoa Kỳ, TTH cho xuất bản  ' A Lonely  American '  :  "   ... It is also a love story with a tragic ending between an American  intellectual young man, a son an American senator, with a Vietnamese girl  ... " .
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