(Ảnh: Tác giả)
Hai đứa chung nhau một mái trường
Lần đầu gặp gỡ thoáng tơ vương
Nhìn nhau e ấp tình như đã
Rộn rã trong lòng xuân ngát hương
Em bước theo anh đến giáo đường
Nghe hồn man mác chút niềm riêng
Lâm râm anh khấn lời đoan thệ
Cầm lấy tay em dệt ước nguyền
Rưng rưng trong mắt đôi dòng lệ
Biết Chúa thương mà cho chúng ta
Kết hợp mối duyên nhiều ước mộng
Hay vì khác đạo phải chia xa !
Anh lễ nhà thờ, em lễ chùa
Chắc tình hai đứa chẳng chung cùng
Xa xa nghe tiếng kinh cầu nguyện
Chuông đổ từng cơn nóc giáo đường
Rồi chinh chiến lan tràn thôn xóm
Anh bỏ mái trường xa cả em
Quên Chúa quên luôn ngày chủ nhật
Chiến y buồn thăm thẳm trời đêm...
Rồi anh đi mãi mãi không về
Dâng hiến đời trai cho núi sông
Trường cũ người xưa mòn mõi đợi
Phượng buồn rũ chết dưới màn sương...
Chiều nay nhặt cánh hoa tàn rụng
Tiếc nhớ làm sao một mối tình
Hơn bốn mươi năm dài cách biệt
Tóc phai màu tình vẫn không phai
Từ non nước mang màu tang tóc
Em đã xa và đã mất anh
Trường cũ thầy xưa đâu thấy nữa
Chuyện chúng mình nhức buốt thâu canh
Nhìn gương điểm phấn tô son lại
Mong gặp người xưa cạn nỗi niềm
Dẫu biết nghìn năm không gặp nữa
Tình anh em giữ trọn trong tim...
The Hearty Streams Of Consciousness Return To The Heart
by Nguyễn Phan Ngọc An
Translated from Vietnamese into English by Hương Cau Cao Tân
on 22 December, 2021, in British Columbia, Canada
Being a wanderer in diaspora as homeland is so far away
I am tossing and turning during nights and also in days
Looking over towards home country in thousands of miles of distance
Where it is at the very end of the faraway horizon over blue oceans
In this land there is often draught and lacking the soothing rain
While people are struggling exhaustedly with life till night and in pain
Seeing that makes me feel pity for people with poor destiny
Where deep loving relationship are severed and parted so painfully...
The hearty streams of consciousness return to the heart silently
Recalling the age of savouring tamarind chewy with a decent quiet beauty
Although the city we are living in is not so large in greatness
But the humanity and friendship are deep and limitless
And my home country is full of sweet fruits and healthy trees
Where there are angelic long dresses and fresh hope that are so dreamy
How much I love streets lined with bright red royal Poinciana trees
Where I will be pacing in slow steps after class waiting for you intentionally
We were sharing the same loving school in our study
It was “love at first sight” which had happened so lightly
Though our looking was timid and shy, but love was certainly there
And in our heart we felt the spring was present everywhere
I followed you to the church in your devotion
Yet I felt in my heart something like private emotion
While you were whispering the vow of loyalty
And holding my hands as if you were weaving the oaths for eternity
Yet in our tear swelled eyes the two streams of tears would be falling
Not knowing if God would allow us to fulfill our acceptable loving
As He combined the destined love that had plenty of unfulfilled dreams
Or would it be separated due to faith differences so it seemed!
Then you attended the ceremonies at the church and I the pagodas
Perhaps our love was not yet close but actually was too far
I still could hear the chanting of prayers in the distant
And from the top of the church came the sounds of bells in succession
Then war came invading our village and the whole country
You quit the loving school and left everything and me
God were forgotten and Sundays were no longer in your mind
There were only the war outfits looking deeply sad in the depth of nights...
Then you went away, never to return, if ever
You devoted your youthful life to the mountains and the rivers
While at the old school old person was gradually declining in her waiting
The royal Poinciana trees were in the dew wastefully and sadly dying...
Now as I am picking up a fallen wasted flower this evening
Oh how I feel so regretful about our love in my missing
Though it has been more than forty years in the separating
The colour of hair has faded yet love has not in its fading
Since the day the home country started wearing the mourning colour
I have been away from you and lost you perhaps forever
The old school along with dear teachers have gone out of sight
And our love have been tormenting us all through the nights
As I am looking at myself in the mirror, reapplying the lipstick
I am dying to meet my old soulmate to satisfy my lovesick
Even though we will still for thousands of years be apart
I will always remember and keep your love fully in my heart ...
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