Spring Poem Written In Exile

“Thơ Xuân Đất Khách”

Vietnamese poem by Thanh Nam (1977)                                                                                                                                                    English translation by Đàm Trung Pháp (2020)  

THANH NAM (1931-1985)

One of the most cherished literati in pre-1975 Saigon was the writer and poet Thanh Nam [1]. This popular author of more than twenty novels was also noted for his exquisite poetry. People loved Thanh Nam because of his intellectual probity – he wrote about life as he had actually lived it. Thus, his prose and his poetry were all about real life. “Thanh Nam’s real soul penetrates his literary works,” noted Bình Nguyên Lộc [2]. “The style is the man himself. This saying fits Thanh Nam perfectly,” declared Mai Thảo [3]. Although his first novel was published in Saigon in 1957, he started writing in Hanoi in the early 1950s. In 1952, he moved to Saigon and flourished in the literary circle there until the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975. If we needed just one publication to introduce Thanh Nam, that would be his 1983 poetic collection “Đất khách” (“In exile”); and if we needed to read just one poem typical of him, that would be his “Thơ xuân đất khách” (“Spring poem written in exile”). Thanh Nam penned “Thơ xuân đất khách” in Seattle on February 18, 1977, which was also the first day of the Lunar Year of the Snake (Đinh Tỵ). This first day of the lunar year is a most solemn time, during which the Vietnamese honor their ancestors, visit relatives and friends, wear their nicest clothes, and rejoice. His suffering from culture shock and nostalgia imbues the content of this poem [4].

SPRING POEM WRITTEN IN EXILE

THƠ XUÂN ĐẤT KHÁCH

Nonchalantly dropped the calendar leaf marking the new year

 Tờ lịch đầu năm rớt hững hờ

Which reminded me that seasons had changed

 Mới hay năm tháng đã thay mùa

Since the day I left as an expatriate

Ra đi từ thuở làm ly khách

Two springs of homesickness had willy-nilly gone by

 Sầu xứ hai xuân chẳng đợi chờ

Drifting from the East to the North