A little Viet Girl and the Pebbles
Poetic English version of a poem in Vietnamese
by TRAN TRUNG DAO
-This round candy is for Mother
This cubic candy is for Father
This little candy is for Big Sister
This big candy is for Little Brother
And this is the biggest! It is for…. me !
At Palawan seaside
The little Viet Child
Of just six or five
Counts pebbles and vocalizes.
To herself, she verbalizes
But also to someone beyond the skyline,
ôI come from Vietnam!ö
ThatÆs her answer, permanent and only
The word is simple, but people who forget it are many
This word she uses for her answer
She does remember !
For other questions, she answers
By pointing at the sea with her little finger.
Where is your mother ?
– Sleeping in the sea !
Where is your little brother ?
– The waves took him away !
Where is your big sister ?
– I heard her outcry on the deck
Where is your father ?
She shakes her head and remains silent.
A few days ago,
A little boat showed
With a handful of people
Among them like a miracle
An orphan child
Who after six weeks at sea did survive
The survivors did not know her origin
Her parents died at sea from hunger
Taken away by the sea pirates was her big sister
Drowned in the deep water was her one year old brother.
The survivors fed her with their own flesh and blood
Oh! those drops of blood
Had the miraculous power
Of keeping alive a little Viet Child
O, baby! When you grow up in any land, whatsoeveer
Don’t you ever change your Viet blood, your beloved,
That has been flowing non stop for four thousands years
And will flow for thousands of generations in the future.
-This round candy is for Mother
This cubic candy is for Father
This little dandy is for Big Sister
This big candy is for Little Brother
And this is the biggest! It is for ….me!
For a week, she has been murmuring something
Then, at the immense sea, she has been looking
As if she were waiting
For Mother to return from shopping.
Sometimes she repeats the expressions
That Mother often said to her with love emotion.
She lowers her head, but no one smoothes her hair
The sea keeps all her motherÆs love and she has no share
If someday, someone asks her, – What do you like ?
– I like the sea, will be her reply.
O, baby! the place of your father’s demise
The place where your big sister uttered a horrifying outcry
The place where your mother from hunger died
The place where your baby brother lost his life
Is the immense sea with billows high and white
O, baby! a pebble is your life
Tears will flow down for ever, once you cry.
HOAI VAN TU
