Thoughts of Hanoi

A poem by Nguyen Thi Vinh

Translated by Nguyen Ngoc Bich
The night is deep and chill sowing harvesting
as in early autumn. Pitchblack, spinning weaving
it thickens after each lightning all year round,
flash. the boys
I dream of Hanoi: plowing
transplanting
Co-ngu Road ten years of in the fields
separation in their shops
the way back sliced by a frontier of running across
hatred the meadow at evening
I want to bury the past to fly kites
to bum the future and sing alternating songs.'
to still I yean
still I fear Stainless blue sky,
those endless nights jubilant voices of children
waiting for dawn. stumbling through the alphabet,
village graybeards strolling to the
Brother, temple,
how is Hang Dao now? grandmothers basking in twilight
How is Ngoc Son temple? sun,
Do the trains still run chewing betel leaves'
each day from Hanoi while the children run-
to the neighboring towns? Brother,
To Bac-ninh, Cam-giang, Yen-bai, how is all that now?
the small villages, islands Or is it obsolete?
of brown thatch in a lush green Are you like me,
sea? reliving the past,
The girls imagining the future?
bright eyes Do you count me as a friend
ruddy cheeks or am I the enemy in your eyes?
four-piece dresses Brother, I am afraid
raven-bill scarves' that one day I'll be with the March-
North Army' was,
meeting you on your way to the you and I in school together,
South. plotting our lives together?
I might be the one to shoot you Those roots go deep!
then
or you me Brother, we are men,
but please conscious of more
not with hatred. than material needs.
How can this happen to us
For don't you remember how it my friend

my foe?