Tô Thuỳ Yên | The empty café

By Tô Thuỳ Yên, translation by Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm (Link)

The empty café

 

Heading there, perhaps for a date

A date with whom I can’t remember

 

Heading there, a desiccated heart the hollowness of a ball

Grasping exhaustingly at earthly cravings

 

This afternoon was harsh with sunlight…

This afternoon was heavy with rain…

 

The empty café, not a soul a being in sight

The lamp is like a thousand years in waiting

 

My fault, it can only be my fault

Unable to recall the right time

 

I’m sorry, to you my apology

You came, and no one was here to meet you

 

Life is such a mess

There’s no point rushing

Try anyway, hold it together

So it’s worth the trip

 

This afternoon was harsh with sunlight…

This afternoon was heavy with rain…

 

The café empty, the lamp is like 

A thousand years in waiting

(November 2021)

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Tô Thuỳ Yên (1938-2019) real name was Đinh Thành Tiên, born in Go Vap, Gia Dinh, Vietnam, an alumnus at Petrus Ký and Đại học Văn khoa Sài Gòn. He was a teacher and journalist in Saigon, a Major in the Vietnam Army prior to 1975. After 1975 served 13 years in re-education camps, in 1993, he moved with his family to the United States as a former political prisoner.
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Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the poet and translator, born 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.