By Tuệ Sỹ, translated by Nguyen Ba Chung and Martha Collins
Riding an ant, we seek a fairy’s cave
A realm of long life, where butterflies flutter
Where toads and frogs wander, looking for food
Where, in a deep hole, a snake dreams
At the cave’s mouth, a circle of dancing bees
A forest flower paints her sensuous face
Shamed by their lack of beauty, old reeds rise
And become a fairy with fluttering white hair
Weary ants crawl around, searching for food
On our backs: a debt of gratitude and love
The same destiny, lost in a strange land
Same affection, felt in the faint sunlight
We ask the ant: Where is the Pure Land —
Beyond emptiness, there, in the tracks of birds
Away from the call of the black, bitter earth
Where the light of thought takes over from the sun?
We call to the ants, to faltering silver clouds
As we travel along the road, our troubled country
We peel back the past, astonishing deities
And bite infinity, breaking the dream in two
The country has been pensive since that day
When late-night forest fires loved dead leaves
Now we seek a heart that’s been broken
Hungry for time, we gnaw at nothingness.
Source: Guernicamag