A Vietnamese Woman
I met a vietnamese woman in the C.B.D
She looked little, though, but truly dainty
We talked over fates and one's lot
I found her charitable and thoughty
The buddhism allotted her classy
Which brought the meeting a bit lucky
I imagined she might be an embodiment
Delivering me courages from unseen
By firm beliefs impressed me to follow
And
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, 1st grade, beauty, care,
Form: Free verse
The Unfortunate Plight of Women by Ho Xuan Huong - English Translation by Michael R Burch
Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1882) was a risqué Vietnamese poetess. She has been called "the candid voice of a liberal female in a male-dominated society."
The Unfortunate Plight of Women
by Ho Xuan Huong
translation by Michael R. Burch
Hey sisters, do you know?
The baby bawls at your breast
While your husband slides onto your stomach.
Both demanding your attention,
Both endlessly
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, baby, children, husband, sister,
Form: Free verse
Vietnamese and Cantonese
Nguyen was quite a linguist
She spoke
Chinese
Japanese
Taiwanese
Vietnamese &
Cantonese
But not
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, giggle, language, word play,
Form: Rhyme
Ho Xuan Huong English Translations from the Vietnamese
Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1882) was a risqué Vietnamese poetess. She has been called the BEST Vietnamese poet, a proto-feminist, and "the candid voice of a liberal female in a male-dominated society."
?c Nh?i ("The Snail")
by Ho Xuan Huong
translation by Michael R. Burch
My parents produced a snail,
Night and day it slithers through slimy grass.
If you
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, animal, body, heart, nature,
Form: Free verse
Answer To the Vietnamese Enemy
I knew you don't go in,
But I wasn't coming out.
When you're a fish in the fish bowl
Going belly up.
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, war,
Form: Free verse
Vietnamese Tiger Bone Paste
Vietnamese Tiger Bone Paste
How can it be? That a magnificent tiger gets turned into bone paste? I never knew it was possible. The email I got confirmed it was. Sign the petition they asked.
I did.
It's in Vietnam. Here the tigers are killed and then processed. I don't want to know how they do
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, animal, conflict, death, horror,
Form: Verse
A Vietnamese Wedding Party
a long parade of guests in pairs, longing for a chair or two,
a hundred or so, and their ice-creamed children,
pushing through the market sounds, the glistening fish and meat,
against the dying piggy- squeals, by the river’s flowing feet
wearing blacks and browns, some with prison- frowns, a tide against
the wedding's beach: and in amongst
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Categories:
vietnamese, love, lust, men, wedding,
Form: Free verse
Vietnamese Restaurant
VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT
September afternoon in Saigon,
Delicately-embroidered decorative
Cloth-pieces on furniture,
From the French imperial era.
Scary African wood-carvings,
And my little girl frightened to even look
At some of the wooden masks.
Table in the near dark: a comfort away from
The glaring heat of the street.
Warm
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, places
Form: Free verse
Ode To a Vietnamese Doughnut
she says she is tired
she says
...things are not going so
well
she says
she can't hang her paintings
cause
the space isn't
right
she says
...things are not
going
not going so
well
i light a single stick
cheap
chinatown
incense
it worked in the 15 by 15 foot
buddhist temple
red
by the
freeway
for my
son
snuggling on my chest
my room is 15 by 15 foot
i
wonder if
it will work
as
well
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, allegory
Form: Blank verse
Mrs. Quincy's Twin Vietnamese Spotted Ponies
"Der aint nothin wrong with dat,"
said Haile Brown.
Mrs. Quincy's twin Vietnamese spotted ponies
had been shot
both dead
for trespassing on L. Ron Clark's property.
"They scared my sheep.
Chased em all over the place.
Aint gonna put up with none of that,"
said L. Ron Clark.
"Reckon she shoulda penned em up.
Cant spect no one to tol-rate that sorta nonsense,"
said Haile Brown.
Mrs.
...
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Categories:
vietnamese, social
Form: Narrative