Whence, Know You?


like a leaf falling as twilight falls
like dews evaporating in breezes returning
like fleeting rain on my forlorn shadow
from tomorrow's past, your name I called

like the sun forever re-dawning
my river of memories with its eternal turquoise tide
my nights of restless dreams filled
with images of you, tempestuous, like those Chicago storms

through the snowy archipelago, i navigate my boat of recollection
searching for untouched meadows, for love's boundaries
nights upon nights of endless insomnia
days pass by on my sails of remembrance
the falling rain, like you, sounds distant
teardrops conveyed the last words of love
each, after one another, falls
resembling the moonglows misting our life

like autumn sun gleaming on an aged river
whose waves severing love as they immerse it
in a lullaby of dreams unfinished

of an orchid cactus' (*) bloom, and you, my splendid yearning...

Original title: Noi Nao Em Co Biet by Truong Dinh (poem) & Ngo Thuy Mien (music)
Translated into English by Nguyen Phuoc Nguyen

(*) Latin name: Epiphyllum Grandilobum, a kind of scented night-flowering cactus