Hữu Thỉnh, "Poem Written by the Sea"

[the_grynne]

POEM WRITTEN BY THE SEA

When you're far away
The moon too is alone,
The sun alone,
The sea, proud of its vastness,
Is quick to be lonely
                               when briefly without sails.

The wind is not a whip, but still erodes the mountainsides.
You are not an evening, but dye me violet.

A wave goes nowhere
                                   if it isn't bringing you back.

Even so,
It staggers me
Because of you.

HU'U THINH

Translated from the Vietnamese by George Evans and Nguyen Qui Duc