In respectful memory of my father’s venerated soul.

*
Extinguished the last flame
the end of eighty years of land life
father is gone. The young grass blades droop in grief
rustling through green seasons have I offered any more nutrition for life?

Father is gone
quietly after how many unfortunate seasons
nameless fields dulled with deep footprints
wondering who will scatter tomorrow’s seeds?

Mother’s spring poured into your current in thousands of days without regret
hoping you river expands to irrigate vegetation on both banks
leaving the source, the river rushes toward the desert
an exhausting life bending into a solitary body.

The spare silt of this earth washes away,
the land revealing its roots.
deep millions of footsteps, indistinct thousands of souls
the land nurses you, you fly away seeking other lands
at endgame the old buffalo could not go home in time

Extinguished the last thread of smoke
father is gone. I teeter in front of the opening evening gate
eighty gloomy years, father lit up once
waking my spirit with foggy memories.

Translated by Quang Can