For hundreds of years the tower has been standing
The ocean on the other and the sands on this side
For thousands of generations the tower has been sunlighted
On the deserted hills
like a pause
on show.

Without a bush – without a cloud
Infinity of sunlight and immensity of sands
Sound is mute – time absent
White space dense in four directions.

Without a poem of admiration
Without a song of glorification
Still the tower is standing devoted to sunlight
In the desert of humankind’s cold heart.

The Sàigòn-to-Panduranga route
I have passed more than one hundred times
The tower is there – I pretended it were not
In a twinkle of skàna, space is inploded
The tower appears in its original
tower of sunlight
unbounded.

Translated by Nguyen Tien Van