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THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467) VOLUME 7 NUMBER 2 JUL 2005
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DOAN
MINH HAI __________________________________ RELEASING
REINCARNATION Translated by DO VINH The
blind woman selling lottery tickets on
Tu Do Avenue, a one way street, now has
its name changed to Dong Khoi Avenue, also a one way street. I only go into town occasionally, once
in a while, and still see the old blind woman selling lottery tickets. The
blind woman selling lottery tickets on
u Do – Dong Khoi Avenue, why doesn’t she sell
on another street, or at another juncture of
this town that bears the name of uncle? What
fortune good or bad is she sel ling and for who, in this town? Is there
fortune good or bad for each
individual, or for the person who
is selling it for an entire people. The blind
woman selling lottery tickets on Tu Do – Dong Khoi Avenue. She
keeps selling. Her entire life she has
been blind. She does not see me. She cannot see anyone. Whereas I have to keep
seeing her standing on the curbside of
Tu Do – Dong Khoi Avenue,
her hands holding out
the lottery tickets inviting the men and women that pass her by... The blind woman selling
lottery tickets on Tu Do -- Dong Khoi avenue, how many tickets has she sold, what
else has she sold on this one-way street,
that her watery and tainted eyes twitch
with tears running down also one-way. The blind
woman selling
lottery tickets on Tu Do -- Dong Khoi Avenue, how many people can she
see in this town bearing uncle’s name, selling
lottery tickets like herself; and how
many blind
people like herself, including men, women old
and young, named and unnamed, with status and nameless selling lottery tickets like herself. How
can she see because she is the blind woman
selling lottery tickets on the curbside of rue de Catinat,
Tu Do – Dong Khoi Avenue. TRANSLATED BY
DO VINH The Writers Post &
literature-in-translation, founded
1999, based in the US. Editorial
note: Works
published in this issue are simultaneously published in the printed Wordbridge magazine (ISSN: 1540-1723). Copyright
© Doan
Minh Hai
2005. Nothing in this magazine may be
downloaded, distributed, or reproduced without the permission of the author/
translator/ artist/
The Writers Post/ and Wordbridge
magazine. Creating links to place The Writers Post or any of its pages within
other framesets or in other documents is copyright violation, and is not
permitted.
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