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THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467) VOLUME 7 NUMBER 2 JUL 2005
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CHU
VUONG MIEN ___________________________________________ two poems by CHU VUONG MIEN translated by Peter Le Nguyen THE WORDS Words have no meaning Unless used by the writing There are words in front As are those in the back And even some in the middle court Words are made long and short There are words we use common everyday There are words that are capitalized, which we say There are words that are connected by the heart Yet we drift us far apart Some words depend on others to be refine There exist words above
all others all the time There are words that are
equal From the beginning to end
with no sequels WHITE CRAB People who harvest for
food are exhausted and showing disillusion Because this, some steal
from others with no conclusion Great civilizations bleed
each other like a leech While you prance around
all day and night, on top of the beach Making a castle of sand,
since you have no goals to reach Like the wheel of a mouse
cage our lives turn Cycling all day and all
nigh what can we learn Forgetting to sleep which
we all yearn Our lives work too heard and much to get the boot Bathing in our birthday
suits Swimming in a river full
of suffering and hounding Ultimately yet slowly
drowning While you live the life
without even frowning Translated by Peter Le Nguyen 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
© Chu
Vuong Mien
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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