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THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467) VOLUME 4 NUMBER 2 JUL 2002
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Nguyen Thi
Thanh Binh ___________________________ Forked roads · Translated by Nguyen Ngoc Bich Why are you not my
lover and why am I not yours as we are meeting at a
forked road where you are holding a
woman kissing her another woman. And you are about to leave here he and I are also
holding and kissing then he disappears at a
forked road taking for granted that
nothing can be decided beforehand,
especially something that is neither
beautiful nor can be changed loves that stand at
forked roads with passionate kisses,
quick ones at red lights and yellow ones. Kisses to knock off green light paradoxes. For a happiness that cannot be real. For is there ever a happiness that is real? No.
Not every kissing lip can be equated with another
lip. A kiss in the dark is an illuminating
kiss. And the kissing lips of bearded men are totally
different from the kissing ones
of a man who has just been shaved. The kissing lips of someone who likes to smoke
cannot possibly carry the taste of some
gum-chewing guy waiting for his gal at a forked
road. Yet they both said goodbye. All three of us going our different
ways. Just like life with its multifarious
roads. And any road I take I can only find
a-little-of-this-man here and maybe a
little-more-of-him in that other guy. At forked roads or even crossroads that split four, five
or six ways. And nowhere is that man, the lover
I yearn for, him. It can’t be him who has vanished at a forked road. With the white clouds. Translated by Nguyen Ngoc Bich August 5, 2002 · THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467), Volume
4, Number 2 July 2002
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