Huu Thinh
PROMETEO
Revista Latinoamericana de Poesía
Número 81-82. Julio de 2008.
A SHORT ANTHOLOGY
OF VIETNAMESE POETRY
Huu Thinh
1942
ASKING
I ask the earth: How does earth live with earth?
-We honor each other.
I ask water: How does the water live with water?
-We fill each other up.
I ask the grass: How does grass live with grass?
-We wave into one another creating horizons.
I ask man: How does man live with man?
I ask man: How does man live with man?
I ask man: How does man live with man?
Translated by George Evans & Nguyen Quy Duc.
1992
Hữu Thỉnh (born 1942) joined the army as a member of tank corps in 1963. After the American war, in 1975 he entered the College for the Study of Culture and studied at the Nguyen Du Institute. He has won the Poetry Award of the Vietnamese Writers Association twice (for On The Way To The City in 1980 and for Winter Letter in 1995). He received the Vietnam - ASEAN Poetry Award from the Association of South East Asian Nations in 1999, and the Vietnam National Poetry Award in 2001. He is currently President of the Vietnam Writers Association.