Nguyen Thuy Kha
PROMETEO
Revista Latinoamericana de Poesía
Número 81-82. Julio de 2008.
A SHORT ANTHOLOGY
OF VIETNAMESE POETRY
Nguyen Thuy Kha
1949
Green Chilli
To me green doesn’t mean immaturity
Hot with pure flavor
Green chilli
The fire of green leaves
Burning me, a true love
Not the insistent appeal of taxi–girls
Not the long familiar sweet smell of my wife
The green chilli lover
By bouts I pinched and you offered yourself entirely
Like the Central Regions fiercely withstanding miseries
Why the Central Region
Why the green chilli?
Not made of firewood but I’ve been burned like a bush fire
I have been changed into charcoal ash and decomposed soil
How long will you be tempted to burn me?
Oh my lover
My green chilli.
Translated by Chau Dien.
Nguyễn Thuỵ Kha (born 1949) graduated from the University of Communications and Liaison in 1971 and from the Nguyen Du School of Writing and Literature in 1982. He was a soldier in the American war, and started writing poetry then. He is the author of 12 collections of poetry. He is also an amateur musician whose songs are quite popular in Vietnam. He received the Poetry Award of Van Nghe newsweekly in 1982 and some musical prizes from the Vietnam Musicians Association.