So beautiful red leaves of maple trees

Sparkle in the wind with elegance and grace.

There’s one more thing I'm dying to see

It’s your face, your heart-shaking smiling face.

H. T. Diep, Kyoto, November 2013.

It rains on my head

It rains in my soul

I see nothing ahead

I hear some thunder blows

 

I walk down the road

Trees go twist and sway

Is the will of God

That men should go away?

 

That I come here to pass?

That I'm not here to stay?

Time flies, time flies so fast

So goes my every day

 

The storm is here to last

The storm is here to play

I cry, I shout aloud

Forever I love you so

 

The rain is endless

The wind still blows

It's a day of sadness

It’s a day of sorrow.

Hung T. Diep, November 21, 2012.

(*) Term in quantum physics indicating a finite existence-time of some quasi-particles and excited states.

 

Il pleure dans mon coeur

Comme il pleut sur la ville

Quelle est cette langueur

Qui pénètre mon coeur?

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896).

Why in such a way

I met you today,

If life´s already set,

If love´s in no way?

 

You come as a gust

Shaking up my life

Wiping my heart dust

Stirring up my days

 

I love you so much

I love you my way

Do you feel as such

Though I couldn’t say?

 

I know it´d be tough

I don't know the way

But if love’s strong enough

Why we stay away?

 

Why are we afraid,

Why should we worry,

Though we fall in love

In a stormy sea?

 

As an old song said

In a perfect manner

"Don't carry the world

Upon your shoulder(*)

Hung T. Diep, Dec. 22, 2016.

 

(*) Hey Jude, The Beatles.

(MY UNKNOWN SOMEONE)

In the color of momiji

In this autumn, on that day

My heart shaken, I fell madly in love

With someone unknown, thousands of miles away.

H. T. Diep, November 2012.

The moon is suspended

On a dark-blue sky

Time is going by

I am disconcerted

 

The moon sheds a pale light

On faraway wheat-field carpets

A steady song of crickets

Breaks the silence of the night

 

The moon, in constant loneliness,

Covers the world with mysteries

The moonlight over forests and seas

Makes me feel a no-named sadness

 

In one thousand years, in one million

The moon will be there invariably

She will be there alone inexorably

What will remain here? I am in deep emotion

 

I love you and I want you to know it,

In this life or in another destiny

I don't want, I want you to know it,

To be like the moon in solitude endlessly

H. T. Diep, 2010.

The snow is falling on the leafless trees

The snow is falling on the empty streets of Paris

You went away from the world this morning

leaving behind your pain, your suffering.

 

In this room, in this gloomy scene,

in the light from the snowy sky

You’re lying there, immobile and serene

I cry, I can't stand, I feel I could die.

 

It snows on Paris, it snows endlessly

Is it your way to say good bye ?

Again I whisper desperately

I love you, son, you won't die.

Hung T. Diep.

I wake up in the night

looking through the darkness

I wake up in the night

feeling deeply this sadness.

 

A growing loneliness

comes to overwhelm me

Again and again I ask

why such a destiny?

 

I can’t stop thinking

of the tragedy we had

I can’t stop wondering

why life is so sad.

 

You have been suffering,

my son, my dear son,

You have been struggling

in vain the last five months.

 

On that day of snow,

you have passed away.

On that day of sorrow,

you have gone away.

 

You have left behind

all the ones you love

You are left behind

in my heart my mind.

 

I still can’t find

the reason why you left

I still can’t find

the meaning of your death

 

I am in a doubt

on the sense of Faith,

I am in a doubt

on my own Belief.

 

Suddenly I hear

your mother’s weeping.

A lump comes in my throat,

I can’t stop my tears.

 

The night is still dark,

the night is white.

We are still awake

when comes the morning light.

H. T. Diep, 14 Feb. 2004.