#vietnamese poetry

[feral-ballad]

Hò̂ Xuân Hương, tr. by John Balaban, from Spring Essence: The Poetry of Hò̂ Xuân Hương; "Autumn Landscape"

[Text ID: “breathing moonlight,”]

[t0rschlusspan1k]

The cruelest walls are made of glass.

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019)

[gennsoup]

Because taking a piece of my friend away from him made him more whole.

Ocean Vuong, Beautiful Short Loser

[itsdestiankoi]

Biển Diêm Điền, Việt Nam.

"Sóng bắt đầu từ gió

Gió bắt đầu từ đâu?

Em cũng không biết nữa

Khi nào ta yêu nhau"

-Xuân Quỳnh-

[typewriter-worries]

Bioluminescence, Paul Tran

[ Text ID: I exist. I am my life, ]

[soracities]

Love’s vast sea cannot be emptied. And springs of grace flow easily everywhere. Where is Nirvana? Nirvana is here, nine times out of ten

Hồ Xuân Hương , from “Spring-Watching” (trans. John Balaban)

[pandanworkshop]

fig tree analogy by sylvia plath, the bell jar

poster here

[fairydrowning]

"In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same, "nhớ". Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, "Có nhớ mẹ không?" I flinch, thinking you meant, "Do you remember me?" I miss you more than I remember you."

-Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

[imaginemirage]

As a girl, you watched, from a banana grove, your schoolhouse collapse after an American napalm raid. At five, you never stepped into a classroom again. Our mother tongue, then, is no mother at all- but an orphan. Our Vietnamese a time capsule, a mark of where your eudcation ended, ashed. Ma, to speak in our mother tongue is to speak only partially in Vietnamese, but entirealy in war.

Ocean Vuong

[sheshallfromtimetotime]

National Poetry Month - Day Twenty Six Kissing in Vietnamese - Ocean Vuong

[loonascode]

on a lover as a god (& my first vietnamese poem)

[feral-ballad]

Hò̂ Xuân Hương, tr. by John Balaban, from Spring Essence: The Poetry of Hò̂ Xuân Hương; "Offering Betel"

[Text ID: “If love is fated, you’ll chew it red.”]

[t0rschlusspan1k]

Sometimes you are erased before you are given the choice of stating who you are.

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019)

[gennsoup]

I'm on the cliff of myself & these aren't wings, they're futures.

Ocean Vuong, Beautiful Short Loser

[itsdestiankoi]

Tình nồng nhưng cũng phải tàn

Gió lay cành liễu, xuân xanh qua rồi.

Hoa lê lệ trắng khẽ rơi,

Vén rèm châu ấy, là người chờ ai...?

(Vén rèm châu -Liễu Nguyệt _ được truyền cảm hứng bởi bài hát Vén rèm châu của Hoắc Tôn)

[myrmeraki]

every time you include any of ocean vuong’s quotes about motherhood or childhood onto a web weave with ladybird and sharp objects you owe him 30 dollars