August 15, 2013

Nguyen Phuong Uyen’s poem “My Native Land” before her arrest

by • Nguyen Phuong Uyen

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Tho Phuong UyenTranslated by Tô’-Tâm NKTA

Nguyen Phuong Uyen
(About 5-6 months before her arrest)

My Native Land

Hasn’t wars the country forsaken?
Why then her people the pain endure, are still beaten?
Yet the boastful regime continues, vainglorious
Strutting with its postwar tragicomedy, gloating.

The deceptive opportunists
Bloody Red with greed,
Preying upon the hapless citizens, grappling with their future
Hiding in the shadow of Uncle and Party flags,
They have quietly sold our homeland.

Dear Fatherland!
Dear fellow countrymen, whose hearts will bleed for you?
Or trace your deepest pain imbedded in your hearts?
When ravaging wars embattled our land
And heap upon it the mass graves of majestic proportions.

Corpses laid strewn with eyes rolled back, begging for answer:
Our country for thousand years protected and defended
By the blood and flesh of millions
Now misshapen by “the so-called defenders,” offering it to their enemy
Without so much a bullet!
Mocking our forebears and current dissenting voices!
Of the unjust sacrifices!

Sacred fatherland, do you still exist?
Buddha cries, heroes shed their blood
Faith wanders, justice sinks to the sea floor,
And a stupor overwhelms the land with uneasy sleep.

Dear compatriots!
Are we not Vietnamese?
How long could you stand indifferent before our country’s lot?
Let’s strive to discover our true pride and destiny.

Let’s fight to renovate our freedom,
Let’s wrestle back our territorial land and water
Dear all who are fellow Vietnam nationals
Let’s join hands to retain our roots for tomorrow’s descendants.

Nguyen Phuong Uyen

Source: VOA

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