Poets From Vietnam

"Bây giờ rõ mặt đôi ta, Biết đâu rồi nữa chẳng là chiêm bao?"

"Duyên hội ngộ, đức cù lao, Bên tình bên hiếu, bên nào nặng hơn? Để lời thệ hải minh sơn, Làm con trước phải đền ơn sinh thành."

"Trông vời cố quốc biết đâu là nhà."

"Sen tàn cúc lại nở hoa, Sầu dài ngày ngắn đông đà sang xuân."

"Trời còn để có hôm nay, Tan sương đầu ngõ vén mây giữa trời."

"Thiện căn ở tại lòng ta, Chữ tâm kia mới bằng ba chữ tài."

"As a medium for literature in Vietnam, the native tongue had been fighting a difficult battle against classical Chinese since the early part of the fifteenth century, when Nguyễn Trãi (1380–1442) wrote his short poems of four or eight lines. In a poem of over three thousand lines, Nguyễn Du led that fight to a victorious conclusion... By triumphantly rescuing Vietnamese poetry from the stranglehold of classical Chinese, Nguyễn Du performed for the vernacular what Dante had once done for Italian, liberating it from its position of subservience to Latin."

"Born into those foul times of dusk and dust, you reached and touched no soul mate by your side. Your sorrow matched the fate of humankind: Kieu spoke your thoughts and crystallized your life.Kings rose and fell—the poem still abides. You fought and won your feats on waves of words. You planted stakes in the Bach-dang of time: our language and the moon forever shine."

"Cảo thơm lần giở trước đèn, Phong tình có lục còn truyền sử xanh."

"West Lake flower garden: a desert, now. Alone, at the window, I read through old pages. A smudge of rouge, a scent of perfume, but I still weep. Is there a Fate for books? Why mourn for a half-burned poem? There is nothing, there is no one to question, and yet this misery feels like my own. Ah, in another three hundred years will anyone weep, remembering my fate?"

"Whether be written with any trend, poetry is always carrying the beauty of primordial, to the resurrection, recreate the world, forever opposed to the bad and evil."

"The poetic creation is nearly like the amazement state of a child who, in the first time, sees the strange phenomena of nature and finds out the human mysteries and complications... The poet is a selected person (temporarily called as a God-selected person), who is “granted a favour”in the spirit of Jesus Christ, or meets a “good fortune” in Buddhism."

"Miracle: The miracle exists on earth, not in the skies. Truly walking the Noble Path as explored and taught by the Buddha would change our whole life for better. This is the way to bring a real miracle in the suffering world."

"Transformation: Compassion and loving kindness can transform an enemy into a friend, while right view and wisdom can transform suffering into happiness."

"Dialogue: In dialogue, it does not matter whether you are a winner or loser, neither the opponent is right or wrong; the important thing is how you could realise and live the truth peacefully."

"Happiness: The art of living happily is to forget the past which no longer exists, not to be worried about the future which has not come yet, and to live the present movement mindfully and wisely. All we have is here and now."

"Purpose of Life: The purpose of life is to live the life joyously, mindfully, peacefully and wisely."

"Walk the Path: No truth can set you free unless you walk the enlightened path diligently, pragmatically and wisely."

"Power of Now: Don't regret over the past because it's over. Don’t worry about the future because it is not here yet. Smile at the present movement, because this is real. Your excellent future depends on your present right actions."

"Achievement: Believe in yourself, plan wisely to set attainable goals, move forward courageously, solve the problems effectively and achievement will be yours."

"Harmony: A single candle can lit a thousand candles without losing anything. It is the multitude of trees that make a forest. Let us be like those shining candles and useful trees benefitting all sentient beings."

"Success: Pessimism and giving up are greatest weaknesses. Our failures are essential stepping stones to success. Motivate yourself and develop the will to win. Never quit halfway. The only way to excellent achievement is to try again and again with hope and confidence."

"Value Time: Our time on the earth is limited. There are so many things to do in this limited life span. So you have to manage your day and time wisely. Don’t be a fool to waste your precious time and life."

"Peace: Real peace always comes from within. Without the practice of insight meditation and universal brotherhood, the inner peace cannot last long and our existence would be threatened."

"Friendship: A true friend will always listen to you patiently, assist you readily, stand with you boldly, advise you wisely, heal your wounds tenderly, and help you transform your pain effectively."

"Another great teacher of mine (even though we have not met) is the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. And he says in The Raft Is Not the Shore that "great humans bring with them something like a hallowed atmosphere, and when we seek them out, then we feel peace, we feel love, we feel courage." His words appropriately define what it was like for me to be in the presence of Paulo. I spend hours alone with him, talking, listening to music, eating ice cream at my favorite cafe. Seriously, Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that a certain milieu is born at the same time as a great teacher. And he says: “When you [the teacher] come and stay one hour with us, you bring that milieu...It is as though you bring a candle into the room. The candle is there; there is a kind of light-zone you bring in. When a sage is there and you sit near him, you feel light, you feel peace.”"

"One of the things he says is that we don't know how to feel peace. We don't understand the joy that is peace. We think that it's boring. And that is an aesthetic and a social perception. He is dealing with many of these same problems we are facing, and I just know he has some answers."

"Thich Nhat Hanh is a real poet."

"Our actions are our only true belongings, counsels Thich Nhat Hanh."

"Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha."

"When I was in Vietnam, so many of our villages were being bombed. Along with my monastic brothers and sisters, I had to decide what to do. Should we continue to practice in our monasteries, or should we leave the meditation halls in order to help the people who were suffering under the bombs? After careful reflection, we decided to do both—to go out and help people and to do so in mindfulness. We called it engaged Buddhism. Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. …We must be aware of the real problems of the world. Then, with mindfulness, we will know what to do and what not to do to be of help. p. 91"

"May we let the sadness come and teach us how to live. Let it be the mud for the lotus, as Thay [Thich Nhat Hanh] says. Let us sit with it and let it pass through us so that it might be transformed to something like love."

"I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam. This would be a notably auspicious year for you to bestow your Prize on the Venerable Nhat Hanh. Here is an apostle of peace and non-violence, cruelly separated from his own people while they are oppressed by a vicious war which has grown to threaten the sanity and security of the entire world."

"I know Thich Nhat Hanh, and am privileged to call him my friend..."

"Thich Nhat Hanh offers a way out of this nightmare, a solution acceptable to rational leaders. He has traveled the world, counseling statesmen, religious leaders, scholars and writers, and enlisting their support. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity."

"Thích Nhất Hạnh is an influential religious innovator, who has actively adapted and transformed Buddhist ideas and practices to make them more suitable for Western religious markets. He has succeeded admirably: he is undoubtably one of the best-known and most popular Buddhist leaders in the world today, and his notion of "mindfulness" has spread far beyond the limits of religion proper, to the point it has become a buzzword used regularly in lifestyle magazines and management courses. … Nevertheless, the statement that Thích Nhất Hạnh's ideas "do not have any affinity with or any foundation in traditional Vietnamese Buddhist practices" is arguably too simplistic. In particular, his notion of "engaged Buddhism" … reflects a longer tradition of Buddhist social and political activism, in Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia."

"Birds' songs express joy, beauty, and purity, and evoke in us vitality and love. So many beings in the universe love us unconditionally. The trees, the water, and the air don't ask anything of us; they just love us. Even though we need this kind of love, we continue to destroy them. By destroying the animals, the air, and the trees, we are destroying ourselves."

"If you see someone who is trying to shoot, to destroy, you have to do your best in order to prevent him or her to do so. You must. But you must do it out of your compassion, of your willingness to protect, and not out of anger. That is the key. If you need to use force, you have to use it, but you have to make sure that you act out of compassion and a willingness to protect, not out of anger."

"When you understand the roots of anger in yourself and in the other, your mind will enjoy true peace, joy and lightness"

"When you feel anger arising, remember to return to your breathing and follow it. The other person may see that you are practicing, and she may even apologize."

"Your first love has no beginning or end. Your first love is not your first love, and it is not your last. It is just love. It is one with everything."

"The quality of our life depends on the quality of the seeds that lie deep in our consciousness."

"The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation, is in the way we handle this very moment."

"Seeds can produce seeds Seeds can produce formations. Formations can produce seeds. Formations can produce formations."

"Undoubtedly, even for enlightened men, however determined they may be, it is very difficult to go against the system. The question posed today is what must we do to prevent ourselves from being taken over by the system? Engaging in political or economic conflict does not seem to be the answer."

"One included all, and all were contained in one."

"The leaf and his body were one. Neither possessed a separate permanent self. Neither could exist independently from the rest of the universe."

"Contemplating the bowl, it is possible to see the interdependent elements which give rise to the bowl."

"Freedom from suffering is a great happiness."

"The Buddha also counseled the monks and nuns to avoid wasting any precious time by engaging in idle conversation, oversleeping, pursuing fame and recognition, chasing after desires, spending time with people of poor character, and being satisfied with only a shallow understanding of the teaching."