Mother Gate by Mai Van Phan translated into English by Tran Nghi Hoang

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Mai Văn Phấn Translated from Vietnamese by Trần Nghi Hoàng Edited by Frederick Turner Mothergate (*)   I Mother nature caressing child as the moonlight Sound passing from bough to bough, the howling Skin and flesh of the woman I loved, Our love child spreading deep into the dark Entering into the dark night, Skin and flesh erect lift the layered clouds for us To make a watershed of rain over the sources of rivers A bough quivers on the water’s surface Where a bird suddenly perches Only I can see that small bird so far away from the road Far away from the garden, from the other flocks of birds I quietly pass through the corona at the bottom of the water And look up at the sky with open wings Rising to the top of the tree where the bird’s beak Bends down to feed into the mouths of its fledglings Each sip of wind Sound of chipped grain in the chest The bare ground and green fruit The dense-leaved canopy of the forest Newborn child on the ground Swim across the river the tadpole’s tail severing Learning to flaps its wings, fanning the wind into the nest’s warm bowel Sprouts the cotyledon leaves, flies away freely Steam rises by the river-wharf Space condenses the confusion of time Smoke steams up high I realize I am swimming in a sea mist Not mist but rain The tall tower glittering Breathing, muscles firm, the leaf singing... The dead return, suddenly, in the blossoming flower I shudder at a shoreline The water surface choking where there are no breaking waves A sip of cool water drifting slowly... Suddenly remembers the high tide season submerging the cricket’s cave Burble sound of bubbles gushing up by stages So that I realize where the cave mouth is... II Place child on the ground The riverbed has enough pain to tear off the body of night Nature glossy wet The trunk of trees disintegration turns into splinters Water swift flowing Flowing faster I burst into tears to sweep away the spider web Sound of the heron’s hoarseness The ashes flashing up Moon trembling Pick up a pebble to draw on the ground A field The young calf bewildered A clear outline as the calf bent down to graze Another direction draws an extra eye The eye of wild animals or eye of human Write the words on the remaining empty boxes. III The voice very close Under the light of dawn you must transform yourself! Fruits Firelights Yin Yang bowl of water While crawling over bowl of twilight Pull the body gradually out of the shell I sip the dewdrops The ghastly shell heaped up high Was out of reach Groups of people helping each other towards incapacity End of dawn. IV The shade of trees bursting out underfoot Images on the map are torn off? Or the half-bat half-mouse corpse? I was so frightened, weaving the grating Set booby-traps around myself Sharpening the knife Preparing a matchbox As close to the horizon The drifting darkness was terrible Faster than emotion I keep accumulating anxiety, the resentment Until the blackness of night was completely Erased off. V I chased small prey Threw myself upon the wave’s crest, then lost direction The low tide In the dream near morning My bones painful The tail and dorsal fin frostbitten There is a hand threading the strings Dragging me slowly on the ground They stopped to shelter from the rain Suddenly release me Near the foot of waves I was grateful the rain The loud thunder and cool wind. VI Father recently tried to get up after being bedridden, staggering out the door, he fell into a square block of light He tried to point his finger, then said: “That green beetle on a leaf canopy, father sees it for the first time”. I tell these unintentional stories about the time father was in a coma. A story of the large cloud that flew slowly through our home. The deep wells rising steam up to the window. One story about the song of the crypsirina temia bird, makes everyone look at the bowl of drugs. The body of father is like shallow rivers, dry wood, and the empty paddy grain The raceme of weighty fruits, swaying in the strong wind Father suddenly whispering: Please help father go to rest Sound of dried leaves sliding off the roof makes father and I shed tears together. VII The universe lays the black coat over me Only eyes open to pray Mumbling I still thought ... white hand black blood white tongue black tears white back black helix curl of white hair black sweat The black spilt on everything will end us Let’s pray to save the people of this world Lighthouse... Kitchen bright... Look in any direction Like learning to focus on the blackboard Learning to separate the colors To spell the letters This crossroad of white The earth’s surface, the seas surface white Great old man, a chair, the woman in white The inspector, the farmer in white... The mouth reads aloud, the mind still holds sundry thoughts …white tongue black tears white back black helix curl of white hair… VIII Curled up I sleep in cold wind Dream to be a fetus The navel-string connects to the solar Fly above canopy of the trees The eyes with a look, make the sound of sobbing… blue Every tiny bud of limbs Springing lightly in the body of Him I wake up That place starts on the road The colt unsteady standing up The flock of insects crawling out of the trunk The tiny shrimp blasting off the throat of water. IX drum gong and eight ornaments opens the festival of imperial court sing and dance to heaven the great merit of four palaces opens the mind of a disciple tolerant eyes look the quiet weather the special envoy giving out grace sincerity respectfully kowtow four gods flanking the lady god garb and turban of sorceress are brocade and flower embroidery. come and go refreshed moving between heaven and earth powdery cheeks and ruby lips rhythm of bamboo beating and rhythm of castanets string of coins sacred dragon hovering five great mandarins’ the hand swaying high talent deep virtue the flame glittering fondle protecting loving mason bee silkworm spits out the silk cord garb and scarf flapping alluvial cuddling wind coming back to the riverbed cassaba melon pyriform melon fragrance of lotus and areca pervading boys and girls entering the region prepare the sedge mat, prepare the blanket as flower, as butterfly faces glowing with pleasure as the ground is to the sky grass and trees in good verdant raining fast and violently … M.V.P ________  (*) Mothergate - Mother in this poem does not mean “mother” as normal. It carries the meaning of “the Way”, the “philosophy of belief.”. As: “The Way that can be told of is not an unvarying way; The names that can be named are not unvarying names. It was from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang; The named is but the mother that rears the ten thousand creatures, each after its kind” (Lao-tzu)