Lam Thi My Da        

Cock a-doo—

Cock a-doo—

The rooster fills his lungs with daylight.

The grandmother's broom sweeps layers of night away.

Moonlight dissolves in the white areca blossoms.

The boiling rice-pot sounds like a burst of rain.

The mother rolls up her pants

and lifts her shoulder poles to carry seed.

The father exhales pipe smoke

breath by grey-blue breath

Voices laugh in the distance.

In the mist by the village road

damp grass are barely visible

spiders' webs.

The river market is bustling,

brimming with vegetables.

An oar rustles lightly,

the river trembles.

Night blooms

like an egg into day.

Dreaming birds sing in the trees.

Falling stars fill the cistern.

There's a lazy man

who often sleeps late.

This morning he wakes early

and stands to watch the day break.

Now his idleness saddens him

because he knows it has made him lose

all those clear cool dawns.

Translated from the original Vietnamese by Martha Collins and Thuy Dinh