Oh, my soul!

Dịch theo bài 'Ôi Linh Hồn Tôi' của Nguyễn tà Cúc

                                                                                

Greeting seasons have passed by from year to year,

We have exchanged so many things that they called them gifts!

Have we received these gifts for fun or for worship?

Little dolls with blinking eyes,

Little toy trains spinning around the little garden of memory.

You could hear the train whistle blowing in the station of reality,

Where those sweet kisses are made of.

I have given you those long hairs absorbing a familiar perfume,

Warm tears falling on the cheek and cold smiles appearing on the face.

I have given you my shadow,

Loyally following you to your destined grave.

I have given you new money, and old happiness.

Oh, that happiness was just like the falling stars,

As sweet as a knife sticking suddenly into the frightened heart.

I could give you everything I own.

But there is something that I would never give up -

Please don't even ask!

I could give you a little temple in my soul

That is my ultimate refuge.

Where the door is tightly shut,

Keeping me from any earthy contacts -

Sheltering me from loves and earthy desires.

My place is similar to the temple of a monk.

Where I keep beating a little drum.

A little shadow in the memory appears. 

I'm sitting here to contemplate those short love lives,

Where the ghosts neither come from the pictures hanging on the wall or from the pages of a book -

But they come from the bottom of my soul.oH

I'm singing these sad love songs,

To attract the lonely souls from the cemeteries.

The bell tolls to no one but to only me.

I would like to keep a little space between you and me,

And I will not allow you to cross.

I'm very gentle but very determinable:

Please, neither step over nor even look back at this sacred territory.

I will patrol it carefully,

As a soldier who is being ready for a fierce battle,

Even though I don't have bayonets or bullets.

Because, all I need a little space

For simply breathing and curling up.

Where it's very quiet

And I could listen to the distance slow steps.

These are my own steps,

To track my way back after those hopeless circumstances.

I could give you my heart but not my soul.

Without a soul I would be a ghost,

Wandering endlessly in the Nine-Story castle from hell,

And getting lost because of not having a spirit.

Neither chains nor ropes can tie me to the happy love boat.

My soul, will forever reside on the river bank,

Watching you and my heart disappearing with the love boat

At the end of the distant horizon.

I have many enemies and many close friends.

Most of my enemies are either dead

Or waiting for the angles of dead.

Except I am still keeping these old friendships,

Just like I'm hanging on to the little temple in my old and cold soul.

As little shadow in the dark and painful memory.

As an absolute distance between you and me.

A little soul that declines to be bought, sold or traded.

To escape a cold and bitter winter shade,

To enjoy an upcoming spring.

We still have all these friendships.

Now you know why I keep my soul to my own:

Where I have been exhibiting the memory of all sadness and happiness -

All the warm falling tears and the cold smiles.

Sói Đồng Hoang - Christmas 1995