poetry
Vietnam! Vietnam!
Vietnam! Ayyyyyy..
ti sangit dagiti ubbing!
Pinisangda ti puso
ti lubong!
Iti pagbabakalan
um-umkisda nga agsapul
kadagiti amma ken kakabsatda.
Ay, pimmusingen dagiti takiag
a nangtagibi kadakuada!
Vietnam! Vietnam!
Vietnam! Saan laeng
a bagi ken pusom
ti pinungtil dagiti garamugam:
Rinagasragasdan, wen! dagiti
sabong ti kararuam! Ayyyyyy..
Vietnam! Vietnam!
Translated by the Poet
Vietnam! Vietnam!
Vietnam! Ayyyyyy..
the cry of children!
They rend the heart
of the world!
In the battlefields
they scream in search
of their fathers and brothers.
Ay, gone are the arms
that nurtured them!
Vietnam! Vietnam!
Vietnam! Not only
your body and heart
have the greedy sundered;
they have also ripped to pieces, yes, the
flowers of your soul! Ayyyyyy.. * Bannawag, Mayo 19, 1975
* Pamulinawen, Dandaniw, 1949-1975, Jose A. Bragado ken Benjamin M. Pascual,
eds. Metro Manila: GUMIL Filipinas, c1976), p. 134
* Read by the late poet Leonides Benesa, with the English translation, during
the Southeast Asian Poetry Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1979. Later translated
into Bahasa Indonesia and published in book form, with other poems.
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