Lam Thi My Da

In seiner Rubrik Poet’s Choice stellt Edward Hirsch diese Woche zwei vietnamesische Dichterinnen vor:

The poetry of earth is never dead.

— John Keats, „On the Grasshopper and Cricket“

Here is an understated and beautiful little four-line poem by the contemporary Vietnamese poet Lam Thi My Da, which suggests that war may test the truth of Keats’s claim but does not refute it. Like a tiny metaphysical poem by Marvell or Donne, the quatrain creates an argument that hinges on the word „but“ at the start of the second line.

Garden Fragrance

Last night a bomb exploded on the veranda
But sounds of birds sweeten the earth this morning.
I hear the fragrant trees, look in the garden,
Find two silent clusters of ripe guavas.

/Washington Post, August 31, 2003; Page BW12

„6 Vietnamese Poets,“ edited by Nguyen Ba Chung and Kevin Bowen. Curbstone Press