NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH (Vietnam)
Nguyễn Thị Thùy Linh, born in 1991, is a poetess and literary translator who now lives in Hai Phong City, Vietnam. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Hanoi National Economic University. She was awarded “The Gold Moon of 6-8 poetry Prize,” the highest prize given by The Elder Newspaper and Website lucbat.com (co-organizer), under the auspices of Vietnamese Fatherland Front Central Committee and Buddisht Sangha of Vietnam. In addition, she won the Second Prize in a poetry contest awarded by “Văn nghệ quân đội” literary magazine for the years of 2015-2016. She has translated and published two books, a children’s book titled “The twin dolls to the earth” (Publishing House of The Vietnam Writer’s Association, 2016) written by Milutin Đuričković (Serbia) and a poetry collection called “Wings of the darkness” (Publishing House of The Vietnam Writer’s Association, 2018) composed by Raed Aljishi (Saudi Arabia). Nguyễn Thị Thùy Linh has translated from English into Vietnamese (and published in many Vietnamese newspapers and magazines) numerous international poems authored by Dr. Gjekë Marinaj (Albania – America), Raymond Keen (America), Lars Vargö (Sweden), Rati Saxena (India), Metin Cengiz and Müesser Yeniay (Turkey), Fethi Sassi (Tunisia), Asror Allayarov and Makhfuza Imamova (Uzbekistan), Dimitris P. Kraniotis (Greece), and Raed Aljishi (Saudi Arabia)… Her poetry has translated and published in many languages.
In the nail salon
A grey cat
Lying on the grey salon
Dreamy eyes folowing to music
The manicurist just finished
Drawing a white cloud
Erased all again
Changed to night sky
Purple-blue background
This finger painted cat eye style
This finger a silver crescent
Studded a sparkling star
I hesitated
Unfamiliar with cool color tones
Strange to her new world
Please add more a little light,
It seemed she didn’t hear me
Still absorbed in purple-blue sky
Gradually appearing on my tiny fingernails
While warming my hands waiting for the sky to dry
I was surprised to see a bright red flower
Crawling out from the crack in the steps.
Waking up in the middle night
Lying still and holding my breath
Seeing my soul opening the door to yard
The space so wondrous
The moon slowly descends into my arms
In the sky, many fresh flowers blooming
Hugging the moon passionately, I remember
The gentle light flows throughout my body
Drifting away with the moon
Lost in new land of all beings paired in harmony
The devout people sing joyfully
Offering fragrant cloths to the sky
Angels spread their big white wings
The moon and I lay under this same blanket
Woven from bright stars and prayers
Flowing many tears of blessing together
Amidst the sparkling intertwining movements.
Source milk
The neighbor woman sat breastfeeding her baby
I hid behind the door
Looked blankly at each drop of milk falling on her shirt
Like dewdrops on blooming mustard fields
Waving me in, she told me to suckle the remaining breast
I was five years old and the newborn
Instantly became fetuses
Both sucked on the umbilical cord
Growing in the belly of another giant mother
Keeping flowing in my childhood
The warm, fragrant taste of mother’milk
I have never found it anywhere
Try to taste the morning dew mixed with sunlight
On a plumply lotus bud
The woman now has gray hair
Working as a village healer
Treating mothers with blocked milk ducts
The shadow of a tree holding a nursing baby just passed me
A shooting star in the sky swept streaks of light
If everything stopped
The cosmic breast would still circulate the sweet flows of milk.
