I was born in the year of the buffalo
A year that brings many troubles
A buffalo toils all year round
Works hard but never grumbles
When I was very small I walked
With my buffalo to the village fields
Green grass, high flying kites
Buffalo and I would daydream
There was so much wind
In the wide open fields
There was so much sun
Buffalo’s eyes would brim
“Don’t play music near a buffalo’s ear”-
Please don’t tell me that
If a buffalo looks, a buffalo knows
It doesn’t need to hear
I left home a long time ago
But when spring comes I go back
There I meet the black buffalo
Still attentive, innocent
The buffalo eats grass all day
Spring offers up grass again
Thanks to heaven for watching over
The buffalo’s youth, that never ends
Translated by Thúy Đinh and Martha Collins
Lâm thị mỹ dạ was born in 1949 in Le Thuy District, Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. She attended Writers’ College in Vietnam and Moscow’s Gorky University and has worked as a reporter and literary editor. She is the author of five collections of poems in Vietnam, as well as Green Rice (Northwestern University Press, 2005), translated by Martha Collins and Thuy Dinh.
Widely recognized as one of Vietnam’s major poets, Da is the recipient of two awards from the Vietnamese Writers’ Association and the highest honors from the National United Board of Vietnamese Literature and the Arts. She lived in Vietnam until her death on July 6, 2023.