HEN TRANG

According to a legend in China, Emperor Tang Xuan Zong had a dream that he was then in the moon, where he witnessed the Fairy Dance Ni Chang.

In Vietnam, all the children knew the legend of the Liar Cuoi, who was the keeper of his uncle's buffaloes. One day he let those ruminants graze young rice-plants, and to avoid the punishment of his uncle, he fled to the moon with the banian tree where he usually took his ease beneath its shade, and lived in with the Moon-Fairy in the Vast Cold Palace. (The shady zone in the moon sketches vaguely the silhouette of the "Liar" beneath the banian tree).

In olden days, Lovers usually took an oath of fidelity in a full moon night. They cut and exchanged their tufts and gifts as tokens of their love.

The Vietnamese poets cherish the above legendary characters and the poetic picture of the moon. The success of the American scientific achievements, namely the exploration of the moon in 1969, made them wake up with a certain regret for the old poetic moon, now become only an empty, desert dead planet.

Hereunder is the poem written for the Earth's satellite.

To The Moon

Vanished is now the dream of Emperor Tang Xuan Zong
Vanished also the Fairy Dance Ni Chang
My early dream disappear finally
No more Liar beneath the banian tree

Spitting smoke and fire the rocket took off
The flying ship went into space aloft
Up to the moon to study and search
For more vital space on the mournful desert.
The lunar vehicle went up for conquest of space
And broke up my dream of the Fairy Palace.

Next time when you go up there, go and see
The immortal pretty and young moon Fairy.
Make a stopover beneath the banian
And bring back the Liar to his native land.

O Moon! I'm still dreaming of the HoneyMoon
Of newlywed lovers,
With their oath witnessed by the satellite in full
Just once but forever.

Saigon 1969
(following the First American space launch to the Moon)

by Ha Binh Trung

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