PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies Vol. 15, No. 1/2 August 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. Citation: Hoàng, N.T., Quán, T., Campbell, I. and Chu, T. 2018. Two Poems by Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng, Writing in Vietnamese as Thường Quán, With English Translations by Ian Campbell and Tony Chu. PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 15:1/2, pp. 121-124. https:// doi.org/10.5130/portal.v15i1-2.5845 ISSN 1449-2490 | Published by UTS ePRESS | http://portal. epress.lib.uts.edu.au CULTURAL WORK Two Poems by Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng, Writing in Vietnamese as Thường Quán, With English Translations by Ian Campbell and Tony Chu Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng, as Thường Quán1, Ian Campbell2, Tony Chu3 1 Independent author. hoangtien.nguyen494@gmail.com 2 Macquarie University. ialuca@iinet.net.au 3 Independent author. baocanh99@gmail.com Corresponding author: Mr Ian Campbell, Honorary Research Associate, Department of International Studies: Languages and Cultures, Macquarie University, NSW 2109. Australia. Email: ialuca@iinet.net.au DOI: https://doi.org/10.5130/portal.v15i1-2.5845 Article History: Received 30/11/2017; Revised 10/06/2018; Accepted 15/06/2018; Published 23/08/2018 Abstract Born in 1956 in Danang, Vietnam, Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng arrived in Australia in 1974 on a Colombo Plan scholarship. In writing poetry and literary essays in Vietnamese over more than thirty years he has generally used the pen name, Thường Quán. However, as Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng, his English language poems have been featured in the Poetry International Web series of Australian poets—https://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/20689—as well as in a number of Australian poetry book collections, the most recent being Captive and Temporal, published by Vagabond Press (Sydney & Tokyo, 2017) in its Australia Series— https://vagabondpress.net/collections/australia—which was short-listed for both the 2018 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and the Mary Gilmore Award in 2018. The poems published in this issue of PORTAL, ‘Ngoài Giấc Ngủ’ and ‘Hiện Ra,’ were included in the book poetry collection—also titled Ngoài Giấc Ngủ—published in California, USA, in 1990, which featured sixty-seven poems by Melbourne-based Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng, writing under the pen name Thường Quán. In 1994 the Journal of Vietnamese Studies (Melbourne) published the poem ‘Ngoài Giấc Ngủ,’ together with a first English language version co-translation, titled ‘Beyond,’ by Ian Campbell and Tony Chu. An adaptation of the poem was sung in Vietnamese ngâm style by Thu Huong Huynh, as part of ‘A Spring Evening of Poetry, Translated Verse and Music’ held in 1995 in Sydney to mark 50 years of post-war DECLARATION OF CONFLICTING INTEREST The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.121 mailto:hoangtien.nguyen494@gmail.com mailto:ialuca@iinet.net.au mailto:baocanh99@gmail.com mailto:ialuca@iinet.net.au https://doi.org/10.5130/portal.v15i1-2.5845 https://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/20689 https://vagabondpress.net/collections/australia https://doi.org/10.5130/portal.v15i1-2.5845 migration to Australia. The English language version later appeared in 1996, with the original poem in Vietnamese, in a Sydney-based Vietnamese language newspaper, and in 2002 the English language translation appeared again in Sunlines: An Anthology of Poetry to Celebrate Australia’s Harmony in Diversity, edited by Anne Fairbairn (Canberra: Dept. of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, 2002). The English language co-translation of the poem appeared in Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng’s collection, Captive and Temporal (Sydney & Tokyo: Vagabond Press, 2017). The poem, ‘Ngoài Giấc Ngủ,’ now appears in its Vietnamese language original form (1990), and in an English language co-translation by Chu and Campbell which varies slightly from all previous translations. An English language version of the poem, ‘Hiện Ra,’ has never been previously published and appears now in a co-translation as ‘Becoming Visible,’ together with the 1990 poem in its original Vietnamese language version. Keywords Poetry; Australia; Vietnamese Diaspora; Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng; Thường Quán; Ian Campbell; Tony Chu; Ngoài Giấc Ngủ; Hiện Ra Ngoài Giấc Ngủ Những người khuất mặt Đến lặng lẽ chào tôi trong đêm Khoảng cách là những cuộc đời Nở hoa hiển tử Tím xanh tròng mắt dòng sông Đôi bờ quán lữ Mưa giăng Tay tìm nhau Chẳng thể sờ chạm Giọt mưa không giọt mưa không Rơi ngoài giấc ngủ Trôi vào hun hút mùa đông Những ao làng xám rũ Núi đồi bia mộ lách lau Gió bần bật bần bật Trắng thổi về đâu Lạc mất câu chào Trời mây thiên cổ Chẳng tìm ra nhau Chẳng tìm ra nhau Nến thắp trong đêm Những lời khan vọng. Beyond Shades uneen, hidden come silently to greet me in the night Between those shades and I so many lives, passed by as flowers that bloom open Hoàng, Quán, Campbell and Chu PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1/2, August 2018122 then wither—translucent as violets Shades in the iris of a cold eye, a cool stream before my eyes meandering, pale blue; then the night in this dark inn. The gathering showers come, hands seek out one another unable to reach, to touch empty drops, empty drops Falling into a world beyond sleep drifting endlessly, into winter, and the bleakness of village ponds and hamlets destitute. Mountains and hills, where tombstones part the sea of reeds where the wind buffets and trembles O white wind, where are you blowing to? Lost from the night are the moments of greeting, in this eternity of sky and cloud they and I remain Unable to seek the other unable to find the other A candle burns in the night the beatings of the wind, hard to discern still echo and reverberate… Translation by Ian Campbell and Tony Chu (1993, 2017) Hiện Ra Hiện ra một giếng sầu ký thác Một bờ sông chạy đầu lắc lư Bờm ngựa đỏ trăng hai búi cỏ Nến tàn phơ phất lửa phần thư. Rồi hiện ra người đen nhánh tóc Đi tìm nhặt nhạnh giữa đêm mù Những trang cháy dở hồn than khóc Về gọi thơ lên đàn giải oan. Hiện ra đàn trẻ thơ hồng ửng lồng đèn Ôm sừng trăng non về trả đường tre ấm lửa Bầy đom đóm bay vào ở giữa Hồ ao trắng ngát độ nở sen. Mở cửa thôn làng mở cửa Hiện ra kiềng bạc áo nâu non Oan khi gột sạch lòng son Hiện ra ô cửa mây lành hiện ra. Becoming Visible Becoming visible, this well into which I trustingly cast my melancholy, along a river’s edge, a galloping horse, its fiery mane flaring up, the light of the moon is shining Two Poems by Nguyễn Tiên Hoàng, Writing in Vietnamese as Thường Quán PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1/2, August 2018123 upon tufts of grass, and ash of the candle turns white as the flame meanders across the pages. Becoming visible again, a woman with jet black hair flowing looking for what is lost in the fog-mist of the night, her soul weeping over the half-burnt pages drawing forth the muse to the task of setting all aright. Becoming visible, children silhouetted in red of lantern light, gathering up the rimméd horn of the young moon over the bamboo-shrouded road, warm night, fireflies dart here and there, between moths, aflutter upon the scented ponds as the lotus blooms. I prise open the gate of the village, I open it, I see the silver of the necklace worn over a brownish dress, my heart is made whole again, away the past, becoming visible, at the window, serene are the clouds. Translation by Ian Campbell and Tony Chu (1994, 2017) Hoàng, Quán, Campbell and Chu PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1/2, August 2018124