Hoa Phi Hoa

Hoa Phi Hoa

Hoa phi hoa, vụ phi vụ
Dạ bán lai, thiên minh khứ.
Lai như xuân mộng kỷ đa thì,
Khứ tự triêu vân vô mịch xứ.

Bạch Cư Dị

Looks like Flower

Looks like flower, seems like dew,
Arrives at midnight, gone by morning light.
Appears briefly like dreams in the Spring, 
Gone like early clouds to places unknown 

Translated by Wissai
September 14, 2013

Em không Quỳnh Hoa, lại chẳng phải sương,
Đến anh nửa đêm, đi khi trời sáng.
Như mộng Xuân ngắn trong phút yêu thương 
Như mây sớm đi không còn tăm dạng

Dịch thoáng bởi Wissai 
September 14, 2013 

So, honey, the above translation had its genesis from times long past and got a boost from you, a beloved at a place far away. It was translated under a midnight impulse, an impulse at once inchoate and undefined but powerful  nonetheless. The translation didn't quite capture the beautiful pithiness of the original's theme which is the effervescence of romantic  love. Our love is exactly like that portrayed in the poem. But I dearly wish and hope when it's gone, it leaves behind a beautiful, lingering, nostalgic fragrance and indelible footsteps in our hearts. We yielded to our romantic impulses and surrendered to our needs to be understood and appreciated. 

Please go back and reread what I post on the Net the last few weeks The real me hid somewhere in that montage of words. I am proud, I am arrogant, and I am different from all the men you have known. 

I may not be generous, but I am fair and principled. And I am not a cheap hypocrite, like so many men I know, pretending to be somebody who I am not. 

I am not perfect, but I am real and true and I march to my own music. We can only love those whom we trust and respect. So let's be good and kind and true to each other while the sun still shines and we are still alive. 

You're a beloved of mine. You're not merely a lover or a girlfriend.