Please let the stars light up that dark region

To let me see my brothers’ faces

To let hands seeking hands for warmth and comfort

To let hope and blood return to the heart. 

Mother’s soul’s weary with lifetimes of pains and sufferings.

She wants to see her children living under a free sky.

Mother will chant a full-of-small-wishes lullaby.

Each of her joys – like a blooming flower of times long ago.

Mother have been praying for many long waking nights.

Prayers of love for her homeland and people.

Mother will forget and let behind the bullet marks

of bitter hatred, resentment and anger.

Mother wants to call her child’s name with loving affection

yet she can only feel the bitter sourness in her emotions.

Mother wants to shed tears  ‘cause of socialist philoshophy

that had brought to Life so much sufferings and lasting injuries. 

When will the motherland have a season of spring?

To let the dividing river no longer filled with sorrow.

Mother prays for peace and safety throughout the mountains and rivers.

Prayers for her children’s hearts not to turn stony

 ‘cause of  forced hard labor in the fields.

The singing rising like a tidal wave returning to the sea.

Under the blue sky, the flowers of Hope bloom radiantly.

Tens of thousands of people returning back to the towns.

Their eyes shining with dreams of Peace and Prosperity.

I offer a poem in praise of Mother.

She’s like the most beautiful star in the Milky Way.

Mother’s tears are an ocean of Compassion

that wash away the hatred and anger that darken our homeland.  

translation by Vuong Thanh