Vương Thanh's translation of "Tình ta như hoa hướng dương" by Poet Thái Tú Hạp
The original's in the book Suối Nguồn Tâm Thức by Thái Tú Hạp on page 151, 152

I’m not made of wood or rock

I’m not a person without a heart

Life’s not just money or fame

Life will one day pass away into the Void

What does one have left when the body returns to dust.

Now, living the life of an exile,

my soul still keeps a little of the True Heart.

Months and days pass by in weary sorrow. 

My close friends still living in the mountains and jungles.

In the homeland, each day with increasing bitterness.

I still rememhber when I’m eating just plain rice,

my friends, throughout the year,  are eating potatoes,

crickets, 

and the wild fruits in the forests,

and the snakes in the tall grass.

We have lived as if in a primitive world.

And sometimes like an animal. 

My sorrow is high like the mountain.

When will it ever subside?

Waiting and wishing for some tomorrow’s sunshine

To  fade away the history page of Black April…

I still think of Mom and You,

and my Loved Ones, and Friends still drifting

in the vast sea.

Those leaving in the thunderous storm,

risking death for freedom.

How can words fully express!

‘Cause our tears have run dry.

Those days without Spring

on our homeland full of heart-rending griefs.

The birds no longer sing in early morning.

The bells no longer ringing

from the venerable chapel. 

My life’s drifting in the ocean like a leaf,

like a common pebble on the crowded street. 

What meaning does Life have 

to feel compassion and regret.

This afternoon with sunshine falling on the river,

or is it the bird singing excitedly on a peach blossom branch.

My heart suddenly feels adrift,

while thinking about my beloved homeland faraway. 

Like a rose just starting to blossom

in the heart’s Garden of Benevolent Love.

We are exiles throughout the world

Living in quiet loneliness, 

reminiscing over the Past,

and without a homeland to come home to. 

Just like the breed of 

wandering Northern horses,

living on foreign soil,

without the warmth of close friends. 

There’s the birds singing and the blue sky, 

and white clouds,

but the sorrow in my heart does not ever subside. 

I’m like a crazy person

that few people understand.

I’m constantly in love with rhythm and rhyme, 

and make myself miserable

with the language of Poetry.

For you, My Sweetheart, 

Feelings of gratitude and love,

put into verses,

from my heart and soul.

And for my friends and my homeland,

and half a remaining life of sorrow,

that drifts like the wandering clouds.

Sweetheart, For me, you have always been with me

in happy and lonely times. 

O My Sweetheart,  

You’ll always be You with a Constant and Loving Heart. 

Thái Tú Hạp