Nostalgic Regrets / Cảm Hoài
by Đặng Dung


Nostalgic Regrets / Cảm Hoài
Author:  Đặng Dung (1373 - 1414)

English translation by Vuong Thanh, 2019



Many events are happening in the world,

yet I’m growing old.

What’s to be done?

The earth’s wide,

the sky’s high,

all’s in a feast of revelry, singing, and wine.

When luck strikes,

even a common person can be easily successful.

When the opportunity passed,

a hero drinks bitter cups of regrets.

To help my liege lord,

my heart desires to hold the earth’s spindle and turn it around.

I want to have the troops’s armors and weapons washed,

but there’s no route to pull water from the Milky Way River down.

The country’s debt of vengeance has not been paid,

yet my hair’s already gray.

Many long nights, sharpening my sword under the moonlight.





Thế sự du du nại lão hà

Vô cùng thiên địa nhập hàm ca

Thời lai đồ điếu thành công dị

Sự khứ anh hùng ẩm hận đa

Trí chúa hữu hoài phù địa trục

Tẩy binh vô lộ vãn thiên hà.

Quốc thù vị báo đầu tiên bạch

Kỷ độ Long Tuyền đới nguyệt ma.