The New Millennium's Hope / Hy Vọng Thế Kỷ

A forest of people by the glistening river water

Lights on the high tower shine brightly over the capital

Hands clapping with the loud music and drum beats

Hearts excited waiting for the the year 2000 to arrive

The ball drops slowly with the counting

Two million people enthusiatically shout “one… zero!”

Thousands of fireworks explode in the sky

Raining colorful messages wishing everyone “Happy New Year”

All people join in the happy celebration

And forget for a while the bad things in this world

Forget the evils waiting somewhere in darkness

The terrorists and their maniacal acts of destruction

Lips finding lips, sharing one breath

The breath of Love that bind one’s heart to the other’s

To celebrate the survival into the new century

And to thank God for his generosity and mercy.

We’ll be side by side walking the same road forever

Through seasons of spring full of Hope and each other

Verses like flowers at old age still bloom radiantly

To brighten and make fresh the 21st century. 

Translated by Vuong Thanh, 2019