If There Wasn't / Nếu Không Có

If there wasn’t Love

How much joy would there be left in Life?

The beauty would no longer dries her lustrous hair by the windowsill

Her pretty feet no longer show off embroidered velvet slippers.

If there wasn’t poetic love

How many dream nights would Life still has?

To make a poet sleepless, dreaming of love

To make the night filled with wistful longings

Watching the dry leaves falling hurriedly,

We invite each other to glasses of parting wine

Feeling its bitter taste on our lips

Sorrow grows in our hearts like two divided river branches. 

A delicate, enchanting fragrance in the air

The wind stretches its wings long and wide in the maple forest

A thick fog hangs over the mountains and rivers

My soul floats with the lovers’ moon. 

If there wasn’t letters of love

Who would be lovesick ten thousand lis apart? 

Who’d cherish and polish love verses?

Whose eyes would shed pearl drops of tear?

Translation by Vuong Thanh