Unrestrained Mood / Cuồng Ngâm

Unrestrained Mood

Like the golden moon glowing

in the vast night sky,

the verses, ethereally beautiful,

float amidst thousands of twinkling starlights…

Feeling rapturously high,

after a half dozen glasses of wine,

I sing in the old forest.

After a half dozen glasses of wine,

I sing unrestrainedly wild.

I sing:

There’s a beautiful Moon Fairy in the blue sky.

Her palace’s frosty and she feels lonely at night.

In the human realm, there’s a young scholar.

Verses and music, where his pleasures are.

Please come down here, O Moon Fairy.

We will together sing and compose poetry.

And make Heavens and Earth be jealous of you and me!

My shadow’s getting tipsy.

My soul entered the Spirit of Poetry.

My soul’s drunk with Music Melody.

Smiling at the Blue Sky,

I dance and sing under the moonlight…

In this world, who’s really sober, and who’s really drunk.

To know one’s own heart, to know one’s life’s aims.

Calling on the spirits of those who are heart friends,

Drink with me into the state of rapturous wild unrestrain.

Translated by Vuong Thanh