Do Not Come, My Love | Ngập Ngừng

Author: Hồ Dzếnh | A Water-Moon Presentation

Do make a tryst 

but please do not come, 

My Love.

I’ll be sad ...and walk back and forth ...the grounds

Looking at the cigarette between my fingers

It’s almost burnt out!

I mutter, “Gosh, I miss you so much.”

Do make a tryst 

but please do not come, 

My Love

For what is Love, 

if not the longings and affections

in the beginning of a relationship.

The stage where Love’s fragile 

like the silk rays of sunshine.

Like butterflies and flowers 

hesitant and shy.

Do make a tryst

 but please do not come, 

My Love.

I will reprove, but of course, very slightly.

If you’re already on the way, 

please strive to return.

Love’s only beautiful when it’s unfinished.

Life loses its charms when its oaths’d been fulfilled.

Let a poem never be completed,

and a drifting boat ...never ends up in a harbor.

For the Past and the Future to forever intermingle.