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milk 🍳 @rottingcheng.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

translating an old vietnamese poem my mum told me about forever ago and receiving psychic damage from the beauty of it all

milk 🍳 @rottingcheng.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

'Quê Hương' by Đỗ Trung Quân

screenshot of text reads: Mother, what is hometown
That our teacher insists we love?
Mother, what is hometown
That all who depart miss so dearly?

Hometown is a cluster of sweet starfruit
For me to climb and pick each day.
Hometown is the road to school,
Walking home under shadows of yellow butterflies.

Hometown is the blue kite
I flew in the time of childhood.
Hometown is the small boat
Gently rippling water on the shore.

Hometown is the little bamboo bridge
Where mother returns with leaf hat tilted.
It is the scent of meadow-flowers
Floating in my summer’s sleep.

Hometown is a moonlit night
Betel-nut flowers falling white over the threshold.
Sounds of frogs croaking by rice paddies;
I lie and listen, amidst night rain.

Hometown is my mother's hands
Gently picking spinach leaves.
A sweet bowl of steaming soup
In afternoon after school as rain falls.

Hometown is the golden pumpkin flowers,
It is the pink-purple morning glories.
It is the red hibiscus on both sides of the river,
The pristine white of the lotuses.

Hometown is something everyone has,
From the moment they open their eyes to the world.
Homeland is mother's milk,
Fragrant drops falling by the cradle.

We each have only one hometown,
Just as we have only one mother.
One who forgets hometown
Will never grow to be complete.

milk 🍳 @rottingcheng.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

hometown is NOT about dad, sorry...