East-west Encounters: Franco-Asian Cinema and Literature

by Sylvie Blum-Reid

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aMrQFxR3jcYC&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=%22dawn+in+my+soul%22&source=bl&ots=5C4U9IiDTo&sig=93GBPuAGMgDmpKSFB2ynouUIwH0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=F2STUePTHu2O7AalhYGwCg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22dawn%20in%20my%20soul%22&f=false

Cyclo (1995) - Tran Anh Hung:

A taste of dust

longan peel

stolen

A hand

warm

washes my face

Papa

Green glow

of live shrimp

The market closes

mama comes home

Cold rice

in secret, at night

Mama feeds me

Stifling heat

of searing afternoons

stench of rotten starfruit

In the rain

I shiver

fried fish

rice gruel

Lemon leaves

grapefruit rind

ivory-colored water

my brown skin

Fish face!

*

Two poems:

Nameless river, I was born sobbing,blue sky, vast earth, black stream waterI grow with the months, the years,with no one to watch over meNameless is a man. Nameless is the riverColourless the flowerPerfume, without a voice.O, river! O, passer-by!In the closed cycle, of the months, the yearsI can’t forget my debt to my rootsAnd I wander through the worldsToward my land

*

Dawn in my soul

A bit of sun from each home

A bit of light for everyone

Under the canopy, a leaf trembles

And the dew resembles the clouds

And the earth exhales a huge wind

And life shivers

Kite of my childhood

Fragile hope landing in the sky

Hearts open, human abodes

In a world where no one is excluded