Thơ Phan Huy MPH
(Bảng tiếng Anh của Cảm Tạ Miền Nam)
It’s been a long time I wanted to say
To the wretched South land of my country
A candid word of appreciation
From the thousand-year-old north Vietnam.
I recall after the ‘reunification’
I went south into a land of fairy
A civilized lifestyle, a carefree spirit
A peaceful nation, a happy people.
I was astonished with admiration
Fixing my wide eyes at this half- nation
That the party said a puppet regime
Where people starved in exile and oppression.
Before my eyes was a lively south
A land of democracy and freedom
I cried profusely in the capital
For being cheated so far by the party.
Born and grown up behind the iron curtain
I knew nothing except the great party
The society was primitive and one- sided
Where people were brainwashed and talked ike parrots.
They always said: “Owed to uncle and party
Our system is the best on the planet
The shining torch of Marxism- Leninism
Will lead mankind to earthly paradise.
Twenty years on this road of revolution
Society went back, men replaced buffaloes
Life went down, calculated with foodstamps
Human fate was no other than duck weed.
Thank you, South Vietnam for breaking darkness
So I can see light of civilization
So I can know freedom and democracy
Concealed and suppressed so far by the party.
Thank you South Vietnam for showing the way
Leading back to our sacred fatherland
Of Hung kings, our nation’s progenitors
Instead of Karl Marx and Lenin foreigners.
Thank you South Vietnam for being a liberator
Who opened our heart to the world all over
That i had not known anything about
Besides two “great” nations Russia and China.
Thank you South Vietnam for having been a warrior
Fighting the lunatic Communist invaders
To save the homeland from red devils
Your attempt fails but your manhood succeeds.