Dreaming the Mountain

Tuệ Sỹ is the author of Dreaming the Mountain. Born in 1943 in Pakse (Laos) as Phạm Văn Thương, he joined the Lâm Tế (Linji) Buddhist order in 1950. Educated in in Nha Trang and Saigon, he became a tenured professor at Van Hanh University in 1970, and served as editor in chief of the University’s Tư Tưởng (Thoughts) journal from 1972 to 1974. The author of more than fifty works, he is recognized as one of the most important Buddhist scholars in Vietnam. His numerous works on Buddhism include General Outline of Zen, The Philosophy of Sunyata, and The Myth of Vimalakirti, and translated into Vietnamese Daisetz T. Suzuki’s Essays in Zen Buddhism, translations of the Buddhist sutras, and other Chinese and Pali texts. Sỹ also authored studies on the life and work of poets Du Fu and Su Dongpo, on the work of Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Hölderlin, and was the first to introduce the works of Michel Foucault to a Vietnamese audience. Many of his early poems and short stories were published in Khởi Hành magazine (1969–1972) and Thời Tập (1973–1975). Imprisoned from 1978 to 1981 and again from 1984 to 1998, he has lived in Ho Chi Minh City since his release. Nguyen Ba Chung is the co-translator of Dreaming the Mountain. He is a writer, poet and translator whose essays and translations have appeared in Vietnam Forum, New Asia Review, Boston Review, Compost, Nation, Manoa, Vietnam Reflections (TV History), and elsewhere. Beginning in 1987, he was associated with the William Joiner Institute of the University of Massachusetts Boston, responsible for bringing Vietnamese writers to Boston, translating their poetry and short stories, and introducing them to an American audience. In 1996, he started working full-time there as a research associate, became director of residency for the Rockefeller Programs, and began a Summer Study Program with Hue University, Vietnam. He is the co-translator of over a dozen works, including A Time Far Past; From a Corner of My Yard; Distant Road;  Six Vietnamese Poets; Le Nguyen Zen Poem; and Carrying the Mountain and River on Our Shoulders. He lives in Belmont, Massachusetts.  Martha Collins is the co-translator of Dreaming the Mountain and Black Stars. She has also published eleven volumes of poetry, most recently Casualty Reports and Because What Else Could I Do, which won the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award. Her previous books of poetry include the paired volumes Day Unto Day and Night Unto Night, as well as a trilogy of works that focus on race, beginning with the book-length poem, Blue Front. Collins has published three additional volumes of co-translated Vietnamese poetry and coedited a number of volumes, including, with Kevin Prufer, Into English: Poems, Translations, Commentaries. Founder of the creative writing program at the University of Massachusetts Boston and former Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College, Collins lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Introduction xi
On the Translations xix

Khung Trời Cũ 2

A Piece of Old Sky 3

Cánh Chim Trời 4

Bird Wing Sky 5

Hương Ngày Cũ 6

Scent of Past Days 7

Mưa Cao Nguyên 8

Rainy Season in the Highlands 9

Tóc Huyền 10

Black Hair 11

HoàiNiệm 12

ARecollection 13

Hận Thu Cao 14

NobleAutumnRancor 15

Mộng Trường Sinh 16

Dream of a Long Life 17

Kết Từ 18

Last Words 19

Những Năm Anh Đi 22

The Years Away 23

Một Bóng Trăng Gầy 24

ASlenderMoon 25

Phố Trưa 26

Street at Noon 27

Tự Tình 28

Reflection 29

Chân Đồi 30

Nightmares in the Forest 35

Một Thoáng Chiêm Bao 36

Fleeting Dream 37

Những Bước Đường Cùng 38

End of the Road 39

Bóng Cha Già 40

My Father’s Shadow 41

Ước Hẹn 42

Promise 43

Cây Khô 44

Dried Tree 45

Những Phím Dương Cầm 46

Piano Keys 47

Bên Bếp Lạnh 48

By a Cold Fire 49

Tống Biệt Hành 50

Leave-Taking 51