Kieu Bich Hau [Vietnam]

The Anger 

It's alright, just let it out
Shout at me
Release the blind rage
that has long built up
in your heart, your mind
your every cell
Just shout at me,
use your angry eyes,
Use the fire,
with the light that burns
my skin, my hair, my soul
The anger of this earth
the anger from pain and despair
from repressed feelings
from bearing the sins of being human…
 
And you are free
And I will hug you in my trembling arms
And all tears will flow
in a current into the Blue Danube,
into the Red River,
into all
And we melt into that river
Remaining forever
flowing into the universe
We are a giant tear
scattered
in the universe.
 
 
How to Hold This Longing?
 
I wish to store all these tormented memories
in a secret box.
Hide it inside me
So I can live normally
 
But every night it wakes me up
in a sweet, painful longing for you
Why we are together,
at the same time very far away?
 
I lull my heart every night,
pretend to see the sweetness in the lost proximity
in the lost kisses
the lost touches…
 
The regret of all those losses
Will it drown me in an ocean of misery?
The beauty of love
Will it burn away this heart?
 
 
The Song of Red River
 
They used to be soldiers
They are poets, too
They sang in the forest
Their tears fell on sacrificed comrades after battles
Beyond the death,
Beyond the life
Beyond the war
They have lived that poetry trend of Vietnam
Forever Vietnam.
And today by the Red River
We sing all together the eternal love song for them
 
 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Kieu Bich Hau, a prominent voice in contemporary Vietnamese literature writer and cultural ambassador, is a member of the Vietnam Writers’ Association. Born in Hung Yen Province, Vietnam. She is an editor of the “Writer & Life” magazine ((Vietnam), NEUMA magazine (Romania), and Humanity magazine (Russia). She has received numerous accolades, including an honorary doctorate from Prodigy Life Academy (USA). Recognized internationally, she serves as the Ambassador of Ukiyoto Publisher (Canada) to Vietnam and is the founder and head of Hanoi Female Translators, promoting literary exchange and empowerment. With 30 published works spanning prose, poetry, and essays, Kieu Bich Hau’s creative achievements have been widely acclaimed. Her works have been translated into 20 languages, including English, Italian, Korean, German and French, amplifying Vietnamese literature globally. She has also earned nine prestigious literary awards, such as Literature Award 2007 (Vietnam), the ART Danubius Prize 2022, the Great Award of Korea 2023 and A Life for Culture Award 2025 by Rhegium Julii Italia. As a cultural representative, she has participated in numerous global literary events, including the ASEAN-China Writers’ Forum (2019, China), the International Poetry Festival - Europa in Versi (2023, Italy), the 10^th America poetry Festival in New York (2023, USA) and the World Writers and Thinkers’ Peace Meet (2024, India), the University of Washington’s panel of Postwar Vietnam (2025, USA) and The International Writer/Artist-in-Residence Program (2025, Uzbekistan).