Respectfully to Master Minh chánh Trúc Lâm

A heartfelt letter to wish you a strong, joyful heart

Meditation practice spreads a fragrant essence

helping the people, helping the country, returning gladly

Chánh Minh, wisdom still kept within

Even at a hundred years within the Phụng family

Wishing the wise one a bright mind, never aging

Praying the one with a Buddha-heart, the nation benefits

The people in all four regions dream

Meditation practice leads the people to what life hopes for!

Hoping when the poem is delivered

Wash hands and go to sleep, oh how joyful!

Pull the blanket to warm the back

Beg father not to fret, may the poem-sending pause

My heart will be happy as grass

Tomorrow morning I wake, groggy I slip away

So the room will stay empty

No reply seen, father is sad, so be it father

This news, new news, oh Huy

Quý Phụng is finished under the flag of America

Wanting the blessings still to be granted

Rick Phụng has stepped forward, all is well now

Dung-Châu uses treasure in its own time

To grant, to distribute on Ninh Giang hill

So then Huy writes a few lines

Grateful to Châu, grateful to Dung returning to help

Wishing for grandchild Dung, our household

Blessing, peace, prosperity, longevity to help one another

The fourteenth of the western January

The family holds a celebration this day for father

Celebrating mother in the house too

Both a hundred years, oh how joyful

Grateful for the fate and thriving fortune

Grateful to the ancestors who once blessed here

Now we enjoy full blessings

Living with filial duty, worshipping toward the west

Brother Đoàn

This is a new poem, may replace the poem

number 2 earlier, about advice to the children/grandchildren

Choose as you wish, brother. Thành Phụng

Our Tết, the Year of the Rooster arrives,

Wishing aunts and uncles a lifetime of comfort.

Wishing favorable winds, smooth measure

grandchildren and children healthy, worrying about nothing

Studies and matters of taking exams,

All flow smoothly, for no reason at all.

Business, trade, matters of concern,

Success as wished, comfort and joy already,

Plenty of rice, plenty of fish, plenty of sticky rice,

No longer worried as in wartime.

Wishing green leaves fill the branches,

Wishing fruit be picked, the five branches all bloom

Eat frugally, aim only toward compassion,

Helping family, helping country is truly precious.

In the mind, gratitude fully repaid

Whether working or resting here and there, content./.

Dry skin, there is medicine

Wherever broken or spilled, hurry to attend

Ointment, bandaging, use the heart

The patient feels better, one's heart is glad

Each day helping just a little

Is still satisfying, standing one feels at peace!

A high rank but lacking a kind heart

Is no match for a small role continuously helping the world!

Kiss the hand, kiss the cheek, go kiss!

The hand is grimy, the cheek is dirty!

Let me sincerely say a few words

Washing hands, wiping the cheek is what I want

Wash also the neck, nape, hands and feet

Change trousers, change shirt, don't overstep

Having eaten, go to sleep, wrap the blanket

Sleep soundly, don't groan, don't grieve

Sleep, don't stay awake all night

Staying awake, soon a headache and aching back

Belly ache, please don't do things halfway

Without worry, at ease, suddenly well again

Eating regularly, sleeping enough is to be an immortal

Healthy body, healthy mind, no money can buy

On the weekend, calmly go to the temple,

Bowing in worship to Buddha is buying virtue!

Mother Trần Thị Tuất, oh my mother!

I was just two, and mother had left

The family circumstance, I know mother

Also from conflict, ending here with

Mother left, I suffered, relying on the wet-nurse

The nurse had to feed rice, to keep me alive

So I have always longed

But never seen, oh dear mother!

For the mountains, for the country, and for the people

Not sparing themselves, fate uncertain

To die in glory is the most beautiful

So long as the nation prospers, and the people are at peace

From now, remembered forever, that merit

Of the heroes, worthy of gods

Helping the land unbroken

Wishing them rest in peace, at the Milky Way

Thinking with pity for the warriors

For land, for country giving their lives in far soil

Loving father, loving mother, the whole family

But out of duty, must go to the battlefield

Bearing so much anguish and attachment

Wife and children far apart, so many declines

Swords, blades, shells beyond compare

How to avoid them, going and returning

So to speak, the mind is dazed

Just because of enemy fire, at the edge of war

So flowers and leaves fall from the branch

So the soldier dies, through the night watches gloomy

So many sorrowful worrying tales

So the soldier has gone to the King of the Underworld

The child seeks by every means

Fallen soldiers, remembered for life

It is also sharing the full and empty!

The soldier's family, with words of gratitude!

When healthy, climb mountains, climb hills

Day and night, gentle sun, heaven's work adorns heaven

Joyful, the whole family joyful indeed!

So progress advances, leisurely and still at peace

No longer fearing sun, fearing drought

The future bright, brimming with full blessings

Lulled to go here and there

Heaven's mercy, Buddha's blessing

days full of granted fortune.

Mother and father Vietnamese immigrants,

America their residence, settling and anchoring

Father is Chu Nhựt, originally poor

Nguyễn Lê is mother, resolved to stay together

Tinh Phê, the place of living together

is precisely the place, the region of birth

in fact, the Vietnamese name, Vị Thiện

Sophia, the American name, registered at birth

this girl, in the girls' school, graceful

her face plump and smiling, two long broad ears

Only hoping the future ahead

Studies progress, growing talent emerging

Mind and heart able to help the household

Vietnam, America, wholly altruistic

Helping family, helping country, a pure heart

Worthy child of Nguyễn-Nhựt, gladdening Vị Thiện