The weekend

The thirteenth, Friday has passed

Today is Saturday, a day of rest

The family does not go carousing

Avoid places of gambling, avoid places of drink

Avoid the streets full of cars

Avoid places of gaudy singing and jostling

At home turn on the machine, turn on the light

To watch the news of the glaze land of Bát Tràng

Who is the person who lived gloriously

Made merit, saved the country, saved the village, became famous

Which flower has bloomed on the branch

Who has gained fame for merit in the village

Hoping everyone is prosperous

Eating and drinking fully, the whole village is happy

Always advancing, never retreating

Always tolerant of fate's luck and misfortune

Pray for the whole nation and all people

Settled and content, helping one another

For long, silent with no trace or breath

Not knowing where the child lives, enjoying life somewhere

So father waits and prays

The email father sent, waiting all night long

Father awaits the reply, a dream

Never expecting to be awake as father hopes

So the child still has good heart

But because of distance not yet hoping to return

Be at ease, no need to shift

Each task in its place, settled is better

Far from Tân, don't let the skin wear thin

Keep healthy, joyful morning and cheerful

So both mother and father

Together live joyfully, also content

Heaven gave us a pair of feet

The soles need us to pay them mind

A whole life enduring the elements

Carrying the heavy body, mouth grumbling always

Quickly bring oxygen, wriggling

The long road heedless of inside or out

Naturally faults pile up

Sunlight, air, day looking, night waiting

So we must not ignore it

Wholeheartedly care for them at rest time

Soaking feet in warm water is the way

Remember a bit of salt, it disinfects

Tendons, sole and toes all clean

Then wipe dry, apply medicine

Massage the feet continuously for a while

So the blood flows evenly all the time

Don't hesitate to rub and knead

Then walk about the house barefoot

Then life will look rosy

No more cramps day and night

So the dream is resolved

So one rests easy, sleeping soundly

Looking at autumn, the heart feels tattered

Yellow leaves fall, near and far under the sky

Birds go feeding far from home

All silent without words, my heart feels sad

The stove shows no smoke pouring

The eatery still open is a source of comfort

Talking idly, no sound of music

Not yet fighting, the palace empty of the precious golden sound

Missing the homeland, talking of Paris

Enemy troops, bombs explode, people die by the hundred

Countless wounded must lie down

Hospitals full of treatment, years of waiting

So many people, sometimes awake sometimes dreaming

Not knowing relatives, never thinking of dying wrongly

How to mend the broken seam

The survivors, the land awaits

Please don't turn your face and ignore

Take care to help reach the shore

We all live together in this life

Vietnamese share love, tattered share sorrow

Forgiveness, remember always

So all are happy, that is the source of solace

Thanksgiving is nearly here

Thanh Phượng reminds everyone to remember together

Give thanks to heaven and earth in general

Give thanks to ancestors who helped build

Give thanks to parents abundantly

Give thanks to the five precepts here and there we rely on

Give thanks to the fallen soldiers

Give thanks to friends helping one another

Give thanks to those elected

Help people help country to prosperity

Grateful thanks to the spirits of yin and yang realms

Help living, help dying, all ways smooth

How rare it is to meet one another

How rare to chat warmly, poor and rich

Life's stories with all their tone marks

Then apart, the fair company separates

When will we meet again, oh heavens

Brothers remember forever the sweet words

Wishing each other a gentle life

Wishing each other tolerance, words sincere

Then together to the ending, not yet wrong

Helping family and kin, long days not forgotten

To mother and father, repaying kindness and duty

Brothers embrace one another, high and low in harmony

Happy as a tree when it blooms

Forgiveness above all, that is eternity

With age I think of mother and father

Father has passed, mother is still here

But the child, eighty-eight now

Strength not good, limbs weakened

Everyone just wants to help

But all are busy, restless standing or sitting

Thư-Lễ arranges right away

Living together, helping mother, the first needed task

Precious are righteousness and benevolence

How rare, in life, that mortals help each other

If mother lives longer, brighter

The whole family delighted, before and after happy

Hurrah for warm affection, so precious

The bond of mother and child, glorious

Missing home, intensely, oh Bát Tràng!

Riverbank, mulberry fields, so brightly beautiful

The communal courtyard, stone embankment, so splendid

Grassy fields, banyan tree, oh how I miss!

Youthful days, age of feelings, going to school

Women, carrying loads, truly splendid

Elders, teapots, and pipes to smoke

Chanting composed poems, a few words.

For a long time no news of you

Perhaps busy, hence silent

Or absorbed in matters old and new

Or the local glaze rising and sinking to follow

Or the husband haggling

Or the children whining all day

Or there is some bitter matter

Or old letters in hand missing your man

Or not yet reaching the white spring ladder

Hoping to stay calm, the golden time will come

Thanks to you, madam, for coming to visit

Thanks to you, madam, for blessings and greetings

Your affection, madam, shows deep warmth

Your heart has shown, remembering through the years

Wishing you always healthy forevermore

Wishing you happiness, long days free of worry

Praying you have fair wind, smooth crossing

Family happy, warm and full forever

Sports and exercise, madam

Practice daily, the benefit multiplies a hundredfold

The old body grows healthier

No need for medicine year after year

Drive carefully to ease worry

Children and grandchildren see it, smooth as flowing water

Wishing you happy standing and sitting

Happy in strong health, happy in a cozy place

Practice forgiveness, joy for all

Forgiveness through the years builds and awakens

Life's affairs, so many trivial matters

With a good heart inside, nothing to fear

Living well, heaven grants tolerance

Living kindly earns a good name, how precious!

Your age is a carefree age

Your age is one many ladies easily follow

Remember, if you want to row over the pass

Your footing must be firm to avoid slipping down

Silent, wordless as if mute

Otherwise the wife will chop you up

Remembering one another, here are a few words

Speaking in jest, chatting to ease the sorrow

Life is a matter of upheavals

Family first, the foremost concern

Care for parents properly

Care always for wife and children, warmth and fullness complete

Then help the country and the land

With such a mind, worn from watching

Wishing you always a rosy life

Wishing you prosperity, the nation benefiting

Seeing others travel, then follow

Up mountains, down seas, over passes everywhere

Vietnam, Japan, the whole sky

Some places too happy, some full of suffering

The civilized are prosperous and rich

The foolish remain poor throughout

When will we know to share

Study together, discuss with one another

When will there be democracy to vote

When will the economy prosper throughout

When will minds know how to love

Love the people, love the country, love placed above

Forgiveness gains support all around

A worthy human name in this world

Live happily, live beautifully, everyone

The future, someday, heaven will help us.

Remembering whoever sponsored father

Able to come to America, truly precious

War and disaster now avoided

Family reunited today, so joyful

Arrived just right

About who bought ready, rest, don't go to Cali

Calculating back and forth, incomparable

Whoever has a house ready, avoid the epidemic

So the future is bright

Rest fully for the long days, decide later

Anniversaries — Sơn Tinh calculating in mind

Help parents avoid heartache

Settle food and lodging

Day and night caring, nothing better

So many years happy, singing and playing

So many years content, remembering vast kindness

So filial duty repays father's toil

So mother's love has been sacrifice

Thinking the child has given all their heart

Has helped in times of tangled paths

Now just rest peacefully

For the child too is already old

Old age turns mother's hair white

Remembering the child's kindness always, all night long

Loving the person, unable to help father

Unable to help mother, it is a private matter

Cận is ill, kidneys sick

Must lie down day and night, private matters must settle

Two children are truly daughters

Work too busy, not yet calm nor settled

Hòa wants to plan and discuss

Lacking trusted people, cannot yet share the sorrow

The sky is dark, drizzling rain

Siblings are many, lacking whom to help

Hoping for fair wind, smooth crossing

So Hòa is less hurt, less worried, less sad

Praying heaven will always brighten

So Hòa and Cận become a source of comfort

Then the cold season will end

Then the sky reddens, dispelling sorrow

Someday Hòa's worries end

Security and prosperity as hoped for

For a long time no news of you, madam

Surely too busy, hence silent.

The world is in a Golden Age

Everyone must seek their path

Wishing you steady in your craft

In ceramic glaze technique you are number one

Household affairs flowing along

Husband and children help, above and below

Whenever you think of the hero

Take out the paper to look, and be happy at once

For you, madam, to be so is to be a fairy

Praying you always stay kind to the people

Our strength is gradually weakening

My wife constantly bemoans her fate and blames heaven

As for me, aching, oh heavens

Day and night compresses, then it eases

Death is seen at the doorstep

Not sure of enjoying more old age

Ninety-eight is nearly here

Grandchild Minh, the youngest, is about to visit

Hoping to walk, sit, eat, and lie

Still calm, still healthy through gentle years

Last week I was weak, I was in pain

Because of the skull in my head being injured

Day and night must bandage, must compress

Must always take medicine, hoping for old age

Always avoid walking, standing, coming, going

Just lie in one place to rest

Sometimes I thought I was gone

Luckily the children help in every way

My wife, sometimes lucid, sometimes delirious

Making the household full of worry

The sacred Buddha helped properly

Eating and drinking again, no more measuring

Grandchildren and children have shown loyal hearts

Coming to visit, few so complete in filial piety

We continue diligently

Keeping body, mind and spirit, sons and daughters glad

Hoping to fulfill our duties

Then the heart feels happy, the mind glad

Birthday flowers gifted fragrant

From Công sent to me, so joyful

Wishing to hold firm a prosperous life

Praying for a fragrant reputation everywhere

Wishing the family joyful together

Ancestors protect, to build the golden dream.

Leaving home, going to visit father

And visit mother too, both equally old

Carrying ninety-eight years on the head

How many years left, the brass all spent

Being near, remembering youthful days

Mother and father have helped completely until now

Meeting, only for a few days

Then must part and say farewell

So many memories, do you remember

Then apart, mind lingering, gut aching

Wishing the mind be of one hue

Always do good, keeping the heart throughout

Live so as to be truly pure

Compassion and charity, wishing nothing more

Meeting misfortune, don't be resentful

Meeting luck, remember all with vast grace

Remembering the five precepts that help us

Remembering parents who are also kin

Help those in need, far and near

Help society, then the kindness is complete.

Hearing you opened a shop

Selling rice and porridge, on the board, benefiting

Guests praise it clean, not dirty

Food and drink, unexpectedly complete in variety

Boiling, stir-frying, frying, poaching

Fragrance wafting, the hamlet knows at once

Wanting to eat grilled noodles

Just wait a bit, don't be bothered

The bún riêu is peerlessly delicious

Beef phở fragrant, leaves nothing behind

beef offered, why not

Sausage, seeing it makes one crave

Clear broth sweet, eaten then ordering more

The staff greet with soft words

Faces bright and adding a smile

Bà Lâm the owner, beautiful and fresh

Attentively serving guests, everyone praises

Showing brighter than a lamp

Working to cultivate a lotus pond of fragrance

Today has the Buddha descended?

Phong Lê healthy, rosy, looks happy

Hygiene, all injections, cleaning

No glasses, no cane, no fear of anything unusual

To the table, learning letters, multiplication tables

Then physical exercise, unpredictable, not forgotten

Arms and legs truly exercised well

Cycling more, Buddha above blesses

Yet feeling no tiredness at all

Then eating, then drinking, everything goes down

After eating, find a place to sit

Watching films to satisfy, to pass the time

A happy day like a dream

Heaven's blessing, night waiting, day hoping

This blessing, remembered forever in the heart

Perhaps the Buddha descended, the hoped-for dream complete.

Looking at Minh, remembering the in-laws

Always joyful in life when paired together

Never expecting he would hastily pass on

Gazing at the moon, enjoying the breeze, living alone

The in-law, he has a sacred spirit

Praying he protects the whole household of wife and children

Day and night, remembering wearily

His brother still here, the slender one gone

Whose body, widowed, oh how sad

Only devotedly, standing and sitting, helping the children

Help so that all is complete

Conscience content, the land is joyful

Wishing him in the far realm

All year the soul well, standing and sitting the soul happy.