Thơ Giuseppe Ungaretti

Don’t Scream Anymore ( Đừng Kêu Khóc Nữa)

Non gridate più

Cessate di uccidere i morti non gridate più, non gridate se li volete ancora udire, se sperate di non perire.

Hanno l'impercettibile sussurro, non fanno più rumore del crescere dell'erba, lieta dove non passa l'uomo.

Stop murdering the dead
Don’t scream anymore, don’t scream
If you still want to hear them,
If you hope not to perish.

Their words are like imperceptible wind
They no longer make noise
Of the growth of the grass,
Content where no man passes.

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Hãy ngừng giết lại người đã chết

Đừng kêu la, than khóc nữa

Nếu các bạn muốn nghe họ

Nếu các bạn muốn không tự hủy.

Lời họ như gió thoảng mong manh không rõ

Bên kia thế giới họ đâu nói gì

Chuyện cỏ xôn xao lớn

Họ an thản chốn biệt mù.

Tâm Nguyên dịch sang Anh, Việt

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Soldati

Bosco di Courton luglio 1918

Si sta come
d'autunno

sugli alberi

le foglie.

Lính

Rừng Courton, tháng Bảy1918

Như

Lá

Trên cây

Mùa thu.

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San Martino del Carso

Di queste case
non è rimasto
che qualche
brandello di muro

Di tanti

che mi corrispondevano
non è rimasto
neppure tanto

Ma nel mio cuore
nessuna croce manca

È il mio cuore
il paese più straziato

Vùng quê San Martino đá vôi lửa đạn

Không một căn nhà nào

Đứng vững

Ngoài gạch đá

Vụn vỡ

Không một ai

Đã từng bạn bè trò chuyện

Còn lại

Dù chỉ thế thôi

Nhưng mãi trong tim tôi

Không một thánh giá nào của bạn, của đời

Mất đi

Quê hương rạn vỡ

Chính là tim tôi.

1916

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Bản dịch tiếng Anh của Jim Friel

Of these houses
nothing remains
but the rubble
of a ruined wall

Of the many
who were so close to me
nothing remains
not even that

But in my heart
not one cross is missing

This ravaged village
is my heart

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Note:

Bài “ San Martino del Carso”của G. Ungaretti là một bài thơ rất nổi tiếng của nhà thơ. Ông là người tham dự cuộc chiến tại vùng quê  núi đá vôi có tên thánh Martino này , bên cạnh sông Isonzo, nên đã chứng kiến cảnh vùng quê này bị Thếchiến thứ nhất tàn phá, làm cho vỡ vụn điêu linh, hoang tàn như thế nào. Và bây giờ , trên lối đi tiến vào vùng đất này, người ta có thể tìm thấy tấm bảng ghi bài thơ này của nhà thơ Ý, như hình bên dưới.

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Sono una creatura

Come questa pietra
del S. Michele
così fredda
così dura
così prosciugata
così refrattaria
così totalmente
disanimata

Come questa pietra
è il mio pianto
che non si vede

La morte
si sconta vivendo

I am a creature

Like this stone

of San Michele
so cold

so hard
so arid

so refractory

and totally

inanimate

Like this stone

My tears roll

And no one sees

Death

Is discounted

Living.

 Tôi là một sinh vật

Như hòn đá này

ở San Michele

rất lạnh lẽo

rất cứng rắn

rất khô khốc

chai lì

hoàn toàn

chai đá

Như hòn đá này

Nước mắt tôi rơi

Không ai thấy

Chết

Là

Sống giảm giá (*)

Tâm Nguyên dịch Anh, Việt

* Đời sống ơi, sao đắt giá quá; nước mắt sao cứ phải trôi vào trong nuốt lặng.

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I Fiumi ( The Rivers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SAegn2KtDc

Noam Chomsky on Neoliberalism

Just for reading

Of course, the so-branded neoliberals can use fuzzy logic or something from set theory to dispute much of  Chomsky’s argument-- if they know how J

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https://www.thenation.com/article/noam-chomsky-neoliberalism-destroying-democracy/

A Thought on Abraham Lincoln on Independence Day 2017

                                               * *

That phrase, that expression said it all :

   …government of the people, by the people and for the people…

That President Lincoln, by far— among the US presidents, in a very short expression—  the most affirming Voice for the value of Democracy, and the strongest believer that democracy will bring great benefits , and the most efficient tool for governance and the general welfare of the people.

What was said in the Gettysburg Speech was not only eloquent, but dead sincere; part of that sincerity was Mr. Lincoln’s conviction that democracy will work, that government by the people will reap good harvests for them. What Lincoln was giving to the people, in essence, is a political thought which invests in people’s power, encourages them to go forth and build that strength, and believes they can do it. What Lincolnwas offering—meaning, sealing the idea with his signature on its feasibility — to the people is the Power that they can realize in themselves to create a nation which is run by the sheer force of Freedom, Free Will, exercised with their Intellect, Prudence and Good choice.

We don’t know how many nights, sleep-deficient nights included, Lincoln spent to dwell on the matters of Freedom and Democracy, but his words in the Gettysburg speech do show great effort to plough through, which, in spirit can only be equaled by President Thomas Jefferson’s thought on Freedom, but in conviction about Democracy, it seems Mr. Lincoln surpassed Mr. Jefferson in strength and fiber.

Note

Lincoln may not be the first one who coined the above expression, but researchers are not sure who had said/written first either. Some believe that it is in the prologue to John Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible (1384), but others doubt it seriously. Even if it did appear in the prologue of Bible by J. Wycliffe below, the connection between what’s said/taught in the Bible and form of government is hard to substantiate or prove.

“The Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People.”

Again, Lincoln may not be the one who said it first [ and Daniel Webster might] , but the Idea, I believe, impressed [im-press: imprint] in his heart and mind powerfully, stayed there frequently, and therefore, jumped out in the speech to place the trust on the people on their capability to rule by themselves.

What a feast he had served for them !

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REF

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-coined-government-of-the-people-by-the-people-for-the-people/2017/03/31/12fc465a-0fd5-11e7-aa57-2ca1b05c41b8_story.html?utm_term=.36b2fbeb9058

http://volokh.com/posts/1233080986.shtml

https://books.google.com/books?id=abJ4Ctql6M0C&pg=PA327&dq=webster+%22people%E2%80%99s+government%22&ei=QQSCSeTsJYncNs6TtboE#v=onepage&q=webster%20%22people%E2%80%99s%20government%22&f=false

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Bliss copy of the Gettysburg Speech

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty,and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead,who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

“ Thomas Jefferson, a spokesman for democracy, was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the third President of the United States (1801–1809).

In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."  (whitehouse.gov)