Nguyen Quang Thieu

Kawan penyair saya dari Vietnam. Kami pernah bertemu di "9th Kuala Lumpur World Poetry Reading 2002". Ketika itu kami menginap di Hotel Grand Seasons. Dia bercerita mengenai naik bot kecil menyusur sungai Kampung Kuantan, Kuala Selangor untuk melihat "fireflies". Dan kami bertemu semula selepas 8 tahun di Seoul, Korea untuk "Korea-Asean Poets Literature Festival" dari 2 hingga 7 Disember 2010 di Grand Hilton Hotel.

Thieu dilahirkan pada 13 Mac 1957 di Wilayah Hatai, Hanoi dan memperolehi ijazah dari Universiti Cuba. Karya-karyanya "A House of 17 years (1990), Insomnia of Fire (1992), The Soldiers of the Village (1994), The Women Carry the River Water (1995) dan beberapa cereka. Beliau merupakan Timbalan Presiden Persatuan Penulis Vietnam dan editor akhbar Van Nghe (Seni dan Kesusasteraan). Salah sebuah puisi beliau:

The Souls of the Cows

The cows took off last night,

the dark cows headed for

their final fields.

Throughout the night their calls

fell over the silent fields.

Throughout the night their breath

blews as hot as summer wind.

They were finished with their last furrows

Their yokes fell off near daybreak

They left their hoof prints behind

covering all the fields of the world.

At dawn the cows turned a bright golden yellow

and disappeared into the sun

Their calls traveled over the heads of the musicians

in the small village church

practicing one last time

before Easter.

Now there are only the clouds?

the souls of the cows -

flying over the fields

of the other cows.