Calmly, I raise my pen to speak,

The world’s prospect will still be bleak.

At a glance, I know hostilities going global,

Thousands of troops massed up for battle.

For supremacy, they fight with fierceness,

For opulence, they dump righteousness.

They go on a rampage against all folks,

Leaving the Monk with muddled thoughts.

Deplorable is the loss of Confucian ethos,

Which, of old, have been saintly endorsed.

For the gentlemen to carefully choose,

How to commit none of villains’ ruses.

From above, the wise king holds a balance,

From below, officials have judging prudence.

The father supervises his family,

Teaching the children to maintain morality.

Since they separate from their king,

Unsaintly are their life styles changing.

A brush is ornate with an inkstone disk,

An iron ballpoint pen takes over from it.

Social values gradually erode,

How many hold on to good old day ethos!

So I do not cease lamenting,

I prostrate to Buddha repeatedly praying.

Rid of worldliness, in brown I dress up,

I yearn for the day all states wake up.

Don’t instigate thunderous hostilities,

But happiness to seek Buddha and Fairies.

The Sa-ba is a really distressful world,

An entanglement of vindictive causes.

Like an arrow, time flies so fast,

In a cycle of rebirth, long no one could last.

One would rather learn the great Dharma,

Early rid of sufferings to serve Buddhas.

What point is it to crave temporal assets,

Like birds which fall into nets?

Do away with indebting-ramified burdens,

Unshackled, your dharmakaya(1) lightens.

You can freely enjoy moral discussion,

Strolling in the cosmos in extreme elation!

Bac Lieu, 1942