“it’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap / we gotta get out while we’re young”

For Poetry Monday:

Wasps, Ho Xuan Huong, tr. Marilyn Chin

Where are you wandering to, little fools
Come, big sister will teach you how to write verse
Itchy little wasps sucking rotting flowers
Horny baby lambkins butting gaps in the fence


Ho Xuan Huong (1772–1822) wrote Viet vernacular poetry using Chinese characters (translator notes, Wikipedia). Many of her poems poke hard at oppressive conditions for women in her society, including polygamy (she was twice married as a second-rank wife, i.e. a concubine).

---L.

Subject quote from Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen.