Still Too Far Away - Xuân Diệu

The other day you sat too far away from me
So I asked you to move over a bit closer.
You inched over closer, but I demurred.
To be a good girl you inched still closer.
As I was boiling over, in haste with a smile
You scooted closer soothing, "Here I am!"
I brightened up then scowled at once
For I thought, you were still too far away.

A lover's eyes, how abyss-like they really are!
O high heaven, the forehead of a lover!
What do I see deep behind beauty's face
That I grasped in my frustrated hands?
Even with faith in one life, one dream,
You are you, and I am still me.
Is it possible to cross over the Great Wall
Of our two universes filled with mystery?
Though longing flows down the river of time
My past, I did not share with you.
My soul's dark recesses darker than night
Inscrutable to me, inscrutable to all.
Always searching, suspicious, baselessly jealous
I want to inspect your mind in its dreams.
But I keep my unexpected dreams from you
Just as you keep the naked truth from me.

Let's bring our heads together, press our breasts!
Let our hair short and long mingle!
Our arms! Let them squeeze our shoulders!
Let our love well up in our eyes!
Let's close our lips with a tight seal
So I can hear the pearls of your teeth.
Enraptured I fain say to you,
"Come closer! You are still too far away!"

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Xuân Diệu (1916 - 1985) Vietnam
To Do Duc Thu
Translated by Thomas D. Le