1) Sir, their light hearts turned to stone.
It is not remembered whether in gardens
stone lanterns illumined pleasant ways.
The responder's first answer cleverly turns the questioner’s first question on its head. Instead of answering the question about whether the Vietnamese used stone lanterns, the responder uses the metaphor of their hearts being “turned to stone” to show how the trauma of war affected them. Next to the violence of the Vietnam War, the question of stone lanterns is shown to be both insignificant and unknowable. No one is left to tell the tale.
Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.
The questioner asks whether the people of Vietnam were “inclined to quiet laughter.” The responder shows instead how war takes away people’s joy. To laugh in the midst of slaughter and destruction can only leave a "bitter" taste.
A dream ago, perhaps. Ornament is for joy.
All the bones were charred.
The responder says that the people of Vietnam may have once used bone, ivory, jade, and silver for decoration. However, this was so far in the past that it is as if it occurred “a dream ago.” Further, decoration and ornament are used during times of joy. The reality of war is not joy but charred bones.
When peaceful clouds were reflected in the paddies
and the water buffalo stepped surely along terraces,
maybe fathers told their sons old tales.
When bombs smashed those mirrors
there was time only to scream.
In the poem’s climax, the responder contrasts the everyday life of the Vietnamese peasants with the horrors of war. Before the conflict, water buffaloes walked peacefully through water paddies that reflected the sky. These paddies are transformed into mirrors through a metaphor that emphasizes how their way of life was destroyed, just as a mirror is smashed.
It was reported that their singing resembled
the flight of moths in moonlight.
Who can say? It is silent now.
The final lines contrast the beauty of this society’s everyday life with the finality of its destruction. Their songs were so beautiful that they were like the “flight of moths in moonlight.” However, after the war, the singing stopped. The people have died and their songs have died with them.
