Karma and fate, fate and karma keep changing

Husband and wife are bound together,

the days beautiful and fresh

Helping life be nine-tenths, ten-tenths lovely

Now in declining years still fresh as ever

Suddenly life's karma still entangles

parents and kin, one path to the end

The world of fame ends silently

Night and day exhausting effort, giving talent wholeheartedly

Help with eating, help with living Inside

Help in danger and hardship out of separation's toil

So much heart and mind put into it

Time has run out, what to do now?

half a heart resolved to live and dream

Beside dear kin those hours of leisure

half a heart, the hours dwindling

helping the village as though rice remains withered

Whatever karma, endure it long

Carry out virtue, and fate will be fulfilled

Oh joy when receiving news of the children

The whole family healthy, nothing better than that

above not lacking the sound of the lute

The music rings out leading George soon to return

Returning again, the whole married couple

To enjoy chatting though longing awaits

So the parents are content

Only awaiting the days when wishes are fulfilled

Wishing the children meet blessing and fortune

Time to care is the children's right

Parents get to live in fullness

The children's merit remembered forever, complete for life

The fragrant flower has bloomed and fallen long ago

The fruit not yet picked, surely no hesitation!

Grown old, seeing unexpected things

Fragrant flower, big fruit, the moment to give joy

Help father help mother, backbone strong

Help elder brother, help nephew, praiseworthy

Gentle words, sweet voice before the lamp

The smile fresh, noon lotus fills the pond

No need for painted pictures colored bright

Only need a true heart, sweet dew ecstatic

How joyful, heart and mind so full

This gratitude remembered forever, here and there always!

stay up at night enough, work done

When the work is perfect, then the heart is at ease

the mind always thinks of good deeds

a householder like this, by chance already cultivating

in the daytime too tired, just sleep

Sleep a full sleep, then cultivate again

the common folk, mostly blind

striving for fame, envy, associating with resentment

dividing bad and good, murky and clear

then decide, truly follow the good

Must be clear-minded, steady the oar

Three refuges, five precepts, a mirror hung to practice

Oh how beautiful like a painting

Advise sweetly, good things don't forget

A hundred parts poetry, a hundred

Medicine, eating and drinking correctly the year

Carry out

No need to plead and beg

Naturally life's affection, meticulous wholeheartedly

Breakfast, as wished fulfilled

Lunch, dinner, no hope for more

Asking after, caring lush green

The worker comes late, less able, don't mind

Parents get satisfied and content!

This gratitude remembered forever until returning to the underworld!

Only then know the old live warmly

That is truly directing the heart toward Bodhi

The fifth of the seventh month this year

Đoàn there has set the day now, Pointe

Girls and boys clearly reserved names

But not yet known who is quick, Đoàn

Peace then always ready with tolerance

Help father, help mother, help the whole household

That is the work within the home

Naturally there will be someone to help right away

Volunteer according to circumstance first

If told early, the later funds are handled

Parents get to live properly

Thanks to children and grandchildren helping fully

Filial piety is eating fruit remembering the tree

Remember the one who planted, this is Buddha-heart

Place to eat, place to live, settled now!

Only care remains, how to be complete!

Grandchildren and children live far from here

How to solve it, without creating difficulty

Email exchanged frequently

So both are satisfied, worries gone at once

Whoever here surely discusses first

Report at once will come, come how soon

Then whoever continues, not sad

Then continuously through the night there's someone

So life is so beautiful and fresh

Always ready, there's someone to help

Help for parents' life

Help for parents, warm and full

Four sons, seven daughters here and there

Take turns helping, not favoring, close in kin

Always showing solicitude

Always helping the two parents wholeheartedly

How precious the heart within

Grace of Heaven and Buddha wholeheartedly given

Why does Buddha grace and help us

Help the heart, help with strength, truly (helping instead)

Morning, noon, evening, this season

So much work, from old till now how many people

Always keeping a fresh cheerful face

The younger ones imitate, learning the filial and loyal

Showing Buddha-heart, building and thriving

Help eat, help drink, medicine supplied fully

Asking after every minute every second

Hygiene, bathing, not sparing effort

Good heart, beautiful mind, warm

Parents get to enjoy grace of the Red River home

Lê Phụng, mother's line, father's line

This gratitude remembered forever, remembered a hundred years!

Since coming to America to settle,

P.Đ. helped set the residence right in place.

Help learn cooking temporarily

Help do cooking, having people with a trade

But not wanting, and rather disdaining

So always had to give up the cooking trade

Made a name seeking convenient work

Be a waiter, be a cook, whatever suits, having money

So one lives first

Then the children add money to help

P.Đ. now helps out

Help eat, help sleep, help fully

Hygiene, bathing, buy plenty

Medicine not lacking, likewise asking after

Wife and children, kept secret, not discussed

So helping enables the person's heart to flourish

The family, crowded, lives together

Living so that affection deepens, then all happy

P.Đ. helps make it fragrant

Worthy of joy and worth, the boat rows steady

Grace of the one who helped, mirror hung

This gratitude remembered forever, the heart never poor!

My child! You are nearly eighty!

Heaven grant you health, joy ten, joy a hundredfold

Your heart is like agarwood incense

Wholeheartedly helping through the years, memorable for life

Help eat, help drink, having someone

Help lie down, help sleep, satisfying parents' life

Hygiene, bathing carefully

Speaking gently, pleasing old age

Time, one month passes by

You now must again leave gentle parents

To return to Vegas devotedly

Work as before, endless all day

Wish you sturdy legs, steady hands

Work fast, that task, each day progressing

Far from father, from mother, don't waver

Your gratitude, the word filial, like mountains and seas!

So much effort preparing to help father

Also helping mother, old age of a hundred years

A whole life, parents living kindly

Now, strength weak, endlessly must lie down

The worker has helped all year round

You now devoted, deeply attentive by the side

Place to eat, place to live, made durable

Medicine, food and drink, helping luckily wholeheartedly

Words spoken, voice truly clear

Gentle, polite, hoping to be joyful

wanting more fragrant air

You always hold firm, lest, truly enduring

Filial loyalty you place above

Above all things, so affection lasts long

Parents' wishes fulfilled as prayed

That is happiness, deep gratitude remembered for life!

Blessings from Heaven and Buddha, grace above

Support for Tạ steady and lasting soon and long

Wishing deeper than before

Asking, when speaking, to please someone

Parents, will be arranged in peace

Son Tran <sonnguyentr@yahoo.com>

211 117th Pl SE Everett, WA 98208

Dear friend Tạ

Today received the phone number

Along with the address, Trần Sơn has sent

Soon the ceremony will be announced

The day and time of visit, don't sit on later matters

The poetry matter must be reserved to serve

The Catholic poet always caused to return

Wish the tea blend prosperous and rich

Pray the friendship long and truly enduring

The sun is shining bright

Thank you! received thanks to Trúc Lâm

Oh joy! words warm and gentle

of Master Minh Chánh full of the temple's Buddha-heart

In the afternoon the master strives, hoping to bring

hoping to convey the five precepts to be joined

So said, to be able to live because

Practicing meditation, chanting Buddha's name, no more worries

So one lives like an immortal

Living peacefully, being kind, helping people!

Organize a celebration for Ngộ Mười, 100 years old

Two thousand seventeen arrives

Thanh Phong, a hundred years, living life together

Phụng, old, remembers forever in mind

So organize, deep gratitude, debt of duty repaid

The first lunar month chosen for luck

The thirteenth joyful, lively, a big gathering

Girls and boys bustling on the rosy occasion

Sons- and daughters-in-law all come, uniting

Grandchildren, paternal and maternal, joyful

Old husband, men and women warmly together

Wish Mười Ngộ a rich heart

Live even longer, before and after, affection firm

Grace of village, grace of Ancestors, grace above

America (Stars and Stripes), Vietnam, gratitude repaid in mind

Compassion, charity, fragrant incense

Forgiveness most precious, gold and warmth still exchanged

oh love! oh duty! oh fate oh!

The debt of shared feeling must be repaid

No more duty! no more love! morality remains!

A pity that morality has declined

oh love! oh duty! oh fate oh!

Love gone, duty gone, fate gone

what hope remains yet fades and drowns

Buddha's compassion, joyful for a while!

Joyful to reach a hundred years, oh long life!

limbs still strong, standing and sitting still steady

Grandchildren, children, blessings returned, gratitude repaid

Family, society, helped luckily and fully

Then here, matters coming to the west

Just come leisurely, no bother no scolding

Life's matters are worldly matters

A hundred years a friend, when leaving, truly returning

Everyone! father-child, husband-wife

Live joyfully, live healthily, coming and going still joyful

While living, able to live, at peace

Share joy, share sweetness, coming to enjoy together