I woke up around 7:00 am and threw bacons in the oven for breakfast. I made myself a ham, bacons, eggs, and cheese sandwich. I went over to the resort around 8:30 am. Around 8:50 am, I stood in line with a handful of senior skiers. I was the only early snowboarder.

I determined to learn short turns and knee steerings on snowboard. I hit one green and one blue terrain. I headed back around 10:00 am to pick up everyone. We didn’t leave the condo until 11:00 am. When we arrived, Vương wanted to take the bubble lift so I skied with him on Long John. Pizzing all the way down with him still burned my legs.

We got back down at noon. We took a break and it started to rain. Đạo, Đán, Xuân, and I went back on the lift to ski in the rain. With heavy fog and light rain, I suggested we take it easy on the green terrain. It was quite an experience skiing in the rain.

Around 2:00 pm, my wife took the younger boys home to go swimming. I went back up with the older boys, but they wanted to hit the blue terrains. I stuck with Long John to learn short turns and knee steerings on snowboard and I made some progress. I longer pivoted my back foot; therefore, my ride was much smoother. I also were able to steer with my knees. I practiced three runs on Long John. At 3:45 pm, I decided to hit one more time before the lift closed. When I got on the lift, it started to rain. I was the only one left on the green terrain. I snowboarded in the rain and it was quite an experience. Today was a great day.

I am ashamed to confess that I had to read Truyện Kiều in English in order to understand Nguyễn Du’s epic poem—thanks to the skillful translation from Vương Thanh. I tried to read Vietnamese several times, but I gave up on the poetic language. Now that I know the story, I will go back to read Vietnamese.

You can read both the original version as well as the English translation right on a sample webpage I designed to showcase Vietnamese typography. I took 6,508 lines of poetry (Vietnamese and English) and put them all in one single webpage. That is the power of the web. I read it on my iPhone, but you can read it on any of your favorite device.

September 3rd
Today, I killed someone
I took the high school girl I used to be
To the back of the playground
And I hung her with the chains from the swings
That your emotions and I used to dangle on
Everyone will say that I killed her, but I think I saved her life…

Tarriona “Tank” Ball

Last night Đán was sharing a pull-out bed with me. Around midnight, he told me he couldn’t sleep. I held him and fell back to sleep. Around 1:40 am, he said he still couldn’t sleep. I sent him in to sleep with my mother-in-law. Then I couldn’t get back to sleep. I continued to read The Tale of Kiều hoping to fall back to sleep. Then I found a few errors in the translation so I turned on my laptop and fixed them. I went back to sleep around 4:00 am. I slept until 7:00 am. I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be a good day for skiing.

Around 10:30 am, all the boys and I went to Long John to warm up. Skiing with Vương inside my lap was such a challenge. I had to pizza the whole way down. My legs were burning. I then realized that I was so exhausted yesterday because I skied for almost an hour with Vương between my skis. I wished he would go back to using the harness.

Around 12:30 pm, I took my wife to the learning zone. She continued to work on her turns and she got better. She only fell twice because she was leaning back. After she leaned forward and trusted her skis to do the turns, she didn’t fall anymore. She was also able to get off the lift by herself without falling. I was so happy to see she was improving.

Around 2:30 pm, I switched to snowboarding. I went back to Long John to learn how to do turns with Tommie Bennett’s instructions. I didn’t quite get there yet, but I had a great run. Then I meet up with Đạo, Đán, and Xuân to ride back to our condo.

It was a great day. I am bit better at skiing than snowboarding, but I like snowboarding a bit better.

Out of all the parts of the body that you could be

I never thought you, my love, could be the asshole
I thought that maybe you could be hands
Reliable
Soft
There
Holding
Or maybe tongue
Quick
Ready
Smooth
Or perhaps arms
Big
Wide
Strong
Maybe even chest
Broad
Lay
Rest
But of all the things to be, you choose to be an asshole
Shit
Full

And now… released

Tarriona “Tank” Ball

The kids are on spring break this week and what better to do than go skiing. We drove to Vermont yesterday. We’re staying at a condo that has a trail that we can ski to Mount Snow. We went to Mount Snow once last year and liked it enough to go back.

This morning it started to rain. I thought we couldn’t ski at all, but the rain went away round 10:00 am. We headed over and I took Vương skiing on Long John, which is a long green trail. It took us an hour or more to finish. By the time we got back, it was lunch time. We had pizza and I took my wife to the learning center to learning skiing. I was able to get her onto the lift. We held on to our ski poles and got of the lift safely. She is still working on her turns.

Around 2:30 pm, I hit the black terrains with Đạo, Đán, and Xuân. The condition was icy and I tripped several times on the black mogul terrains. My skis kept caught in the ice. I was exhausted by 4:00 pm, when the resort closed. The kids enjoyed skiing and snowboarding their way back to the rental condo.

The weather forecasts to be raining tomorrow as well as Thursday. I am not sure if we will be able to ski. I am looking forward to snowboarding.

When I wake up, I think about you

In the middle of my day, I wonder about you
And when I go to sleep… I dream about you
I just can’t seem to get no fucking rest!
Real shit

And, boy, am I tired of this

For someone like you to roam around in my mind
Like a kid at a theme park
If I think about you in my day, can’t I at least dream in peace?
Well, it’s 5:30 a.m.
I guess that’s my answer
Fuck

Tarriona “Tank” Ball

Crystal Wilkinson’s Perfect Black is a powerful, approachable collection. From family to racism to food, Wilkinson writes with an authoritative Black voice. I digged a handful of her poems, but “Praise Song for the Kitchen Ghosts” is such a mouth-watering essay on food. I also love the typesetting and illustrations in this book.

I never thought I expected anything from you
Until the day you hugged me like amnesia
I guess I expected for you to hold me like I was the
Type of thing you could not forget

Maybe I expected too much
Maybe I should have never let your arms
Drive up and down my body
As if they were lost
Looking for a fucking rest stop

Whether it be my body or my heart
Maybe I had too many lights on
Made you feel safe, like I was shelter
The kind of place that you
Hide your boredom in

Don’t touch me if you don’t mean it

Don’t make me feel like some weekend hotel in New Orleans
You’re not yourself here
Maybe I was wrong for expecting more from you
And maybe you were wrong
For giving me something to expect

It’s not my fault you left your intentions in New Orleans
And picked up Misleading, you carried it in your book sack
People will say that you cannot control your feelings
But your hands…

Your hands are your own
And you didn’t just touch me
You held me
You held me like if you let me go, morning would come too soon
As if we only came alive at night

Because soon as the day would hit your back
I would be a stranger to your heart
I would be a foreigner to your eyes

I had no need to wonder how it felt to have a Sun who was
embarrassed by its sky
How dare you make me feel like an eclipse to your shine?
A dark hiding place for your wet dreams
A busy spot for your fingers when they were not busy holding sticks

When morning comes
You will jump, Adam

You will treat me like a friend

And you will visit me while everyone is asleep

I will bend my back to suit your body and you will hold me
Like you should have this evening…
When I asked you for a hug
And your arms felt like quiet
Like quick
And I could hear my confidence walk away with an awkward limp
The type of walk ya get
When a motherfucka like you
Likes to trip someone
That’s walking towards you with the same body
You held them with
So I’m confused…
Was I a punching bag or a pillow?

Tarriona “Tank” Ball

Early Saturday morning, I was googling for an English translation of a Vietnamese song. I couldn’t find what I was looking for, but I came across Vương Thanh’s translation of Nguyễn Du’s Truyện Kiều. Except for attending an afternoon with Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai in DC, I spent most of my day adding the English translation to my Truyện Kiều page. I also redesigned the webpage and added some illustrations. The most consuming part of the project was trying to match 3,254 lines. Since we are celebrating National Poetry Month, I encourage you to read The Tale of Kiều in Vietnamese or English or both. I must confess that the English version is easier for me to understand. Here are a few opening lines:

Within a hundred-year lifespan in this earthly world,
Genius and Destiny have a tendency to oppose each other.
A turbulent mulberry-field-covered-by-sea period had passed.
The things that we saw still deeply pain our hearts.
It’s not strange that beauty may beget misery.
The jealous gods tend to heap spites on rosy-cheeked beauties.
Turning scented pages of an old volume under an oil lamp,
I started reading a long-ago tale of love and romance.

Translated by Vương Thanh