Filial Piety Poem by Thanh-Thanh NhuanLe

“Parents’ merits like the sky and the sea always remain,
But children’s repayment is about to boast and complain.”
That is the abounding habit of behavior so bad:
How such feeling is depressed! How such way is sad!
Who gave birth to you, do you have the heart to forget?
Who brought you up, how can you have neglected as yet?
Fathers’ flesh-and-blood love, one should not ignore.
Of Mothers’ dedication, nobody should think no more.
Nurturance does not naturally care about nescience,
But one ought not to slight any emotional experience:
Since being born, the baby has been quite cherished,
Day and night parents trying to do what they wished.
If children got sick mothers also got gaunt, tense
Through the long night staying awake worried hence
In agonizing anguish day after day crushed by grief:
Such sentimental attachment would you omit as lief?
And fathers always earnestly expect and try their best
To see their kids progress, of education stand the test,
Pass exams, obtain rolls of honor with names entered in:
Their parents’ hope to satisfy and their own end to win.
Your Dads spared no pains round the clock striving
To make a living though burdensome but life-giving trying
Until they married you off and you left for all quarters
Despite their endless suffering, dear sons and daughters!