Chút hương cho đời

TÔI  Sáu mươi, một vòng đời. Thăng trầm bao bão tố. Tôi chợt nhìn lại mình Đời còn lại những gì. Tôi biết tôi phải sống Trả nợ người nợ đời Tự biết trách nhiệm mình Sống cho tôi cho người.  Những việc nhỏ hàng ngày Thắp sáng cả ước mơ. Cho cộng đồng xã hội. Chút hương thơm cho đời Thứ năm 21 tháng 8  2025 NauHoang

Hoped - for Tet.

Tet  - Lunar New Year is coming in 4 hours in Vietnam.  Tonight is New Year's Eve This is also the time for Vietnamese people return to their families during Tet. Families and friends will come together to have a feast of traditional Vietnamese dishes, and share the happiness and joy of the New Year with the others. Everyone is going to celebrate At Mui Tet - tonight I celebrate Tet without You Saigon, which I was born , I have been lived for so long time, is the biggest city in Vietnam. Everyone who comes  is always impressed by its beauty , and Vietnamese ‘s friendliness.  I didn’t have Tet 4 years ago, but this year, I feel I have Tet because of you who brings happiness  to me and makes me think about life more meaningfully, and lots of hopes to live. It is getting colder in the evening that makes me miss You – My love so much especially when I got your Email and your phone. This morning, you called me to let me know  - You have to go and say happy new year to me. Now, you have been so far, you have been the place where there is no fireworks , no flowers, no colorful lights . . .  for Tet , just there are bombs  blowing up , bullets flying  and full of smoke in the sky . . . The place where the master of death and life is borderless . . . It is in Iraq . . . “ Sitting here – at the Iraqi base, motor rounds are falling   from the back ground My heart stops beating , fearing of the incoming sound What is life  like in the war Zone ??? what is life like when death  is so near ? I have to be calm  ... I have to fight the fear --- --- --- I  , LT  rolled around  asking " Sergeant , what 's happening ? " Hiding the terrifying look, I told him about everything I can see the frustration and the fearful look   on his face The booming sound   just took him of place As the day goes by   the heat stroking bad Missing home, missing the comfortable face making me feel so sad I stare at the base praying to all my fellows - soldiers That they'll come back home safely and the war will be over” …………………… And I’m looking forward to returning Embassy from You – my Dear. Love is here, yet it’s so far Feeling lonely fighting my own war Happiness seems like yesterday Yet a year seems like so far away I love you and I love you with all my heart I promise you we will never be apart again Testing love is like playing with fire It will never be my desire again I want to hold your hand and hold you tight Kiss you in the morning and kiss you good night Want to hear your voice and see you smile But until then  . . .  it gonna be a while . . . I wish As I woke up, You, the first one I saw every morning, gave me kisses and said “ morning babe”, as well as said “ night, babe” had kissed me before I slept and the one who was with me going on the way in life . . . Happy New Year, Dear ! Hope you will back home soon and safely.

Songs 4 You

Jesus Christ.

Phim về Chúa Jesus.

Chúa Giêsu, Ngài là ai ?

Nếu ta đặt câu hỏi này với một Giáo dân, thường thì câu trả lời sẽ rất đơn giản: Đức Giêsu là Con Thiên Chúa, đã xuống thế làm người và chịu đóng đinh trên thập giá để cứu chuộc nhân loại. Sau ba ngày, Ngài đã phục sinh và lên trời về với Chúa Cha. Đó là những gì mà Kinh Thánh dạy cho các tín hữu.

Nhưng đối với các nhà sử học thì câu hỏi đầu tiên được đặt ra là: Chúa Giêsu đã tồn tại hay không? Câu hỏi này đã và vẫn tiếp tục gây nhiều tranh luận cho tới ngày hôm nay.

Đêm 24 sáng ngày 25/12, hơn 2 tỷ người Công giáo trên thế giới mừng lễ Giáng Sinh, bởi vì đây là đêm mà theo Kinh Thánh Chúa Giêsu đã xuống thế làm Người, sinh ra nghèo hèn trong máng cỏ hang lừa Bêlem.

Cho dù không phải là một tín hữu, ai cũng phải công nhận rằng Chúa Giêsu là một nhân vật quan trọng của lịch sử thế giới và tư tưởng của Ngài chính là một trong những nền tảng của văn minh nhân loại.

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Nguồn gốc, tên goi, và ý nghĩa của Lễ Gíang Sinh

The Lady or The Tiger ?

The Lady or The Tiger - by Frank Stockton

The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton

Today's story is “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton.  Here is Barbara Klein with the story.

Long ago, in the very olden time, there lived a powerful king.  Some of his ideas were progressive.  But others caused people to suffer.

One of the king’s ideas was a public arena as an agent of poetic justice.  Crime was punished, or innocence was decided, by the result of chance.  When a person was accused of a crime, his future would be judged in the public arena.

All the people would gather in this building.  The king sat high up on his ceremonial chair.  He gave a sign.  A door under him opened.  The accused person stepped out into the arena.  Directly opposite the king were two doors.  They were side by side, exactly alike.  The person on trial had to walk directly to these doors and open one of them.  He could open whichever door he pleased.

If the accused man opened one door, out came a hungry tiger, the fiercest in the land.  The tiger immediately jumped on him and tore him to pieces as punishment for his guilt.  The case of the suspect was thus decided.

Iron bells rang sadly.  Great cries went up from the paid mourners.  And the people, with heads hanging low and sad hearts, slowly made their way home.  They mourned greatly that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have died this way.

But, if the accused opened the other door, there came forth from it a woman, chosen especially for the person.  To this lady he was immediately married, in honor of his innocence.  It was not a problem that he might already have a wife and family, or that he might have chosen to marry another woman.  The king permitted nothing to interfere with his great method of punishment and reward.

Another door opened under the king, and a clergyman, singers, dancers and musicians joined the man and the lady.  The marriage ceremony was quickly completed.  Then the bells made cheerful noises.  The people shouted happily.  And the innocent man led the new wife to his home, following children who threw flowers on their path.

This was the king’s method of carrying out justice.  Its fairness appeared perfect.  The accused person could not know which door was hiding the lady.  He opened either as he pleased, without having knowing whether, in the next minute, he was to be killed or married.

Sometimes the fierce animal came out of one door.  Sometimes it came out of the other.

This method was a popular one.  When the people gathered together on one of the great trial days, they never knew whether they would see a bloody killing or a happy ending.  So everyone was always interested.  And the thinking part of the community would bring no charge of unfairness against this plan.  Did not the accused person have the whole matter in his own hands?

The king had a beautiful daughter who was like him in many ways.  He loved her above all humanity.  The princess secretly loved a young man who was the best-looking and bravest in the land.  But he was a commoner, not part of an important family.

One day, the king discovered the relationship between his daughter and the young man.  The man was immediately put in prison.  A day was set for his trial in the king’s public arena.  This, of course, was an especially important event.  Never before had a common subject been brave enough to love the daughter of the king.

The king knew that the young man would be punished, even if he opened the right door.  And the king would take pleasure in watching the series of events, which would judge whether or not the man had done wrong in loving the princess.

The day of the trial arrived.  From far and near the people gathered in the arena and outside its walls.  The king and his advisers were in their places, opposite the two doors.  All was ready.  The sign was given.  The door under the king opened and the lover of the princess entered the arena.

Tall, beautiful and fair, his appearance was met with a sound of approval and tension.  Half the people had not known so perfect a young man lived among them.  No wonder the princess loved him!  What a terrible thing for him to be there!

As the young man entered the public arena, he turned to bend to the king.  But he did not at all think of the great ruler.  The young man’s eyes instead were fixed on the princess, who sat to the right of her father.

From the day it was decided that the sentence of her lover should be decided in the arena, she had thought of nothing but this event.

The princess had more power, influence and force of character than anyone who had ever before been interested in such a case.  She had done what no other person had done.  She had possessed herself of the secret of the doors.  She knew behind which door stood the tiger, and behind which waited the lady.  Gold, and the power of a woman’s will, had brought the secret to the princess.

She also knew who the lady was.  The lady was one of the loveliest in the kingdom.  Now and then the princess had seen her looking at and talking to the young man.

The princess hated the woman behind that silent door.  She hated her with all the intensity of the blood passed to her through long lines of cruel ancestors.

Her lover turned to look at the princess.  His eye met hers as she sat there, paler and whiter than anyone in the large ocean of tense faces around her.  He saw that she knew behind which door waited the tiger, and behind which stood the lady.  He had expected her to know it.

The only hope for the young man was based on the success of the princess in discovering this mystery.  When he looked at her, he saw that she had been successful, as he knew she would succeed.

Then his quick and tense look asked the question: “Which?”  It was as clear to her as if he shouted it from where he stood.  There was not time to be lost.

The princess raised her hand, and made a short, quick movement toward the right.  No one but her lover saw it.  Every eye but his was fixed on the man in the arena.

He turned, and with a firm and quick step he walked across the empty space.  Every heart stopped beating.  Every breath was held.  Every eye was fixed upon that man.  He went to the door on the right and opened it.

Now, the point of the story is this: Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady?

The more we think about this question, the harder it is to answer.  It involves a study of the human heart.  Think of it not as if the decision of the question depended upon yourself.  But as if it depended upon that hot-blooded princess, her soul at a white heat under the fires of sadness and jealousy.  She had lost him, but who should have him?

How often, in her waking hours and in her dreams, had she started in wild terror, and covered her face with her hands?  She thought of her lover opening the door on the other side of which waited the sharp teeth of the tiger!

But how much oftener had she seen him open the other door?  How had she ground her teeth, and torn her hair, when she had seen his happy face as he opened the door of the lady!  How her soul had burned in pain when she had seen him run to meet that woman, with her look of victory.  When she had seen the two of them get married.  And when she had seen them walk away together upon their path of flowers, followed by the happy shouts of the crowd, in which her one sad cry was lost!

Would it not be better for him to die quickly, and go to wait for her in that blessed place of the future?  And yet, that tiger, those cries, that blood!

Her decision had been shown quickly.  But it had been made after days and nights of thought.  She had known she would be asked.  And she had decided what she would answer.  And she had moved her hand to the right.

The question of her decision is one not to be lightly considered.  And it is not for me to set myself up as the one person able to answer it.  And so I leave it with all of you:

Which came out of the open door – the lady, or the tiger?

The story was written by Frank Stockton in 1882. It was adapted for VOA Learning English by Shelley Gollust. The storyteller was Barbara Klein.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

poetic justice – n. a result or occurrence that seems proper because someone who has done bad things to other people is being harmed or punished

innocence – adj. the state of being not guilty of a crime or other wrong act

mourn – v. to feel or show great sadness because someone has died

ancestor – n. a person who was in someone's family in past times; one of the people from whom a person is descended

tense – adj. nervous and not able to relax

Thằng Bé tát dầu .

Đứa bé chết trên dòng sông quê hương - 
Thằng bé tát dầu: kiếp người trong xã hội "Tự do".

Câu chuyện Đứa bé chết trên dòng sông quê hương được nhà văn Phan Nhật Nam sáng tác khi nghe bài hát Thằng bé tát dầu của nhạc sỹ Phan Văn Hưng. Bối cảnh Sài Gòn những năm 78-79 dường như không còn là lạ đối với hầu hết người dân Sài Gòn lúc đó. Một Sài Gòn phồn hoa đô thị, một Hòn Ngọc Viễn Đông rạng rỡ, kiêu sa đã không còn mà thay thế cho sự nghèo nàn, lạc hậu, đói rét mà tiêu biểu là những đứa trẻ lang thang cỡ nhỡ không chốn đi về. Chúng ngày ngày vớt từng ca dầu cặn để sống qua ngày, và cuộc đời chẳng có chút ánh sáng tương lai. Lồng ghép câu chuyện cùng với giai điệu bài hát buồn thương da diết càng làm người nghe nghẹn ngào, thấm thía. Tự do-Hạnh phúc chỉ là giả tạo khi kiếp sống con người bị chà đạp đến tàn nhẫn. Cùng nghe và cảm nhận..... sự rung cảm của hai trái tim nghệ sỹ về số kiếp con người trong một xã hội "Tự do" Ozzie Nguyen  Khi nghe câu chuyện này, tôi chợt nhớ đến bài : " Đứa bé" của nhạc sỹ Minh Khang, thật là chua xót. Hãy nghe và cảm nhận , và làm gì đó cho cuộc sống tốt đẹp hơn, để trẻ em Việt Nam không còn đói nghèo, cơ cực. Hãy vì tương lai của thế hệ trẻ của nước Việt mến yêu .  - Nâu Hoàng -

Truyện đọc Em tôi .

Câu chuyện cảm động về cuộc đời của nhà văn Phan Nhật Nam, càng nghe càng thấm thía nỗi lòng của tác giả và của những con người một thời trên mảnh đất miền Nam Việt Nam.

Cám ơn bài viết và truyện đọc của Ozzie Nguyen