Lê Thị Diễm Thúy wrote “sans papiers” to reflect on her migration from Vietnam to the United States. Her poem is written on a more personal level, tracking her internal emotions as she journeys across the vast expanse of sea between one world and another. She wrote this poem to advise immigrants to travel through their space space to in their experiences, experiment on new things, and reflect on the great distance they travelled to get to where they are now.
As I listened to her read this short poem, I realized that it sounds more like a guided meditation. It is meant to help her listeners with concentrating and noticing the small feelings that arise within us. Meditation is about letting the good in and the bad out, like how she is telling us to “feel the past course through [us] and then fall” (line 3–4). In order for meditators to get into the zone, they have to understand what their meaning is — to prevent the past from becoming a large weight on our shoulders. “Pin a fish’s tail to the scene inhale the trail of fireworks on the shore” (line 9–10). By meditating, you are supposed to feel a sense of freedom by simply breathing and being into the moment. Focusing on the air around you helps you become more aware of your surroundings which helps you with forgetting the burdens of the past.
She says, “watch the world explode before your eyes” (line 11–12), to tell you to experience life without the weight of your past and reshape how you define yourself. The world is a beautiful place if your focus was directed on its lovely qualities. Once you have modified how you perceive yourself, “life [the] threads of memory off the floor” (lines 13–14) as they are still a fraction of who you are. Then, “weigh the seas you swallowed to swim here” (lines 15–16) to remember all you have lost and cherish all you have gained.
