Springtime Couplet

Đông qua xuân đến mai đào nở
Già già trẻ trẻ đón Xuân sang.

Literal English Translation version:
Flowering buds bloom as Spring arrives at the heels of Winter's passed
The young and the old together are welcoming Spring.

Writer’s Notes
As for Tet 2009, I must have forgotten to write a couplet in time for the Tet festival that year :P

Well, in anticipating this year’s Vietnamese "Tet" New Year, the year of the Tiger 2010, I had to go back to the basics to come up with the idea for my second pair of verses. This time around, the couplet is composed of two seven-character line verses.

Playing on the equivalent images of Winter’s passed (“Đông qua”) as to old age (“Già già”) and Spring’s arrival (“xuân đến”) as to the young (“trẻ trẻ”) is to depict the welcoming sign of spring and the traditional celebration of a happy new age to everyone on Lunar New Year’s Day.

With that, I would like to part with a saying of the Tet’s greeting in Vietnamese to friends and family as follow:

Thương chúc một Năm Mới vui vẻ, hạnh phúc và dồi dào sức khỏe.
(Lit. Wish you a happy Lunar New Year filled with happiness and health.)