Kieu's Decision

This section does not make a lot of sense without knowing the background to what happened. I didn't translate the whole thing because it was a bit long and tedious. After Kim left Kieu behind she brooded for awhile and wallowed in sadness. It didn't take long however for Kieu's life to get even worse. Some bad men accused her father of owing a large debt (this debt doesn't actually exist and it is merely a scam). Even if the debt is a hoax Kieu's father is powerless to fight back against these guys and he along with Kieu's brother are imprisoned. Kieu decides that the only thing she can do is sell herself off as a wife or concubine to a rich man and that's where we are now.
The paintings are from the artist Ngoc Mai and her artwork about the Tale of Kieu can be found here. You can read more about her here.

Kieu and Kim Trong

615~623

Thương tinh cơn trẻ thơ ngây,

Gặp cơn vạ gió tai bay bất kỳ.

Đau lòng tử biệt sinh ly,

Thân còn chẳng tiếc, tiếc gì đến duyên?

Hạt mưa sá nghĩ phận hèn,

Liệu đem tấc cỏ quyết đền ba xuân.

Sự long ngỏ với bang nhân,

Tin sương đồn đại xa gần xôn xao.

There can only be sympathy for the innocence of youth,

The winds of calamity blow so unexpectedly.

Separation from Kim tortured Kieu’s heart as if he had passed away,

Can she still live without regret, even consider an amorous future?

A drop of rain doesn't dwell on its humble fate,

A blade of grass is grateful for the three months of spring.

She made her wishes clear to the matchmakers,

Rumors spread far and wide like morning frost.

Kieu giving herself up to the matchmaker

The beginning of this passage is meant to evoke sympathy from the reader. Kieu is already downtrodden and in a pathetic state. She made her decision to sell herself already and this passage is her coming to terms with what she must do. The first several lines bring up the fact that without Kim in her life she considers herself impoverished and not of much worth. She has essentially given up on herself. The part that I find interesting is this:

Hạt mưa sá nghĩ phận hèn,

Liệu đem tấc cỏ quyết đền ba xuân

I don't know if I did a good job translating it but the first line alludes to something along the lines that Kieu's fate is fragile and hopeless like a drop of rain. The second line uses a play on words with tấc cỏ which together mean gratitude or gratefulness but cỏ by itself is a blade of grass. I'm still a beginner in Vietnamese poetic language so don't expect me to have a clever answer to the grammatical nuances in Vietnamese poetry. 

What I get out of those two lines is that the imagery of the raindrops, blade of grass, and of course spring is nice and provocative. It's interesting that he would use spring seasonal imagery since this is a very dark passage of the book and spring is usually portrayed as an optimistic season. 

More importantly however, the emphasis on Kieu accepting her dark destiny definitely has the gleam of Buddhist fatalism, while second line has a strong Confucian ring to it. She must accept her fate and at the end of the day be also grateful for her father raising her just as the blade of grass is grateful to spring. The passage begins with a strong sense of pathos and ends with a rigid, self-sacrificing proclamation. I think it goes well with the overall theme of the story.