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This my second installment of Ky Tam and Kieu's first meeting. Ky Tam is trying to convince Kieu that his feelings are candid, but she is understandably wary.
She has been living as a prostitute for so long that she doesn't trust men at all anymore. Ky Tam isn't just another man showing his adoration for her. He is starting to crack her hardened emotional shell.
Kieu is pretty consistent in her expressions of reluctance and Ky Tam is bewildered to why she could be reluctant. This exchange seems more like two different pleas, unheard to each participant. Kieu's lamentations are rooted in her lack of trust and agency. He is her ticket to freedom, but what kind of freedom exactly?
He doesn't understand why she doesn't just fall into his arms, but he has the humility to try to understand. He wants to know her soul.
Ky Tam does prove to be most sensitive of Kieu's lovers, but also the one with the weakest resolve.
“I’ve come to realize,”
Kieu replied, “I know you well,
Your words are pearls, sea shells,
They weave together like soft silk,
Are they real? Will you bilk?
Are my unworthy verses enough?
My life has been sad, rough.
I cannot so easily trust you.
Yet, my heart feels askew,
As though it floats among the clouds.
But I feel in a shroud,
I shan’t answer you today young man,”
“Speak quite strangely you can,
That branch didn’t sprout from the roots here.”
He said. Her gaze was clear,
Sad eyes seeping with feminine grace,
Joy, or Trust? Not
a trace,
She was still soaking in despair.
“You are one without care,
Fluttering like a butterfly,
A pleasure-seeking guy.
I’d become one of those flowers
That fall from trees in showers.
My lord, do you not have a wife?
Why should I spend my life
In idle conversation with you?”
“You’ve triumphed in a coup
Of my heart, yet, if we’ll live as one,
In seriousness, not just fun,
I must know the source of this stream.”
He replied with esteem.
