Ma Decides to Rape Kieu

As you can tell by the title, this section is about Ma contemplating raping Kieu. At this point he has already taken her from her house and they are en-route to his home. You find out in this passage that Ma already has a wife and that they run a brothel together. They are both quite despicable people but this passage is only the beginning. Ma seems like a really terrible guy but wait until you meet his wife. That'll be the next thing I translate.

Nguyen Du, as the Vietnamese frequently are, was a cultured man. Towards the end of the passage Ma is discussing Kieu's virginity, but Nguyen Du utilized a lot of metaphors involving fruit and flowers. Just keep in mind that he is talking about raping and deflowering Kieu. This passage is pretty sad and cruel but it doesn't feature Kieu at all. She will definitely be in the next passage I translate. 

I stuck with the poetic meter that I discussed in the last post, except I altered it a bit. Instead of 6-8 syllable couplets, I wrote it in 6-8-6 triplets with a similar rhyming scheme to the original. I used the same stress pattern of two dactyls in the 6 syllable lines and two dactyls followed by a trochee in the 8 syllable line. I think for the next passage I'm going to try 12-16 syllable couplets with the original rhyming scheme because it is really difficult to fit a complete thought in English in just six syllable. Nguyen Du was lucky that all Vietnamese words are one syllable. 

I took the pictures a at misty Ha Long Bay. I thought they were kind of ominous...

Enjoy!

Still unsuspecting of Ma,

Scoundrel that he is, pure evil,

Pleasure houses, he knows well.

Dark luck for the feeble.

This marriage will make Ma quite rich.

Tu-ba, her brothel in,

Waiting for Ma and bitch.

Prostitute Tu Ba was, now old,

Grace and charm passed her by.

By chance they met, once bold

Yet now the pair are cruel, harsh crooks.

Sawdust and bitter melons.*

They didn’t have the looks,

Yet together, cash they acquired,

Opened a store they did.

All year, girls were hired,

Selling their perfumed body,

Ma would go to the towns,

Looking for girls to lobby,

Pose as a suitor, whisk them home.

Instruct them in the ways

To please men, never roam.

Fortune and despair, we can’t choose,

Just Heaven knows our path.

Bitter! Like those damn shrews,

Misery demands another.

Pity the young ladies,

Bring a rose, and smother

The poor girl with your lust, your choice.

Caught in his web of lies

Kieu, nothing to rejoice,

Small price paid, fake rites played.

Delighted! Drunk with greed,

Money, gold! All that jade!

                "The flag is in my hand! All mine!*

Awesome beauty she is,

One smile’ll make the men pine,

No joke! She, Kieu is my ticket

To the riches of the world.

She won’t’ve heard one cricket,

Before princes, rich fellows

Bid to pluck her flower.

Mine, best of bordellos,

Three hundred taels at least I’ll get.

That’s just the beginning!

Later I’ll never fret,

For she is my cash cow, my jade.”

A tasty morsel hangs,

Will he take a bite? Morals fade,

Greed is all, he has nothing more.

                “A peach branch, ripe with fruit,

I’ll pull that branch to the fore,

Savor all the earthly delights,

Countless men and playboys

Are looking for that bite,

How many men can really tell

A ripe peach, from one just

A few days past its swell?

Pomegranate juice ‘n rind will do,

And some cockscomb up there.

She will look as new,

A virgin on her wedding day.

It’s easy to deceive

A man under the sway

Of a woman’s touch; in dim light.

She’ll fetch a tidy sum,

My wife may see Kieu’s plight,

She’s keen to know something’s amiss.

She would make my life hell.

I can take my wife’s hiss!

I’m a man! She’s just an old hag.

Besides, home is far,

The long road, such a drag...

Certainly Kieu’ll suspect something

If I do nothing...

I’ll go have my fill, like a king!”

*Sawdust and bitter melons: The original Vietnamese for this line is: Mạt cưa mướp đắng which literally means "Sawdust  and bitter melon". This goes back to an old Vietnamese story about two crooks. One would sell sawdust but say it was grain, and another would sell bitter melons but say it was a cucumber. One day they met and ripped each other off without knowing it. The implication is that Ma and Tu Ba are both crooks, bad people, and belong together.

*The flag is in my hand! All mine!: The original Vietnamese also mentions a flag and the implication is that Ma has an opportunity and he should press his advantage.

Chẳng ngờ gã Mã Giám Sinh,

Vẫn là một đứa phong tình đã quen.

Quá chơi lại gặp hồi đen,

Quen mồi lại kiếm ăn miền nguyệt hoa.

Lầu xanh có mụ Tú Bà,

Làng chơi đã trở về già hết duyên.

Tình cờ chẳng hẹn mà nên,

Mạt cưa mướp đắng, đôi bên một phường.

Chung lưng mở một ngôi hàng

Quanh năm buôn phấn bán hương đã lề.

Dạo tìm khắp chợ thì quê,

Giả danh hầu hạ, dạy nghề ăn chơi.

Rủi may âu cũng sự trời,

Đoạn trường lại chọn mặt người vô duyên!

Xót nàng chút phận thuyền quyên,

Cành hoa đem bán vào thuyền lái buôn,

Mẹo lừa đã mắc vào khuôn,

Sính nghi rẽ giá, nghinh hôn sẵn ngày.

Mừng thầm cờ đã đến tay,

Càng nhìn vẻ ngọc càng say khúc vàng;

                “Đã nên quốc sắc thiên hương

Một cười này, hẳn nghìn vàng chẳng ngoa.

Về đây nước trước bẻ hoa,

Vương tôn quý khách ắt là đua nhau.

Hẳn ba trăm lạng kém đâu,

Cũng đà vừa vốn, còn sau thì lời!”

Miếng ngon kề đến tân nơi,

Vốn nhà cũng tiếc, của trời cũng tham:

“Đào tiên đã bén tay phàm,

Thì vin cành quýt cho cam sự đời!

Dưới trần mấy người biết hoa?

Nước vỏ lựu, máu mào gà,

Mượn màu chiêu tập lại là còn nguyên.

Mập mờ đánh lận con đen,

Bao nhiều cũng bấy nhiêu tiền, mất chi.

Mụ già hoặc có điều gì,

Liều công mất một buổi quỳ mà thôi.

Vả đây đường sá xa xôi,

Mà ta bất động nữa người sinh nghi.”

Kieu in Dactyls, maybe Trochees

Up until this point I've hid behind the excuse that translating the Tale of Kieu in its original meter and with the original rhyming scheme was too difficult. I'm going to finally give it a shot. I did some research and discovered that the Tale of Kieu is actually apart of a larger tradition of Vietnamese lyric poetry going back a thousand years. The Tale of Kieu is actually a very long ca dao. Ca dao are Vietnamese folk poems that were meant to be sung. They had a strict meter and rhyming scheme so they would be easier to remember. So similar to the Illiad the Tale of Kieu was meant to be memorized and recited.
The poetry in Kieu is broken up into 6-8 syllable couplets with an interesting rhyming scheme. For example:

Thương tình con trẻ thơ ngây,                                 6

Gặp cơn vạ gió tai bay bất kỳ.                                8

Đau lòng tư biết sinh ly,                                          6

Thân còn chẳng tiếc, tiếc gì đến duyên?                  8

The interesting thing about the rhyming scheme is that it is not in line with the couplets; the bottom 8 syllable couplet rhymes with the next top 6 syllable couplet. The rhyming threads the couplets together, holding the whole poem together.

Aside from meter and rhyming, the next important thing is where the stressed and unstressed syllables fall. Unlike English, Vietnamese is a tonal language but that doesn't mean it is a fundamentally different system. This reminds me of when I was talking to a Vietnamese guy and he told me that English had tones like Vietnamese. I was skeptical at first but he explained to me something which should have been obvious to an English teacher like myself. After you learn the pronunciation, vowel and constant sounds, you have to learn which syllable is stressed. This is not something I have to think about, but for someone learning English it is very important. So according to my friend, stressed and unstressed syllables in English words are similar to the Vietnamese system of tones. I would agree with him to a certain extent but I would say the tones in Vietnamese are more complicated.

I've been reading a book of translations of  ca dao by John Balaban. According to his research the stress pattern of ca dao is the second, sixth, and eighth syllable must be "even tones" (flat or falling) and the fourth syllable must be a "sharp tone" (any of the other tones). To translate this to English I decided that "even tones" were most like unstressed syllables and the "sharp tones" were most like stressed syllables. Take a look at the same example:

Thương tình con trẻ thơ ngây,                                

Gặp cơn vạ gió tai bay bất kỳ.                                

Đau lòng tư biết sinh ly,                                          

Thân còn chẳng tiếc, tiếc gì đến duyên?                  

Those are all the "even tones" and the following shows the "sharp tones":

Thương tình con trẻ thơ ngây,                                

Gặp cơn vạ gió tai bay bất kỳ.                                

Đau lòng tư biết sinh ly,                                          

Thân còn chẳng tiếc, tiếc gì đến duyên?                  

I'm still experimenting but I tried to adjust English poetic conventions to the rules of ca dao, and my idea at the moment is to maintain the 6-8 syllable couplet structure along with the rhyming scheme. As for the stress patterns, I used two dactyls (Stress-Unstressed-Unstressed) for the six syllable line, and two dactyls plus a trochee (Stressed-Unstressed) for the 8 syllable line. I thought this best maintained the rules spelled out to me by Mr. Balaban. This is my first shot at translating this way. I couldn't keep the same number of lines but I did my best to keep the translation true to the original. As Nguyễn Khắc Viện said about translating ca dao: "...like drawing a bucket of water from a well where the moon is mirrored and unavoidable losing the silvery shine of her light." (also from Balaban).

Here is the Vietnamese:

615-620 

Thương tình con trẻ thơ ngây,

Gặp cơn vạ gió tai bay bất kỳ,

Đau lòng tư biết sinh ly,

Thân còn chẳng tiếc, tiếc gì đến duyên?

Hạt mưa sá nghĩ phận hèn,

Liệu đem tấc cỏ quyết đền ba xuân.

Here is my new translation followed by my old translation:

Pity the young, alas...

Gusts of wind bring calamity.

Her heart bleeds insanity,

Kim, so far away, feels like death.

Kieu’s life fades in a breath,

Pain and regret, she must accept.

Drops of rain, haven’t yet wept

O’er the short life they encompass.

Grateful are blades of grass,

For the three beautiful spring months.

There can only be sympathy for the innocence of youth,

The winds of calamity blow so unexpectedly.

Separation from Kim tortured Kieu’s heart like a death in the family,

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.

Kieu and her Father's Mournful Goodbye

This passage is right after Kieu has pledged herself to marry Ma so she can get some money to pay her family's debt. She has already met Ma and knows that he is bad man. Kieu's father is lamenting that his daughter, who is just becoming a woman must be sent away with a strange man to an uncertain future. This is where I think Nguyen Du's real philosophical critique of his society and Confucianism in general comes out. 

In Confucius's mind, family is the most important aspect of someone's life and it is vital that the hierarchy of the family is maintained so they can live harmoniously. In the Confucian hierarchy, the father is the head of the family and a family without a patriarch is a recipe for disaster. This scene would be a good conundrum for Confucius to explain. I'm not sure if a similar situation is discussed in the Analects.

In this scene, Kieu's father is so distraught that he is losing his daughter that he even contemplates killing himself. He let his emotions run wild to the extent that he might have even hurt himself and his family for the sake of his daughter. His anguish is understandable but in the Tale of Kieu; Kieu is the example of virtue and so she cannot give into fear. In an interesting twist, she is forced to explain to her father about the moral debt she owes to him for bringing her into this life. She seemingly is calm about sacrificing herself to keep her father out of prison and protect her family. I think it can assumed that if her father and brother were in prison then her and the rest of her family would be killed, or worse, by bandits and other archetypal "bad men". 

In the passage there is mention of a "Lady Oanh" and somebody called "Ly". According to what I read, they are women from old tales that exemplify filial piety. There is one metaphor towards the end of the passage that I want to bring up:

"Consider me to be a flower bud, everlastingly green."

What I understood from this is that she wants her father to always think of her as a young child, someone who never matured or "blossomed". Kieu is continually referred to as a flower in the story. Perhaps she wants him to think of her as always innocent and young so that his memory of her will be frozen in time; as if she died as a child. Even if she does ever return home, which she doubts will ever happen, she won't be the same daughter that he remembered.

It's a very tragic scene, but I like it because unlike a lot of old Asian tales depicting filial piety, Nguyen Du really tried to bring the humanity of the characters to the surface. He didn't just wash the situation with some allusions to Confucian aphorisms and I like the irony that Kieu has to disobey her father to save him. 

655~684

Thương tình con trẻ cha già,

Nhìn nàng ông những máu sa ruột ràu

-“Nuôi con những ước về sau,

Trao tơ phải lứa, gieo cầu đáng nơi.

Trơi làm chi cực bấy trời!

Này ai vu thác cho người hợp tan.

Búa rìu bao quản thân tàn,

Nỡ đày đọa trẻ, càng oan khốc già.

Một lần sau trước cũng là,

Thôi thì mặt khuất, chẳng thà lòng đau.

Theo lời càng chảy dòng châu,

Liều mình ông rắp gieo đầu tường vôi.

Vội vàng kẻ giữ người coi,

Nhỏ to nàng lại tìm lời khuyên can:

-“Vẻ chi một mảnh hồng nhan,

Tóc tơ chưa chút đền ơn sinh thành.

Dâng thơ đã thẹn nàng Oanh,

Lại thua ả Lý bán mình hay sao?

Cội xuân tuổi hạc càng cao,

Một cây gánh vác biết bao nhiều cành.

Lòng tơ dù chẳng dứt tình,

Gió mưa âu hẳn tan tành nước non.

Thà rằng liều một thân con,

Hoa dù rã cánh, lá còn xanh cây.

Phận sao đành vậy cũng vầy,

Cầm như chẳng đậu những ngày còn xanh.

Cũng đừng tính quẩn lo quanh,

Tan nhà là một, thiệt mình là hai.”

Phải lời ông cũng em tai,

Nhìn nhau giọt ngắn giọt dài ngổn ngang.

655~684

You have to pity the father and child,

He gazed at her, felt his blood sink and his heart mourned.

“You raise a daughter, giving her everything,

You hope she will find a nice man, one that deserves her.

Oh Heaven! Why have you punished us so harshly?

Who slandered us to break up our happy home?

This withered body could face the executioner’s ax!

Heaven ill-treats the young, while condemning the old to tears.

 There will be a day, sooner or later, when I will die,

If only I could die, it would be better than this heart wrenching pain!”

Following his speech, as tears streamed down his face,

Caution was lost to him and he went to smash his skull against the limestone wall.

The guards and servants rushed to stop him,

Kieu went to her father and put her mouth to his ear,

She searched for the right words to soothe him:

“What is the beauty of a woman?

This small promise of marriage does not even come close

To the debt I owe you for bringing me into this world.

I would be ashamed if I couldn’t live up to Lady Oanh’s filial piety,

Am I not as worthy as Ly who sold herself?

Father, you are like an aged spring tree that as it grows

Shoulders the burden of so many branches.

Even though the tenderness of my heart pulls me towards you,

I won’t break off the engagement,

For it would bring a disastrous storm upon our home.

Rather, I will sacrifice my young body,

One withered flower petal will fall,

But the leaves on the branch will stay green.

I am resigned to my fate, bound to it,

Consider me to be a flower bud, everlastingly green.

Don’t wallow in worry, don’t fret over me,

Or our family will fade away and you will suffer in dismay.”

He let her wise words sink into his ear,

They gazed at each other with tear-filled eyes,

And wept so hard it could be heard far and near.

Wooden Statue of Confucius in the Temple of Literature, Hanoi

Kiều gặp Mã Giám Sinh (Kieu meets Ma)

Đoạn văn này là về khi Kiều gặp Mã Giám Sinh. Mã là người rất xáu. Khi Kiều đang đi bộ đền trước anh Mã, với mỗi bước, Kiều càng gần càng buồn. Kiều khóc quá. Từ đoạn này Truyện Kiều rất buồn. Tôi thích thơ này: 

"Ngại ngùng rợn gió e sương,

Nhìn hoa bóng thẹn, trông gương mặt dày.

Mối càng vén tóc bắt tay,

Nét buồn như cúc, điệu gầy như mai."

Thơ này rất cảm động và tôi muốn dịch tốt nhưng vậy dịch khó. Nều bạn có thể dịch thơ này tốt hơn thì nói đi! Cảm ơn :) 

This passage details the first interaction between Kieu and Ma, the scholar. He is buying Kieu as a wife. This was a fairly common practice in pre-modern times. Ma is portrayed as a scoundrel and as you will see later, is exactly that. There is some nice imagery and metaphorical language towards the end which I found difficult to translate. I gave it my best shot. I hope you enjoy it. 

616~638

Gần miền có một mụ nào,

Đưa ngưòi viễn khách tìm vào vấn danh.

Hỏi tên, rằng: “Mã Giám sinh.”

Hỏi quê, rằng: “Huyện Lâm Thanh cũng gần.”

Quá niên trạc ngoại tứ tuần,

Mày râu nhẵn nhụi, áo quần bảnh bao.

Trước thầy sau tớ lao xao,

Nhà băng đưa mối rước vào lầu.

Ghế trên ngồi tót sỗ sang,

Buồng trong mối đã giục nàng kíp ra.

Nỗi mình thêm tức nỗi nhà,

Thềm hoa một bước, lệ hoa mấy hàng.

Ngại ngùng rợn gió e sương,

Nhìn hoa bóng thẹn, trông gương mặt dày.

Mối càng vén tóc bắt tay,

Nét buồn như cúc, điệu gầy như mai.  

Wilted Chrysanthemum
Can be found at this website.

Trong Tiếng Anh:

616~638

There was an old woman living nearby,

She found a suitor and brought him in,

A complete stranger no less!

When asked for his name he responded:

“I am Ma, distinguished scholar.”

When asked about his origins he replied:

“I am from Linqing, quite close by.”

He was advanced in his years, at least 40,

Clean shaven and smartly dressed.

The suitor entered with an uproar, followed by his entourage.

The old woman welcomed him upstairs.

He, lacking all courtesy

Chose the best seat in the house for himself,

The old woman urged Kieu to come out of her cloistered chamber.

Her sadness and the woe of her family ever increasing weighed on her,

With each painful step she took towards him,

Her tears fell like countless flower petals.

She hesitated and quivered,

Shame coated her like frosty dew,

Even seeing the shadow of a flower made her feel ashamed,

She could not look at herself in the mirror.

The old woman coaxed her,

Stroked her hair and rubbed her hands,

The sadness in her face resembled a wilted chrysanthemum,

She seemed as gaunt as a dried apricot.  

Misty mountains,
Taken at Ba Vi

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. 

Kim Trong and Kieu Say Goodbye

Đây là những dòng 529~572 trong Truyện Kiều Tôi đã tư dịch lấy bài thơ này trong tiếng Anh. Trong bài thơ này Kim Trong nói chuyện với Kiều và rằng anh ấy phải rời khỏi. Tôi muốn giảy thích tôi nghĩ về bài thơ này trong tiếng Việt nhưng tiếng Việt của tôi vẵn sáu quá. Tuy nhiên tôi có thể giải thích về tiếng Việt khó trong vậy. Ví dụ, theo quyển sách của tôi "Gin vàng giữ ngọc" là "Giữ gìn thân thể vàng ngọc" và "Ông tơ" là "Chỉ ông già giữ sợi tơ hồng buộc chân những người đã có số tiền định thành vợ chồng" và "Cữ gió tuần mưa" là "Người đi xa phải trải qua cữ gió này, tuần mưa khác. Bảy ngày là một cữ, mười ngày là một tuần." 

This scene in the Tale of Kieu depicts when Kim Trong, who is Kieu first true love, discovers that he must leave and take care of his recently passed uncle's remains. The whole journey will take at least three years. This is very traumatic for the couple since they have made marriage vows to each other but have not been able to fulfill them. 

There is a lot of nice language in this passage which I haven't done justice to in my English version. My comprehension of the Vietnamese is not good enough to really convey the same poetry. In this passage you can see the Confucian ideals of filial piety. I read before that some people read the Tale of Kieu as a critique on the Confucian ideals in Vietnamese society. This passage could attest to that.

At this point of the story Kieu has been having a pretty rosy and innocent time. Her love with Kim Trong is coming into full bloom but they are separated because of Kim Trong obligations to his family based on Confucian tradition. This is a pivotal part of the story and Kieu fortune turns from bad to worse. I don't want to ruin more of the story but this passage is only the beginning of a series of passages and plot twists in the story that demonstrate how Confucian orthodoxy heaps despair upon despair onto Kieu's life. 

Dòng 529~572

Cửa sài vừa ngỏ then hoa,

Gia đồng vừa gửi thư nhà mới sang.

Đem tin thúc phụ thừ đường,

Bơ vơ lữ thấn tha hương đề huề.

Liêu Dương cách trở sơn khê,

Xuân đường kíp gọi sinh về hộ tang.

Mảng tin xiết nỗi kinh hoàng,

Băng mình đến trước đài trang tự tình.

Gót đầu mọi nỗi đinh ninh,

Nỗi nhà tang tóc, nỗi mình xa xôi:

-"Sự đâu chưa kịp đôi hồi!

Duyên đâu chưa kịp một lời trao tơ!

Trăng thề còn đó trơ trơ,

Dám xa xôi mặt mà thưa thớt lòng.

Ngoài nghìn dặm chốc ba đông,

Mối sầu khi gỡ cho xong còn chầy.

Gìn vàng giữ ngọc cho hay,

Cho đành lòng kẻ chân mây cuối trời!"

Tai nghe ruột rối bời bời,

Ngập ngừng nàng mới giãi lời trước sau:

"Ông tơ ghét bỏ chi nhau!

Chưa vui sum họp đã sầu chia pôi.

Cùng nhau trót đã nặng lời,

Dẫu thay mái tóc dám rời lòng tơ.

Quản bao tháng đợi năm chờ,

Nghĩ người ăn gió nằm mưa xót thầm.

Đã nguyền hai chữ đồng tâm,

Trăm năm thề chẳng ôm cầm thuyền ai.

Còn non còn nước còn dài,

Còn về còn nhớ đến người hôm nay."

Dùng dằng chưa nỡ rời tay,

Vầng đông trông đã đứng ngay nóc nhà.

Ngại ngùng một bước một xa,

Một lời trân trọng châu sa mấy hàng,

Buôc yên, quảy gánh vội vàng,

Mối sầu sẻ nửa, bước đường chia hai.

Buồn trông phong cảnh quê người,

Đầu cành quyện nhặt, cuối trời nhạn thưa.

Não người cữ gió tuần mưa,

Một ngay nặng gánh tương tư một ngày.

Nàng còn đứng tựa hiên tây,

Chín hồi vấn vít như vầy mối tơ.

Trông chừng khói ngất song thưa,

Hoa trôi giạt thắm, liễu xơ xác vàng.

Trong tiếng Anh:

Lines 529~572

Just as the humble wooden gate unbolted

A young house boy entered and delivered a message.

The news read that Kim’s beloved uncle had passed away,

And his helpless body remained in a foreign land

Awaiting to be brought to its final resting place.

Kim was to traverse mountains and streams

To travel to distant Liao Yang,

Kim’s father urgently called on him to take the springtime roads and return to mourn.

Upon hearing this sudden news Kim was horrified,

He arrived at the house of his beloved to break the news as gently as he could.

He explained the deplorable situation from beginning to end,

He told her there was tragedy in his house

And so he must travel to a distant land:

“We have not the time to get to know each other well!

We made our marriage vows yet cannot see them through!

The everlasting moon witnessed our eternal pledge,

The great distance will prevent us from seeing each other face to face,

Yet our hearts will always be together.

We will be apart for three long winters,

It will take time to untangle the knots of grief in my chest.

You are precious to me, take care of yourself so that…

So that I can find some peace of mind at the worlds end.” Kim pleaded to Kieu.

Kieu heard every word and was shattered on the inside,

She hesitated and then tried to express her true feelings.

“Why does the god of marriage hate us?

Why did he not tie our fates together with his pink silk thread?

Before we could be happily united we have been tragically separated.

We, together swore a sacred oath,

Although my body may age, my heart will be forever young.

I don’t mind waiting months after months, years after years,

I will think of my love, lonely and exposed to the elements and grieve secretly.

Since we have both vowed in agreement,

I will never play my lute for another man’s pleasure.

Think of the permanence of the mountains, the everlasting sea.

Remember the person you see today…and come back.” Kieu replied.

They stayed hand and hand, without the heart to let go,

The sun rose high above them and illuminated the rooftops.

Each step felt like a great distance as he waveringly exited,

At each farewell and promise their tears fell like so many rows of pearls.

The horses were saddled and bags attached in haste,

They shared their grief once more,

And then the beckoning road divided it in two.

He was overwhelmed by sadness at the landscape of the foreign land,

The branches were dense with cuckoos, the geese called from the world’s end.

For those befallen with despair,

Heaven gives them a weary week of wind and a fortnight of rain.

One day he bears heavy responsibility upon his shoulders,

The next he is paralyzed with lovesickness.

She lingered, leaning against the western veranda,

Her mind going every which way like tangled yarn.

Through the window she mindlessly gazed at the scattered clouds of mist,

A dark withered rose, a yellowing haggard willow tree. 

Introduction

Since I've left Vietnam I've been slowly translating verses from the Tale of Kieu from the original Vietnamese poetry into English. I really like the Tale of Kieu and the significance it has in Vietnamese culture. I am going to write some more analysis later but for this first post I am putting up is what I have posted already on Facebook. For my translation, I work with two other English translations along with my own interpretation. Translating poetry is always difficult because of the metaphors and other poetic language. Nguyen Du also uses a consistent meter and rhyming scheme which is very difficult to demonstrate in an English translation. The first translation I use is one that I bought while I was living in Hanoi. It was translated by a British man called Michael Counsell. I like it because it includes the original Vietnamese along with his English version. He tried hard to make the English version have a similar poetic tone. It flows nicely but he did take a lot liberties with it. It seems to me that when you translate poetry that adheres to a strict meter then you can either try to keep the translation truer to the meter and rhyming scheme or the exact meaning of the verse but you have to be an exemplary poet to get both. I think Michael Counsell's translation is more on the side of the meter approach and it is very readable. I do find though that he excludes or alters some interesting metaphorical language for expediency's sake.

The other translation I refer to was done by Huynh Thong Sanh and I access it through this website

:http://www.hn-ams.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6653

His translation follows the line numbers exactly and is a much more direct translation. He didn't try to follow the meter or rhyming scheme as much but his lines are much closer to the original's in terms of meaning. I like using both of these translations because they balance each other out and are good references for me.

So far I haven't tried to match up with the rhyme scheme or meter. I am not much of a poet so it might not read as nicely as more seasoned translators but I'm just trying to get my foot in the door. Also as you can see I have only translated small sections of the work. I read through both English versions and I chose the verses that I thought were especially interesting. Like any work of long poetry; there are peaks of poetic greatness but are necessarily surrounded by more "filler" poetry to convey the plot of the story. Now I'm going to show what I've done so far and then I will update with some analysis and more translations later. I appreciate any feedback :)

Người Việt Nam oi! Truyện Kiều rất khó dịch bởi vì tôi không phải là người Việt Nam. Khi tôi đã sóng ở Việt Nam thì tôi học truyện Kiều với bạn bè người Việt Nam của tôi nhưng tôi không biết nhiều người Việt Nam ở Mỹ. Bây giờ tôi một mình tư dịch lấy vậy. Đây khó quá. Tôi cần bạn giúp tôi. Cảm ơn :)

Truyện Kiều:

 363-368

Từ phen đá biết tuổi vàng,

Tình càng thấm thía, dạ càng ngẩn ngơ.

Sông Tương một dải nông sờ,

Bên Trong nọ, bên chơ cuối kia.

Một tường tuyết trở sương che,

Tin xuân đâu dễ đi về cho năng.

363~368

From then on, like the touchstone revealing pure gold,

Their love grew richer, yet they felt more sadness by the day.

Like the tale of Xiang River, where two lovers suffered,

And waited for each other, one upstream and one downstream,

The wall separating Kim Trong and Kieu blocked the passage of their notes of love

Like tall, snowy mountains that even if the snows melted in spring, would be impassable.

393~396

Mặt nhìn mặt, càng thêm tươi;

Bên lời vạn phúc, bên lời hàn huyên.

Sánh vai về chốn thư hiên,

Góp lời phong nguyệt, năng nguyền non sông.

393~396

They gazed into each other’s eyes, their happiness ever increasing,

Their vows brought them bliss they could not have imagined,

Their vows warmed their souls and cooled their tempers,

Side by side they returned to the study room,

The devotion they felt for each other weighed heavy like their oath to their homeland.

409~418
Nàng rằng: -"Trộm liếc dung quang,
Chẳng sân Ngọc Bội, cũng phường Kim Nôn.
Nghĩ mình phận mỏng cánh chuồn,
Khuôn xanh biết có vuông tròn mà hay?
Nhớ từ năm hãy thơ ngây,
Có người tướng sĩ đoán ngay một lời:
"Anh hoa phát tiết ra ngoài,
Nghìn thu bạc mệnh một đời tài hoa.
Trông người lại ngâm đến ta,
Một dày một mỏng biết là có nên?"

409~418

“When I first stole a glance of your handsome face,” Kieu said,

“It was clear you would work with those dressed in jade,

Dwell in the kingly chambers, but as for me,

My fate is as fragile as a dragonfly’s wings.

Will heaven allow our vows to come to fruition or not?

I remember a time from my childhood,

I met a seer who told me my fortune:

‘Your inner beauty will enlighten the world like an eternal spring,

Yet heaven will cast a thousand autumns worth of misfortune upon you,

Thus is the poetic life.’

I look at your bright destiny and then reflect upon myself,

Can we expect fortune to know what we deserve?”

437~440
Tiếng sen sẽ động giấc hòe,
Bóng trăng đã xế hoa lê lại gần.
Bâng khuâng đỉnh Giáp non Thần.
Còn ngờ giác mộng đêm xuân mơ Thần.

437~440

Although Kieu’s soft steps were as light as a lotus petal

Kim awakened from his princely dreams,

And the pair was illuminated by the soft, pale light of the waning moon.

Kim retained the vague feeling of dwelling at the peak of a divine mountain.

He still believed he was lost in a spring night’s dream.

 493~496

Rằng:-"Quen mất nết đi rồi,

Tẻ vui thôi cũng tính trời biết sao!

Lời vàng vâng lĩnh ý cao,

Họa dần dần, bớt chút được không."

493~496

“I am well aware our fate is out of our control,
Heaven alone knows why some are blessed with happiness
And others cursed with sadness.