The Tale of Kieu
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The Tale of Kiều is an epic poem in Vietnamese written by the 18th century writer Nguyễn Du (1766–1820), widely regarded as the most significant work of Vietnamese literature, and is even used as a source for bibliomancy. The original title in Vietnamese is Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh (斷腸新聲, lit. "A New Cry From a Broken Heart"), but it is better known as Truyện Kiều (傳翹, lit. "Kiều Story") 
pronunciation (help·info).
In 3,254 verses, written in lục bát (6/8) meter, the poem recounts the life, trials and tribulations of Thúy Kiều, a beautiful and talented young woman, who had to sacrifice herself to save her family. She unwittingly sold herself as a prostitute to save her father and younger brother from jail.
Nguyễn Du made use of the plot of Kim Vân Kiều (金雲翹), a story written in classical Chinese, to convey the situation at the end of the 18th century. The ruling Lê Dynasty was controlled by the Trịnh Lords in the north and the Nguyen Lords in the south. While the Trịnh and the Nguyễn were fighting against each other, the Tây Sơn rebels overthrew both the Nguyen and then the Trinh over the span of a decade. Nguyễn Du was loyal to the Lê Dynasty and hoped for the return of the Lê king. In 1802 the Nguyễn lord, Nguyễn Ánh, conquered all of Vietnam forming the new Nguyễn Dynasty. Nguyễn Ánh (now Emperor Gia Long), wanted Nguyễn Du to join the new government and, with some reluctance, he did so. His situation is partially analogous to the situation of the main character in The Tale of Kiều.
The Tale of Kieu was written under a pseudonym as it strongly suggested the old Confucian moral order was wrong, or at least, deeply flawed. Some examples:
- the initial trouble encountered by Kieu is caused by the greed of a mandarin - but mandarins were all supposed to be morally upstanding individuals.
- The rebel Tu Hai is portrayed in a very favorable light - a margin note in a copy owned by the Nguyen King Tu Duc says the author would have deserved a good thrashing.
- Kieu falls in love with men not chosen for her by her parents. Romantic love was regarded with deep suspicion by Confucian scholars.
- Kieu falls in love with two different men, but a woman was supposed to be faithful to one man her entire life.
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[edit] Translation
There have been at least five English translations of the work in recent years. Kim Van Kieu [1] by Le-Xuan-Thuy, presenting the work in the form of a novelette, was widely available in Vietnam in the 1960s. The Tale of Kieu, a scholarly annotated blank verse version by Huỳnh Sanh Thông, was first published in the US in 1983. [2] In 2008, a translation by Arno Abbey, based on the French translation by Nguyen Khac Vien (1913-1997), was published in the US.[3]
There have also been two verse translations in recent years. One of these, another bilingual edition called simply Kiều published by Thế Giới Publishers, Hanoi, in 1994, with a verse translation by Michael Counsell[4] (born 1935), is currently the English version most widely available in Vietnam itself. A second verse translation, The Kim Vân Kiều of Nguyen Du (1765-1820), by Vladislav Zhukov, was published by Pandanus books in 2004[5].
A new translation by Timothy Allen of the opening section of the poem was awarded one of The Times Stephen Spender prizes for Poetry Translation[6] in 2008.
The original text was written in Vietnamese using the vernacular Chữ Nôm script. Below are the first 6 lines of the prologue written in modern Vietnamese Quốc Ngữ and translated into English. Most Vietnamese speakers know these lines by heart.
| chu Nom | chu Quoc Ngu (recitation) & translation |
|---|---|
|
𤾓𢆥𥪝𡎝𠊛嗟
|
English translation:
Another English translation of the same opening lines:
|
[edit] Sources
Renowned Vietnamese Intellectuals prior to the 20th Century (essay on Nguyen Du by the Vietnamese historian Nguyen Khac) published by The Gioi Publishers, 2004.
[edit] References
- ^ Kim Van Kieu (ISBN 1-59654-350-7) is an annotated prose translation, comprising 27 chapters and an epilogue, by Le-Xuan-Thuy, first published in Saigon in 1964 and reprinted by Silk Pagoda in 2006
- ^ The Tale of Kieu: a bilingual edition of Nguyễn Du’s Truyện Kiều (ISBN 0-300-04051-2), published by Yale University Press, is a translation into iambic blank verse by Huỳnh Sanh Thông (born 1926), dividing the poem into six lengthy sections and including an introduction and detailed footnotes.|[1]
- ^ Kieu: An English Version Adapted from Nguyen Khac Vien's French Translation (ISBN 1434386848) by Arno Abbey [2]
- ^ A biographical account of Michael Counsell, who is a retired Anglican priest [3]
- ^ The Kim Van Kieu by Vladimir Zhukov at Amazon.com (ISBN 1-74076-127-8)[4]
- ^ An online bilingual presentation of the award-winning extract|[5]
