| The Tale of Kieu | |
|---|---|
| Truyện Kiều | |
Book cover with Chữ Nôm text, published 1905 |
|
| Full title | Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh |
| Also known as | Truyện Kiều |
| Author(s) | Nguyễn Du |
| Language | Vietnamese |
| Date of issue | 1820 |
| State of existence | Jiajing Emperor |
| Authenticity | remake |
| Genre | poem |
The Tale of Kiều is an epic poem in Vietnamese written by Nguyễn Du (1766–1820), and is widely regarded as the most significant work of Vietnamese literature. It is even used as a source for bibliomancy. The original title in Vietnamese is Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh (斷腸新聲,"A New Cry From a Broken Heart"), but it is better known as Truyện Kiều (傳翹, lit. "Kiều Story") .
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. To save her father and younger brother from prison, she sold herself into marriage with a middle-aged man, not knowing that he is a pimp, and was forced into prostitution.
Contents |
Nguyễn Du made use of the plot of Chin Yün Ch’iao chuan, known in Vietnamese as Kim Vân Kiều (金雲翹), a story written by Qing Xin Cai Ren (Chinese: 青心才人) 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 Nguyễn Lords in the south. While the Trịnh and the Nguyễn were fighting against each other, the Tây Sơn rebels overthrew both the Nguyễn and then the Trịnh 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:
There have been at least five English translations of the work in the last half century. 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 (1926–2008), 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 (born 1941), was published by Pandanus books in 2004.[5] Note that Zhukov's patronymic has on some sites been incorrectly given as 'Borisovich'. His full and correct name is Vladislav Vitalyevich Zhukov.
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; further extracts from Allen's translation have appeared in Cosmopolis[7], (the Summer 2009 edition of Poetry Review'.'[8]) and in Transplants, the Spring 2010 edition of Modern Poetry in Translation[9]
The original text was written in Vietnamese using the vernacular Chữ Nôm script. Below are the first six lines of the prologue written in modern Vietnamese Quốc Ngữ and translated into English. Most Vietnamese speakers know these lines by heart.
| Chữ Nôm [6] | Modern Chữ Quốc Ngữ version (recitation) & translation |
|---|---|
|
𤾓𢆥𥪞𡎝𠊛些 In chữ Quốc Ngữ:
|
English translation:
-Translation from Lê Xuân Thuy--Kim Vân Kiều (page 19), Second Edition, 1968 Another English translation of the same opening lines:
Vladislav Zhukov's version of the same, reproducing the rhyme scheme of the original: |
Truyện Kiều was the inspiration for the 2007 movie Saigon Eclipse, which moved the storyline into a modern Vietnamese setting. Additionally, Burton Wolfe is directing a musical adaptation making its debut this fall.[10]