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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
This isn't my kind of book at all - epic poem, star crossed lovers, a "dutiful" woman who exists to serve men as the main character, none of that is particularly appealing.
But the story sucked me in anyway.
In spite of knowing exactly how this goes (the introduction covered every twist and turn in explicit detail), I couldn't stop reading. I wanted to know *how* we'll achieve those turns. The tension and pace is kept up throughout the poem - and at least for me, the tension didn't arise from the suspense of "what'll happen next". I suppose ultimately that's what makes epics epic - you're kept on the edge of your seat inspite of hearing the story hundreds of times before.
A lot is covered in very few words in this poem, each line packed with allusions and subtext. I really appreciated the annotations present in my edition - I would have missed much of the subtext without it being spelt out. (In my defence, I am not an expert with 18/19th century Chinese texts!)
And my biggest fear going in, that I'll hate the passive, submissive, heroine of the tale? Well, turns out she has spunk and resolve and always holds her fate in her own hands. Yes, she's a product of her times and speaks of men as her lords and masters. But she's no door mat (in spite of her ultimate belief in divine will/fate). She fights for herself and she accepts the consequences of her actions. She's a great hero!
Read this one folks (or any of the other translations) - it's a national epic for a reason!
But the story sucked me in anyway.
In spite of knowing exactly how this goes (the introduction covered every twist and turn in explicit detail), I couldn't stop reading. I wanted to know *how* we'll achieve those turns. The tension and pace is kept up throughout the poem - and at least for me, the tension didn't arise from the suspense of "what'll happen next". I suppose ultimately that's what makes epics epic - you're kept on the edge of your seat inspite of hearing the story hundreds of times before.
A lot is covered in very few words in this poem, each line packed with allusions and subtext. I really appreciated the annotations present in my edition - I would have missed much of the subtext without it being spelt out. (In my defence, I am not an expert with 18/19th century Chinese texts!)
And my biggest fear going in, that I'll hate the passive, submissive, heroine of the tale? Well, turns out she has spunk and resolve and always holds her fate in her own hands. Yes, she's a product of her times and speaks of men as her lords and masters. But she's no door mat (in spite of her ultimate belief in divine will/fate). She fights for herself and she accepts the consequences of her actions. She's a great hero!
Read this one folks (or any of the other translations) - it's a national epic for a reason!
Nguyen Du's The Tale of Kieu is the most famous and important work in all of Vietnamese literature, published around 1820. I've lived in Vietnam for almost six years now and figured I should read it. Penguin has released this new translation, which seemed like a good excuse.
Kieu is an epic poem, around 150 pages, about the life of Kieu, a beautiful and talented young girl in her late teens. When her father is falsely accused of not paying off a debt (which would see him put in debtor's prison and destroy the family), Kieu sees the family as only having one option: she sells herself to the highest bidder. Over the ensuing years she is sold to a brothel (twice), forced to work as a slave, becomes a nun, is forcibly married to a random tribal chieftain, is basically betrayed by men at every turn (though the two worst villains are Ms. Tu and Mrs. Hoan), and then jumps into a river to commit suicide.
It is clearly a protofeminist work and deals with the tensions between individual freedom versus karmic destiny, Confucian filial duty versus Buddhist obligations, and what "fated love" might possibly mean in a world that is seemingly cruel and heartless.
Part of the fame of Kieu is that it is written entirely in lục bát, a fairly strict form of poetry and manages to sustain it for over a hundred pages. Lines alternate: six syllables, then eight syllables. There are also rules for tone (Vietnamese is a tonal language) and rhyme scheme.
This Penguin translation doesn't have any of that. Which is somewhat understandable -- translating is hard enough. But it does rob Kieu of some of what makes it unique. On the positive side, it makes it possible to create a very readable work. In contrast to some classic literature, you won't find opaque writing or antiquated words. As a first time reader of Kieu that made is pretty easy for me to figure out what was going on.
There is a fair amount of controversy over this edition. The subtitle proclaims it is a "reworking" of Kieu, not a translation. There are some fairly scathing reviews from Kieu scholars about the accuracy of the translation. From my very inexpert position, I can understand where they are coming from, though I am more sympathetic to flexible translations than perhaps they are.
I think the biggest failing of this particular edition is that the translator never really explains what made Kieu so famous in Vietnam. The long introduction focused almost entirely on the historical background of the story with the consequence that almost nothing is devoted to how those themes tied together to (them) contemporary Vietnamese culture.
Still, I liked it well enough to decide to (eventually) seek out another, more faithful, translation and read it for comparison. A few resources have told me that the English translation by [a:Huỳnh Sanh Thông|290011|Huỳnh Sanh Thông|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1425764628p2/290011.jpg] is "the best".
Kieu is an epic poem, around 150 pages, about the life of Kieu, a beautiful and talented young girl in her late teens. When her father is falsely accused of not paying off a debt (which would see him put in debtor's prison and destroy the family), Kieu sees the family as only having one option: she sells herself to the highest bidder. Over the ensuing years she is sold to a brothel (twice), forced to work as a slave, becomes a nun, is forcibly married to a random tribal chieftain, is basically betrayed by men at every turn (though the two worst villains are Ms. Tu and Mrs. Hoan), and then jumps into a river to commit suicide.
‘A woman’s world is weaved from woe,’ she says, ‘and the only thing we dream of is despair. God rips off our wings. God makes us die.
It is clearly a protofeminist work and deals with the tensions between individual freedom versus karmic destiny, Confucian filial duty versus Buddhist obligations, and what "fated love" might possibly mean in a world that is seemingly cruel and heartless.
Part of the fame of Kieu is that it is written entirely in lục bát, a fairly strict form of poetry and manages to sustain it for over a hundred pages. Lines alternate: six syllables, then eight syllables. There are also rules for tone (Vietnamese is a tonal language) and rhyme scheme.
This Penguin translation doesn't have any of that. Which is somewhat understandable -- translating is hard enough. But it does rob Kieu of some of what makes it unique. On the positive side, it makes it possible to create a very readable work. In contrast to some classic literature, you won't find opaque writing or antiquated words. As a first time reader of Kieu that made is pretty easy for me to figure out what was going on.
There is a fair amount of controversy over this edition. The subtitle proclaims it is a "reworking" of Kieu, not a translation. There are some fairly scathing reviews from Kieu scholars about the accuracy of the translation. From my very inexpert position, I can understand where they are coming from, though I am more sympathetic to flexible translations than perhaps they are.
I think the biggest failing of this particular edition is that the translator never really explains what made Kieu so famous in Vietnam. The long introduction focused almost entirely on the historical background of the story with the consequence that almost nothing is devoted to how those themes tied together to (them) contemporary Vietnamese culture.
Still, I liked it well enough to decide to (eventually) seek out another, more faithful, translation and read it for comparison. A few resources have told me that the English translation by [a:Huỳnh Sanh Thông|290011|Huỳnh Sanh Thông|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1425764628p2/290011.jpg] is "the best".
A beautiful, cinematic, epic poem, remade from the Chinese to become a Vietnamese classic. Dark & light, a riveting story that flows easily & was a joy to read.
“The fallen rose has been washed downstream: true hell is the world of human beings.” ~ Poor Kieu. Lovely ill-fated Kieu. You can’t blame her bleak thoughts. She walks through various hells, is tricked & trapped repeatedly. After being pursued by & falling in love with Kim, she is forced to marry a horrible man in order to pay off her family’s debts. Then she is forced to work in a brothel, then…oh, it goes on.
So much of her woe stems from men– they fall for her beauty & her beautiful way with words. Her honesty & decency on top of it all make her seem like a dream to these men. They must have her. In their lust & love they keep her misery freshly occurring. She encounters some kind women, but some very villainous women, too. Still, there is an underlying sense of sisterhood – it’s very much a man’s world in which women have few options.
Though there are many tears & moments of despair, & though Kieu believes this is her fate, her own actions play a big role in shaping her life, “She is passionate, and misery loves the passionate.” Her life does come full-circle in a way & the ending feels just right.
I’m glad I didn’t skip the intro because I learned a lot about the history of Chinese & Vietnamese dynasties. One criticism of this translation is that a pronunciation guide for the names isn’t provided, so I had to look that up myself. Not a big deal, but it does seem like an oversight. Also, a few word choices seemed off, but otherwise it was beautifully done.
I watched a movie, produced in Vietnam, noticed it was based on a poem, found the poem and have now read the complete story. This poem is so much more than the movie! Where the movie had a few hints of fullness and most of one episode, although with completely different emphasis, the (translated) poem was a magnificent work weaving many episodes into the fateful life of an asian woman. Plenty of peaks and valleys, little joy, and then a real ending (not like the movie) that circled the square bringing her back to her origins in happy tragedy. I hesitate to give away actual details. In addition, the story's background became hints of political upheaval and problems of empire while the introduction fully explained those details as well as how this came to be a Vietnamese poem.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is an English translation of a Vietnamese classic. I appreciated the "Historical Background" and "Introduction" segments - they were concise but very helpful in understanding the tale itself (and what it was speaking to in terms of what was going on at the time). The introductory segments are English-only, but the poem itself is presented with Vietnamese and English on facing pages.
Mình thật sự không thể viết được cái review tử tế được với cái kiểu suy nghĩ này :))
Muốn nói là cho học Kiều ở độ tuổi 15, dưới áp lực của điểm số, thành tích và sự cứng nhắc trong lối suy nghĩ của nhiều thầy cô (và “nông cạn” của học sinh? ) có lẽ hơi lãng phí, nhưng nếu không có cái ép buộc đấy thì cũng khó lưu truyền những tác phẩm lâu đời như này. Cái gì cũng có nhiều mặt cả huhu :))
Có lẽ tất cả đều phụ thuộc vào sự chọn lọc tự nhiên, nếu một tác phẩm thật sự có giá trị thì ít nhiều sẽ có chỗ đứng trong lòng những độc giả cảm nhận được nó. Vả lại mình cũng tự thấy bản thân không đủ kiến thức và trải nghiệm để đưa ra đánh giá quá rõ ràng về cái cách mà xã hội vận hành được.
Nhưnggg về cá nhân, sau khi đọc xong mình cảm thấy những bài viết viral trên fb tranh cãi xem Kiều có phải người tính toán, hiểm độc, không hề thanh cao hay Vân là người bị hại...etc nó không giải quyết được vấn đề gì cả. :))
Mục đích của câu chuyện với mình không phải để tôn vinh Kiều lên làm một tượng đài của sự hy sinh và lòng vị tha :)) mà xoáy sâu vào nội tâm của nhân vật.
Kiều cũng là con người, cũng ích kỷ, cũng mong muốn nhiều thứ rất bình thường, nhưng trên tất cả, Kiều đã chọn làm việc mà bản thân cho là đúng nhất, dù phải bỏ qua lợi ích của chính mình.
Và vì vậy, nên dù mình không thấy Kiều như là một hình mẫu lý tưởng để noi theo (she’s kinda that emo 15 year old girl not gonna lie - no judgement here God knows I’m guilty myself), mình vẫn thấy được những điểm đáng ngưỡng mộ ở nhân vật.
AND THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF LIFE. Đấy là ý nghĩa của cuộc sống. Chọn lọc những cái tốt và học từ những điểm xấu của người khác và cải thiện bản thân. Thay vì phán xét và ôm lấy hận thù, ghét bỏ trong lòng thì tại sao chúng ta không sống một cách vui vẻ hơn nhờ? Huhu bao nhiêu thứ đẹp đẽ không chú ý mà cứ phải tiêu cực với làm khó nhau là như nào? Ghét thì né ra đi chứ ơ kìa? :))
Anyway, mình rất thích kết thúc của câu chuyện. Khép lại 15 năm một cách trọn vẹn nhất có thể. Không biết mình có thuộc về thiểu số khi thấy việc Kiều không tái hợp với Kim Trọng một phần cũng là vì kinh nghiệm sống khác biệt dẫn đến bất đồng trong suy nghĩ không (hẹn thề năm 15 tuổi và gặp lại năm 30, fyi).
Chắc tại mình không tin được là một người có thể lại có nhiều tri kỷ như vậy :)) I mean me being obsessed with the concept of soulmates is no news anyway sooo yeah that’s it.
Muốn nói là cho học Kiều ở độ tuổi 15, dưới áp lực của điểm số, thành tích và sự cứng nhắc trong lối suy nghĩ của nhiều thầy cô (và “nông cạn” của học sinh? ) có lẽ hơi lãng phí, nhưng nếu không có cái ép buộc đấy thì cũng khó lưu truyền những tác phẩm lâu đời như này. Cái gì cũng có nhiều mặt cả huhu :))
Có lẽ tất cả đều phụ thuộc vào sự chọn lọc tự nhiên, nếu một tác phẩm thật sự có giá trị thì ít nhiều sẽ có chỗ đứng trong lòng những độc giả cảm nhận được nó. Vả lại mình cũng tự thấy bản thân không đủ kiến thức và trải nghiệm để đưa ra đánh giá quá rõ ràng về cái cách mà xã hội vận hành được.
Nhưnggg về cá nhân, sau khi đọc xong mình cảm thấy những bài viết viral trên fb tranh cãi xem Kiều có phải người tính toán, hiểm độc, không hề thanh cao hay Vân là người bị hại...etc nó không giải quyết được vấn đề gì cả. :))
Mục đích của câu chuyện với mình không phải để tôn vinh Kiều lên làm một tượng đài của sự hy sinh và lòng vị tha :)) mà xoáy sâu vào nội tâm của nhân vật.
Kiều cũng là con người, cũng ích kỷ, cũng mong muốn nhiều thứ rất bình thường, nhưng trên tất cả, Kiều đã chọn làm việc mà bản thân cho là đúng nhất, dù phải bỏ qua lợi ích của chính mình.
Và vì vậy, nên dù mình không thấy Kiều như là một hình mẫu lý tưởng để noi theo (she’s kinda that emo 15 year old girl not gonna lie - no judgement here God knows I’m guilty myself), mình vẫn thấy được những điểm đáng ngưỡng mộ ở nhân vật.
AND THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF LIFE. Đấy là ý nghĩa của cuộc sống. Chọn lọc những cái tốt và học từ những điểm xấu của người khác và cải thiện bản thân. Thay vì phán xét và ôm lấy hận thù, ghét bỏ trong lòng thì tại sao chúng ta không sống một cách vui vẻ hơn nhờ? Huhu bao nhiêu thứ đẹp đẽ không chú ý mà cứ phải tiêu cực với làm khó nhau là như nào? Ghét thì né ra đi chứ ơ kìa? :))
Anyway, mình rất thích kết thúc của câu chuyện. Khép lại 15 năm một cách trọn vẹn nhất có thể. Không biết mình có thuộc về thiểu số khi thấy việc Kiều không tái hợp với Kim Trọng một phần cũng là vì kinh nghiệm sống khác biệt dẫn đến bất đồng trong suy nghĩ không (hẹn thề năm 15 tuổi và gặp lại năm 30, fyi).
Chắc tại mình không tin được là một người có thể lại có nhiều tri kỷ như vậy :)) I mean me being obsessed with the concept of soulmates is no news anyway sooo yeah that’s it.
adventurous
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Im still amazed at myself for reading a classic and liking it. We can clearly see the difference in Nguyen Du and F.Scott F. Lyrical but easy to understand= great writing
I've seen this work be referred to as an epic poem online. It lacks most of the standard accoutrements of that style, but yet it still feels a fitting descriptor. If anything, it feels all the more pure for that.
The Penguin Classics version I just completed offered a read more pleasant than most. Lyrical, poetic, rich in allusions to Chinese culture, with lengthy notes to provide context to the Western reader. The story flows from one episode of Kieu's tribulations to the next with remarkable ease and I never felt lost, something hard enough to do with prose but very rare in the poetic (though not rhyming) style of this translation.
The one thing that I found somewhat saddening was the lack of Vietnamese culture. It is a Vietnamese classic, yet it relies mostly on Han Dynasty, and some later, references to create the cultural dynamic (culturescape?) of the epic. I should have liked to have learned more about Vietnam, but I'm never going to be put off from learning Chinese culture, so this wasn't too distracting.
The Penguin Classics version I just completed offered a read more pleasant than most. Lyrical, poetic, rich in allusions to Chinese culture, with lengthy notes to provide context to the Western reader. The story flows from one episode of Kieu's tribulations to the next with remarkable ease and I never felt lost, something hard enough to do with prose but very rare in the poetic (though not rhyming) style of this translation.
The one thing that I found somewhat saddening was the lack of Vietnamese culture. It is a Vietnamese classic, yet it relies mostly on Han Dynasty, and some later, references to create the cultural dynamic (culturescape?) of the epic. I should have liked to have learned more about Vietnam, but I'm never going to be put off from learning Chinese culture, so this wasn't too distracting.
emotional
relaxing
slow-paced