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nghia 's review for:
The Song of Kieu: A New Lament
by Nguyễn Du, Timothy Allen
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".