The Tale of Kiều
by Nguyễn Du
Ch 1: Genius and Destiny
Translated by Vuong Thanh 

Chapter 1: Genius and Destiny

Within a hundred-year lifespan in this earthly world,

Genius and Destiny have a tendency to oppose each other.

A turbulent mulberry-field-covered-by-sea period had passed.

The things that we saw still deeply pain our hearts.

It’s not strange that beauty may beget misery.

The jealous gods tend to heap spites on rosy-cheeked beauties.

Turning scented pages of an old volume under an oil lamp,

I started reading a long-ago tale of love and romance.

It was during the Chia-Ching’s rule of the Ming dynasty.

The two capitals were stable; peace reigned in the country.

There was a respectable townsman with surname Vương.

Of modest wealth, he belonged to the middle class of society.

He had a son, the youngest, named Vuong Quan,

to carry on the family lineage of Confucian scholars.

The first-borns were two beautiful daughters.

Thúy Kiều the eldest, Thúy Vân the younger.

Apricot slender in frame, snow pure in spirit.

Each to her own charms, but both girls were perfect.

Vân’s beauty was very remarkable.

Her eyebrows – full crescent arcs, her moonlit face – oval.

Jades tingled in her voice; flowers bloomed from her smile.

Her speech: educated, chaste and refined.

Clouds yielded to her hair’s lustrous shine and flow.

Snow ceded to the silky whiteness of her skin’s glow.

Kiều, the eldest, was especially witty and charming.
Her talents and beauty even surpassed her sister.
Her eyes: soul-deep liquid pools of autumn lake water.
Her eyebrows: silhouettes of mount’n crests in spring.
Flowers envied her captivating looks.
Willows grieved at her youthful freshness.
One smile could rock a fortress and two a nation.
Other girls might have comparable talents,
but none could compare to her beauty’s perfection.

Endowed with intelligence gifted by the gods,
music, painting, poetry, and singing were her accomplishments.
Well versed in music theory and the art of the moon lute,
she composed a long music piece, named “Thankless Fate”,
about the life of an ill fated beauty,
that would move the hearts of her listeners to pity.
Nobly elegant and multi-talented were the two sisters.
Although they both had reached the age of marriage,
they stayed at home quietly behind closed curtains and drapes,
not heeding the comings and goings
of the bees and butterflies
from the eastern wall nearby.