The Tale of Kiều
by Nguyễn Du
Ch. 15: Kiều Asked Her Sis to Take Her Place
Translated by Vuong Thanh 

Chapter 15: Kiều Asked Her Sis to Take Her Place

Family affairs had been, more or less, settled.

But now, drawing near is the time of the bridal hour.
Alone by herself by the midnight lamp,

with tear-soaked gown and hair weaved with sorrow:
I’m resigned to my fate, whatever it may be.
I just feel grieved for him who’d persevered in loving me.
His effort to win my love is so remarkable and touching.
But since my acceptance of his love, his life will be left dangling.
The cup of pledge wine not yet fully dried,
but now I break my oath and and betray his love.
In faraway Liao-Yang, he could never have thought
that the thread of love had been, by my own hand, cut short.

So many vows of love we gave one another.
But since my fate is like that, they’ll amount to nothing.
The oath incense would still linger to my next life.
I’ll be reborn a horse or buffalo, serving him to make amends.
Until my debt of love to him is repaid,
my heart, upon death, will turn into an unfullfiled-love-crystal,
that will not melt away when I pass to the underworld.

She was so engrossed in her intimate thoughts,
as the lamp oil burned away, and tears soaked up her handkerchief.
Thúy Vân suddenly woke up from her sleep.
Under the lamplight, she approached Kiều and solicitously inquired:
“Heaven’s scheme is capricious and ever-changing
with mulberry-field-covered-by-sea events.
For the whole family, you suffered alone, my dear sister,

the injustice of fate. But why do you stay awake the whole night?
Is there some secret that’s troubling your heart?”

Kiều answered: “My heart is weeping
for a predestined relationship that’s still not finished.
It’s embarrassing to talk about it,

but if I keep it hidden in my heart,

it would be a betrayal of trust and love.
I ask for your help, should you agree…
Please sit down and let me bow to you before I speak.”

“My bond of love with him, midway, are severed.
I’ll depend on you to rejoin the remaining silk threads.
From the time we met, I gave Kim my fan in pledge,
and we drank from the same cup of wine
when we made the vows to love each other our entire life.
Then out of nowhere, a ferocious storm struck our family.
Love and filial duty just cannot both be fulfilled.”

“You have many long days of spring ahead.

Being sisters from the same bloodline, 

please take my place and redeem my pledge.

If when my bones and flesh would have turned into dust,

I will still smile with joy in Hades, 

and breathe the fragrance of your happiness. 

These bracelets and pledge on clouds-decorated paper 

are jointly ours to keep. 

When you and Kim become wife and husband

and you feel sad for a star-crossed girl, 

who had vanished from this world, 

then the lute and oath incense are your keepsakes. 

Some day, if ever, you play the moon lute

or burn the oath incense and you see

a light breeze wafting back and forth

among the grass and the leaves,

then you know that it’s me,  

your sister, coming home.

“My soul will keep holding on to the oath.

Even after death, I will try to repay him my debt of love.

In the dark underworld, I cannot be seen or heard.

Please sprinkle a cup of water for an ill-fated soul.

Now the brooch broken, the vase shattered.

Words cannot express just how much I love him. 

Please convey him, the lord of my heart,

my thousand bows of regrets

that our times together, so few and so short, is only thus much.  

O Why! Why is my fate brown as dirt!

Like a flower doomed to drift along the stream. 

O Kim! O My dearest Kim! 

This is the end! From this time onwards,

 I’ll have betrayed your trust!”

Right after saying those words, she fell into a swoon.

Her breath absent, both hands cold as ice.

The parents was awakened from their deep sleep.

The entire household was astir inside and out.

They bustled about, fetching and giving her remedies.

At last, Kiều wakened, her face still wet with tears.

They asked her the reasons for her unusual behavior.

She kept on sobbing, not knowing how or what to say.  

Vân then told Kiều’s secret in whispers:

“These are the bracelets, here’s the written pledge…”

Her father said, “’Cause of dad, your marriage plan is destroyed. 

Well then, your pledge will be fulfilled by your sister in your stead.

Whose fault is it that young lovers must part, that my child

must now lead the life of a drifting duckweed, a wandering cloud?

Even if the stone stelae were worn out, 

I shall not fail to carry out your heart’s wish.” 

She made a deep bow, then said softly, “Thanks to dad,

 I will thus be able to repay my debt of gratitude for his love.  

Now it doesn’t matter to me to live a servant’s life.

Even if my bones are buried in some distant land, I do not care.”

Kiều’s extreme grief is hard to express while the south tower’s bell
had tolled several times throughout the night.  

A nuptial carriage already arrived outside, with an orchestra 

playing strings and flutes, as if to urge the loved ones to part.

She felt pained to leave them, they felt pained to stay behind.

Fallen tears penetrated the stone steps. 

The pain of a silkworm forcibly separated from its silk threads. 

Across the sky, ominous clouds suddenly dragged in darkness.

Blades of grass drooped, tree branches soaked with dew. 

She was brought to a guest house,

where she was kept alone within the four walls.

She felt shy and afraid on this night, 

but upon dwelling on her plight, 

her heart became bitter and more bitter:

“A divine flower lay fallen in vulgar hands

A waste of my effort to keep it, for his sake, from rain and sunshine.

Had I known that my life would sunk this low,

I’d rather I had given my chastity to my true love. 

For whom did I fence the flower from the east (spring) wind.

I make him suffer now since I had refused him. 

If we should ever meet again in this world,

what’s left of this soiled body of mine to offer. 

As I was born to a hard lot,

how could one keep living the life of a beauty?

Upon the table lay a knife.

She took it and with her scarf, hid it inside.

In anticipation of when the flood water reached my heels,

this knife will then take care of my fate. 

The autumn night gradually wore on, minute by minute.

In a vague melancholy, Kiều was half dreaming and half wakeful.