The Tale of Kiều
by Nguyễn Du
Ch. 39: Kiều Decided to Escape
Translated by Vuong Thanh 

Chapter 39: Kiều Decided to Escape 

Flower said, “Mistress had been here for quite a while.

She tiptoed to watch and listened  for about half an hour.

She’s very clear about your love with master.

She heard everything you said to each other:

Your ordeals, your sorrows, your love.

The master’s grief, your sighs and laments . 

She told me to stand to one side.

After tired of hearing, she walked upstairs.”

Upon hearing the tale, Kiều was very shocked:

“A woman like that, we should not find another!

That was total self control. That was skilled pretension.”

Kiều got goosebumps just thinking about it:

“From where is this woman with such cleverness and deviousness,

to make my Thúc become a person with hands tied!”

“She’d caught me and Thúc together.

Any other jealous woman’d have frowned and clenched her teeth.

And yet, she kept silent and not said a word.

She greeted him cheerfully and said gentle, loving words.

When a person’s angry and shows his anger, that’s just normal.

But when mad, and yet all smiling, 

that’s a person with a deep and insidious heart!”

“I have to protect myself.

Tiger’s mouth, snake’s venom are all in this place!

If I do not run away, sooner or later, 

she will cut down the flower that she had hedged!

A floating water fern does not mind strong currents.

A drifting life anywhere is still a drifting life. 

I’m just afraid that when on foreign soil by myself, 

with empty hands, it would be difficult to find food and shelter.”

Her thoughts moved in circles without resolution.

Then she saw laid several altar objects made of gold and silver.

She took a few items and hid them inside her dress.

Drumbeats’d just sounded, marking the night’s third watch. 

She pulled herself over the flowered wall, and groped her way,

in the direction of the waning moon, to the west.