The Tale of Kiều
by Nguyễn Du
Ch. 52: Kiều Jumped into Chien-tang River
Translated by Vuong Thanh 

Chapter 52: Kiều Jumped into Chien-tang River 

She said to herself, “Let the sands and the waves engulf me

and waste my parents’ efforts, and waste an intelligent mind. 

At heaven’s edge, drifting in the middle of the sea,

where should I send my bones to its rest?

Who had cut my silk threads of love?

Who had put the debts of fate into my hands?

Why has my life turned out like this?

Any remaining day of my life is just a wasted day!

As there’s no joy in living,

then why sorrow over a loss.

I’m alone with so much bitterness in life.

Let the jade be shattered, the gold melted, let it all be over!”

The crescent moon’d disappeared behind the western mountains.

Kiều, alone in her cabin, kept standing up and sitting down.

Then,  she heard the sudden roar of rising tides.

She asked and learned that the river was Chien-tang.

She remembered clearly the words she heard in her dream.

This’s the end, she thought, of her heart-rending fate!

Đạm Tiên, O friend, do you know I’ve kept our tryst?

You promised – so wait down there to welcome me.

Under the lamp, there was some flowered stationery.

She wrote a few last words to let people know. 

Then she opened the curtain and looked outside.

The high sky, the wide river, a vast expanse of blue.

She wrote, “Lord Từ had treated me so well.

But ‘cause of a little state affair, I’d betrayed his trust.

I killed my husband, and yet I wedded another.

How could I still have a face to stand in this world?

I’d rather die and put everything to rest.

My heart I will entrust to the sky and the waves.”

She looked for one last time at the endless expanse of rising water,

and threw herself into the great river.

The tribal chief, after informed, immediately attempted a rescue.

But her body was sunken somewhere in the river. 

Pity her life, just a human life like any others,

but  to have such talents and beauty was to welcome jealousy and danger.

She led a wandering life bearing injustices and miseries. 

What would be left of her if waiting to the end of her destiny.  

So many times in fifteen years, she was a living example 

of the vicissitudes of the lives of beautiful women. 

A life with such misfortunes as her could not have been worse.

In accordance with the laws of nature, 

after the darkest tunnel came the light. 

Those people that practice  filial piety and are true of heart, 

when Heaven had imposed painful sacrifices, 

Heaven will show pity for their lives.