The Tale of Kiều
by Nguyễn Du
Ch. 35: Miss Hoạn Thư’s New Chambermaid
Translated by Vuong Thanh 

Chapter 35: Miss Hoạn Thư’s New Chambermaid 

Kieu accepted that it was predestined debt,

and resigned herself to live out her fate and not seek death.

While Kieu was living there as a servant,  

one day, Miss Hoạn came home to see her parents.

Mother and daughter talked about this and that.

Then the old lady sent for her and gave an order:

“Miss Hoạn does not have enough people in her domestic staff.

You will go over there and be her chambermaid.”

Kiều obeyed and followed her new mistress home, 

not knowing if she was going to hell or heaven.

From early morning till late at night, she’d be ready

at beck and call to serve her mistress towels, combs, and whatever.

Kieu knew her slave status and never took a step outward.

One calm evening, the mistress asked Kieu to play her lute.

Kiều obeyed and plucked the strings.

Sometimes like the murmurs of breeze, 

sometimes like the sounds of jade falling into a bowl,

the melody was so beautiful, it enchanted the soul.

Miss Hoạn, on hearing her music, seemed taken with her talent.

Her usually stern manners were, quite a bit, softened.  

Within a stranger’s house, Kiều lived a slave’s life.

For a confidante, she had her own shadow in the morning, 

and her heart at night. 

She thought of her spouse at Lin-tzu with resigned sorrow:

To meet him again would be in some future life. 

Looking up, all four directions of the sky

were covered with clouds of white

and she wondered where her home lies.