The Tale of Kiều
by Nguyễn Du
Ch. 16: Scholar Mã, the Rogue Pimp
Translated by Vuong Thanh 

Chapter 16: Scholar Mã, the Rogue Pimp

She did not know that Scholar Mã was a rogue.

One well experienced with the affairs of love and lust.

The rogue partied too much and had a string of bad luck.

Used to the smell of brothels, he went there to seek his bread.

In a certain brothel, there ruled a Madam Tú.

A former harlot, old age had taken away her youthful charms. 

By chance they met and soon became partners.

Cast in the same mold, they were a pair of trickster and swindler.

They teamed up to open a year-round shop

that sells young girls to pleasure-seeking customers.

Across country and town, they sought for young preys to catch.

Under the name of buying maidservants or concubines. 

But in reality, the girls would be taught the trade of a harlot: 

the games of pleasure, the art of love. 

Good or ill, one’s fortune is determined by the heavens.

The heartbreaking-destiny list’s just added another unlucky person.

Pity the fate of a young beautiful girl.

A beautiful flower sold into the boat of a peddler.  

The poor girl was caught inside their trap:

Cheap bridal gifts, and a rushed wedding.       

Mã secretly rejoiced: “The flag has come into my hand!

The more I look at her, the greater is my desire.

A kingdom’s queen of beauty imbued with heavenly fragrance. 

One smile of her is worth a thousand liangs of gold, indeed.”

To be the one to pluck the flower’s virginity,

princes and noble patrons will vie against each other.

The price should be no less than three hundred liangs.

It should cover her cost, and thereafter, is profit. 

Dangling in front of me is a mouth-watering tidbit.

Although I hate to lose money, I crave the heavenly beauty.

The divine peach fruit within a mortal’s grasp,

I will pick it from the branch and taste it to satiate my hunger!

Under this sky, in the pleasure-seeking world, 

how many men who enjoy flowers really know about flower.  

Pomegranate peel and cockscomb blood

can heal it up and restore appearance of virginity.

In the dim light, not many who would not be deceived.

Virgin or not, she will fetch the same price, so we lose nothing.

If the old broad finds out and gets angry,

it’s just the effort of one night kneeling on my knees.

Besides, it’s still a long, long way from home.

If I continue to do nothing, she will get suspicious. 

How regrettable for the camellia flower!

The bee now know its ways in and out.

It was a heavy storm of wind and rain,

with neither compassion for flawless jade, 

nor concern for pristine fragrance.

This spring night was all one bad dream.

She woke up and lay alone under the cold nuptial torch light. 

Her tears poured down like rain.

Hatred for him, and loathing for her soiled body:

“What breed of creature is he, so foul and disgusting.

My so esteemed body now is a dishonor of the elegant female sex. 

It’s over. Nothing left for me to hope and expect.

A life like this is a life finished.”

Disappointed in love, sorry for her fate,

She took out her knife and thought to kill herself.

She mulled it over: “If I were alone, dying wouldn’t matter.

But there’s two loved ones to consider.

Whatever problem occurs afterwards,

an official investigation may cause serious woes for my parents.  

My situation will likely ease with time. 

Sooner or later, everyone dies just once.” 

While she weighed the pros and cons back and forth, 

the sounds of roosters’ crowings resounded around the wall.     

As the watchtower’s horn blew through the morning mists,

Mã came and hastened the departure.