The Tale of Kiều
by Nguyễn Du
Ch. 44: Waiting for Từ Hải to Return  
Translated by Vuong Thanh 

Chapter 44: Waiting for Từ Hải to Return 

Kiều, left alone with her shadow, by the flowery curtains.

She lived endless nights behind bolted doors.

The moss-covered yard no longer bore any shoeprints.

The grass grew over a feet high, the willow thinner a few inches. 

She missed the trees of her hometown thousands of  miles away. 

Her nostalgic soul flew homeward with the faraway clouds. 

Her heart ached when she thinks of her old parents.

She wondered if their sorrows for her departure had lessened.

It had been ten and some years already.

If  still alive, their skin must be wrinkled and their hair frost-white.

With bitter regret, she thought of her first love.

Although the lotus flower’s filament is cut, the filament of love 

still lingers in the heart.

If my little sister had retied the broken red thread, 

perhaps by now, she already have two children.  

From her exile, she thought of her distant homeland.

Thousands of thoughts and confused feelings in her mind and heart.

And again she thought of the great eagle flying high in the sky.

Her eyes had been set on the sky horizon that he had gone.