TRUYỆN KIỀU DỊCH SANG TIẾNG ANH BỞI “TIẾN SĨ GOOGLE”

Thưa Quý Vị:

Gần đây, Google đã có dịch vụ dịch từ tiếng Việt sang tiếng Anh. Nhiều người đã “ngây thơ” dùng dịch vụ này. Đây không phải là “dịch là làm phản” mà còn tệ hại hơn thế nữa.

Xin tạm trình làng dịch vụ “dịch” của Google dưới đây để Quý Vị “xem chơi cho biết sự tình” :

Tiếng Việt:

Tác giả: Nguyễn Du

Trăm năm trong cõi người ta,
Chữ tài chữ mệnh khéo là ghét nhau.
Trải qua một cuộc bể dâu,
Những điều trông thấy mà đau đớn lòng.
Lạ gì bỉ sắc tư phong,
Trời xanh quen thói má hồng đánh ghen.
Cảo thơm lần giở trước đèn,
Phong tình cổ lục còn truyền sử xanh.
Rằng: Năm Gia-tĩnh triều Minh,
Bốn phương phẳng lặng hai kinh chữ vàng.
Có nhà viên ngoại họ Vương,
Gia tư nghỉ cũng thường thường bậc trung.
Một trai con thứ rốt lòng,
Vương Quan là chữ nối dòng nho gia.
Đầu lòng hai ả tố nga,
Thúy Kiều là chị em là Thúy Vân.
Mai cốt cách tuyết tinh thần,
Mỗi người một vẻ mười phân vẹn mười.
Vân xem trang trọng khác vời,
Khuôn trăng đầy đặn nét ngài nở nang.
Hoa cười ngọc thốt đoan trang,
Mây thua nước tóc tuyết nhường màu da.
Kiều càng sắc sảo mặn mà,
So bề tài sắc lại là phần hơn.
Làn thu thủy nét xuân sơn,
Hoa ghen thua thắm liễu hờn kém xanh.
Một hai nghiêng nước nghiêng thành

……

 

Bản dịch của Google như sau:

By Nguyen Du

 

One hundred years in the realms,

Fateful words are hateful.

After a tumultuous,

Sightings that painful heart.

Strange thing,

The blue sky is used to cheek jealousy.

Fragrant lamp in front of the lamp,

Feng shui and green tradition.

That: Year Gia-dynasty Ming,

Four directions of flat two golden words.

There is a house outside the family Wang,

Housekeeping is usually usually average.

A son of the last child,

Wang Quan is the line connecting the line.

In the beginning,

Thuy Kieu is sister Thuy Van.

Mai core snow spirit,

Each one looks ten ten intact.

Van looks solemnly different,

Mold plump moon bouncing his strokes.

Flower laughing jade,

Cloudy lose hair color snow ceded skin color.

Kieu as sharp as salt,

Compared with the color is more.

Autumn water spring painting,

United jealous loser poor petal blue willow hon.

One twisted tilted water,

 

Than ôi!!!

ĐTP

ĐÀM TRUNG PHÁP ĐIỂM SÁCH

VIETNAMESE POEMS IN ENGLISH

AND IN VIETNAMESE*

NGUYỄN ĐẠI THANH (2010)

Trong công việc dịch thuật từ ngôn ngữ này sang ngôn ngữ kia, lãnh vực khó khăn nhất là thơ. Tài giỏi đến đâu, người dịch cũng không thể nào chuyển được cái hồn thơ, cái vần điệu nguyên tác sang một ngôn ngữ khác. Nếu thơ dịch không hẳn “phản” lại thơ nguyên tác, thì thơ dịch chỉ có thể là một “hóa thân” bất đắc dĩ, kém ý vị đi nhiều của nguyên bản. Thú thực, tôi đều cảm thấy như thế mỗi khi “dịch” xong một bài thơ ngoại ngữ sang tiếng Việt hoặc ngược lại. Nhưng nhu cầu dịch thơ vẫn còn đó, do đòi hỏi của trào lưu giáo dục hoàn vũ. Biết rằng mình không thể đòi hỏi gì hơn trong thơ dịch, tôi chỉ cầu mong thơ dịch đừng đi quá xa thơ nguyên tác về ý nghĩa, về thông điệp gửi gấm trong đó. Được như vậy là hài lòng lắm rồi.

Tôi thực hài lòng sau khi xem kỹ cuốn VIETNAMESE POEMS IN EGNLISH AND IN VIETNAMESE mới xuất bản của ông Nguyễn Đại Thanh, một nhà giáo kỳ cựu vừa hồi hưu sau cả một cuộc đời dạy tiếng Anh tại quê nhà và tại Hoa Kỳ. Cuốn sách trình bày giản dị và trang nhã, chứa đựng 50 bài thơ nguyên tác của các thi sĩ Việt Nam nổi tiếng và các bản dịch của chúng sang Anh ngữ. Mở cuốn sách ra, người đọc sẽ thấy thơ nguyên tác nằm trên các trang bên phải và thơ dịch nằm trên các trang bên trái, song song với nhau trong toàn bộ cuốn sách, rất tiện cho việc thưởng lãm và so sánh văn bản.

Điểm son nổi bật là dịch giả Nguyễn Đại Thanh đã chuyển ý nghĩa các bài thơ tiếng Việt sang văn xuôi tiếng Anh khá trung thực, qua một văn phong giản dị và sáng sủa, một cú pháp vững vàng, và một sự lựa chọn từ vựng cẩn thận. Xin cử ra đây một thí dụ điển hình cho nhận định vừa nói. Đoạn đầu trong bài thơ “Ông Đồ” của Vũ Đình Liên:

Mỗi năm hoa đào nở

Lại thấy ông đồ già

Bày mực tàu giấy đỏ

Bên phố đông người qua

được dịch giả chuyển sang tiếng Anh sát nghĩa như sau (trang 14):

Every year, when peach blossoms were in bloom

The old scholar-scribe was seen again.

He displayed India ink and red paper on the sidewalk

Crowded with passers-by.

Những từ ngữ đặc biệt Việt Nam khó chuyển sang tiếng Anh như “đuôi gà cao”, “dải yếm đảo”, “quần lĩnh”, “áo the”, và “nón quai thao” trong thơ Nguyễn Nhược Pháp (trang 41) hoặc “dậu mùng tơi xanh rờn” trong thơ Nguyễn Bính (trang 73) được dịch giả lần lượt chuyển thành “ponytail”, “peach-colored halter”, “taffeta pants”, “gauze dress”, “large, round, fringed hat”, và “verdant basella hedge” một cách đáng tin cậy.

Để giúp người ngoại quốc hiểu rõ thêm ý nghĩa các bản dịch, dịch giả cung cấp một số cước chú ngắn gọn bằng tiếng Anh về phong tục Việt Nam. Chẳng hạn trong bản dịch bài thơ “Bạn Đến Chơi Nhà” của Nguyễn Khuyến, câu “Đầu trò tiếp khách trầu không có” được chuyển thành “Even betel leaves and areca nuts are not available to welcome you” với một chú thích nơi cuối trang như sau: “Customarily, hosts invited guests to chew betel leaves, areca nuts, and some lime paste. This custom is still practiced by many, especially in rural areas in Vietnam” (trang 82).

Cuốn sách song ngữ này là một đóng góp đáng ngợi khen của một nhà giáo Việt Nam tận tụy với nghề nghiệp vào kho tàng tài liệu học tập cho cao trào giáo dục đa văn hóa, đa ngôn ngữ tại Hoa Kỳ. Người đọc sẽ thấy trong đó những nét đặc thù rất đáng ái mộ của nếp sống dân tộc Việt nam, trong thời bình cũng như trong thời loạn, qua những bài thơ phổ cập của các thi nhân nổi tiếng như Nguyễn Khuyến, Trần Tế Xương, Nguyễn Bính, Lưu Trọng Lư, Hàn Mặc Tử, Thế Lữ, Đinh Hùng, Cung Trầm Tưởng, vân vân. Đây cũng là một cuốn sách rất hữu ích cho giới trẻ Việt Nam sinh trưởng tại hải ngoại, không giỏi tiếng Việt, nhưng muốn về nguồn qua thi ca của quê cha đất tổ.

*Tác giả tự xuất bản – 185 trang – 15 Mỹ kim                                                                   Điện thoại liên lạc: 404-297-9962    

LÝ ĐÔNG A – THI NHIỆT

 

VĂN HỌC VIỆT QUA ANH NGỮ                                                                                                                                                                 

ĐÀM TRUNG PHÁP         

CHUYỂN NGỮ VÀ CHÚ GIẢI

 

Ta đã về đứng bên bờ Pắc Nậm                                                                                                                                                                     

Mặc heo may quấn quýt hồn cố hương,                                                                                                                                                  

Thấm hàng cây lấp ló những ven tường.                                                                                                                                                         

 Hòa làn khói mơ màng bao nhớ ước.

 

oooooo

 

Cách dòng nước ta là người mất nước,

 

Nước non ta, ai ngăn trở ta về?                                                                                                                                                                              

Thấy người quê không tỏ được tình quê,                                                                                                                                                

 Rõ trước mắt mà tìm đâu cho thấy?   

                                                                 

oooooo

 

 Hãy hét lớn hai bàn tay nắm lấy,                                                                                                                                                                                             

Hãy khua tan quân địch của Rồng Tiên                                                                                                                                                            

 Hãy làm cho giống Việt lại đoàn viên,                                                                                                                                                                                                

 Quê nước ở trong đáy dòng sống máu.

 

  ooooooo

 

The poet and thinker Lý Đông A’s real name was Nguyễn Hữu Thanh. Born on January 3, 1921 in Hà Nam Province, he had attended elementay school and studied Chinese characters in his native village before he was sent to Hà Nội to further his education in a private school and in Quán Sứ Pagoda at age 16. A year later, he started frequenting the mountain-top Yên Tử Pagoda, where he used to meditate under an old pine tree. One day, while he was meditating, a bright red celestial light shone on him — a supernatural act, reverently explained by believers as the “corporal permeation by the divine light” or “linh quang thần nhập thể,” which magnified his mental prowess manyfold. Soon afterwards, urged by a group of scholars-turned-revolutionaries, he joined Nguyễn Hải Thần’s National Restoration Force (Phục Quốc Quân). This force had to flee to China after they lost the Lạng Sơn Battle to the Việt Minh in 1940. For three years in Liu Zhou (Liễu Châu), Nguyễn Hữu Thanh taught at the Liu Zhou Military Academy and spent much time in the Liu Zhou Library to read and write books. He returned in 1943, disseminated his writings under the pen name of Thái Việt Lý Đông A, and founded the People’s Party (Đảng Duy Dân). His major publications included Huyết Hoa (a collection of essays in the humanities), Đạo Trường Ngâm (a collection of patriotic poems), and Chu Tri Lục (an in-depth discussion of the platform of the People’s Party). In early 1946, when the Việt Minh agreed in a treaty to let the French come back, he decided to confront the Việt Minh themselves at the Nga My Hill Battle Zone. His mystifying disappearance at the end of this battle left behind the legend of a short-lived genius, a superb political theorist, an amazing visionary with uncanny foreknowledge of what would happen to his country sixty years later. In light of his literary legacy, Lý Đông A is arguably the most righteous poet and thinker of Vietnam in the twentieth century.

The poem Thi Nhiệt reflects his upright belief in the mission of writers, which urges them to inspire love (the blood nature of mankind), to infuse love in the ups and downs of history, and to extol selfless victories.

 

POETIC PASSION                                            

I came back standing on the bank of Pắc Nậm [1]       

In spite of the nostalgia-imbued light wind  [2]            

Permeating lines of trees half-hidden along walls        

And blended with a dreamy trail of memories and aspirations.               

oooooo

On this river side I am a man who has lost his country [3]         

My country, who prevents me from returning?  [4]        

Sharing confidence with fellow countrymen I see,          

Clearly in front of me, yet nowhere to be found?                                                                                

oooooo

Clasping our hands let’s shout,                                          

Let’s wipe out enemies of Dragons and Fairies [5]          

Let’s re-unite the Viet race,                                                

Whose land is in the bottom of their blood lifeline!      

 

NOTES

[1] Pắc Nậm is the name in an ethnic-minority language of a small river in the Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn area, near the Vietnam-China border. Where Lý Đông A stood on the bank of Pắc Nậm River was just a few miles away from Hồ Chí Minh’s Pắc Bó Cave hideout.

[2] This light wind (gió heo may) is a cold autumnal movement of the air. It usually comes with a sad, overcast sky. When accompanied by dragonflies, it is a precursor for a storm, according to a time-honored Vietnamese proverb that says “Gió heo may, chuồn chuồn bay thì bão.” This cold wind exacerbated the poet’s sense of nostalgia and revived his memories and aspirations.

[3] The poet’s country was lost to the French colonialists, who were still ruling Vietnam (with Emperor Bảo Đại serving as a pitiful figurehead) when this poem was written in 1943.

[4] The subject of the verb “prevents” in this verse could be either the French or the Viet Minh, or both. The pain of a man without a country along with his unbearable frustration of not being in communication with his fellow countrymen spread through the second stanza of the poem.

[5] As the Vietnamese people’s mythological ancestors were dragons and fairies, the Vietnamese still frequently refer to themselves as “con Rồng cháu Tiên” (descendants of Dragons and Fairies) with pride.

 

REFERENCES

Lý Đông A (1969). Chu Tri Lục. Saigon: Gió Đáy.

Lý Đông A (1986). Huyết Hoa. San José, CA: Nhóm Nghiên Cứu Văn Hóa Dân Tộc Việt.

Lý Đông A (1992). Đạo Trường Ngâm. Westminster, CA: Vạn Thắng Thư Cục.

Viên Linh (2010). Lý Đông A, Chính Khí Việt & Nghệ Thuật. Khởi Hành Literary Review, 15(170), 12-14.

VIETNAMESE PROVERBS AND THEIR WORLD COUNTERPARTS

 

Dr. Đàm Trung Pháp,

Professor Emeritus,                                                                                                  

Texas Woman’s University

 

Messages  of  practical  wisdom

 

Every language has popular short simple sayings that express sharp observations about life. The name of these folk sayings is proverb in English, tục ngữ in Vietnamese, suyu in Chinese, proverbe in French, dicho in Spanish, proverbio in Italian, and Sprichwort in German. A proverb is cogently defined by Crystal (1997, p. 435) as “a short, pithy, rhythmical saying expressing a general belief.” With their ability to succinctly express life experience and make language more appealing, proverbs play an important role in daily communication. The most fascinating feature among world proverbs is the similarity in their practical wisdom. For instance, the sayings Yêu ai yêu cả đường đi in Vietnamese, Love me, love my dog in American English, and Ai wu ji wu (爱 屋 及 烏) in Chinese expound the “halo effect,” an undeniable psychological truth. Only their ways of expressing this truth differ. The poetry-loving Vietnamese talk about someone they love and the road that bears that person’s footprints — if you love someone, you also love that road. The Mandarin Chinese saying Ai wu ji wu plays on the homophonous pair wu (屋) and wu (烏), with the first one meaning “house” and the second one meaning “crow” – if you love a certain house, you also love the crows that perch on its roof.

 

Universality  of  life  experiences

 

When comparing the contents of world proverbs, we will find plenty of similarities due to the universality of life experiences, as Hirsch, Kett, and Trefil (1988, p. 46) put it, “Proverbs reflect the accumulated wisdom, prejudices, and superstitions of the human race.” Thus, to advise people not to act too fast, a Vietnamese proverb says Đi đâu mà vội mà vàng, mà vấp phải đá mà quàng phải dây? (Where are you going in such a hurry that you stumble on stones and get ensnared in vines?) Offering the same advice are the following sayings: More haste less speed; Plus on se hâte moins on avance (French: The more one hurries the less one advances); Chi va piano va lontano (Italian: Who goes slowly goes far); and Yu su ze bu da  (慾 速 則 不 達) (Chinese: Haste does not get you there).

 

It is only natural that contents in proverbs in related languages (e.g., English and German) are often virtually identical. Thus, the English saying Rob Peter to pay Paul and the German counterpart Dem Peter nehmen und dem Paul geben sound almost like each other’s word-for-word translation. However, as a native speaker of Vietnamese, which is totally unrelated to English, the author is thrilled to find the semantic parallelism among the contents of such proverb pairs as Được đằng chân lân đằng đầu (When they get to your feet they will want to get to your head) and Give him an inch and he will take a mile; Gieo gió gặp bão (Sow the wind and harvest the storm) and Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind; and Thờn bơn méo miệng chê trai lệch mồm  (The twisted-mouthed flounder ridicules the mussel’s warped mouth) and The pot calling the kettle black.

 

Typical  structure  of  proverbs

 

Structurally speaking, numerous world proverbs share the fact that they are made up of two components that offer a euphonious syntactic and prosodic parallelism. For instance, Out of sight, out of mind displays the same construction as the following world proverbs: Xa mặt, cách lòng ; Loin des yeux, loin du coeur (French: Away from eyes, away from heart); Aus den Augen, aus dem Sinn (German: Out of eyes, out of mind); Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente (Spanish: Eyes that do not see, heart that does not feel); and Lontano dagli occhi, lontano dal cuor (Italian: Far from the eyes, far from the heart).

 

Promoting  morality

 

Among proverbs promoting morality, the straightforward English Honesty is the best policy stands out. Its message complements that of the Vietnamese Khôn ngoan chẳng ngoại thật thà (Honesty transcends wisdom). Reminding people of the fact that the company they keep can tell a lot about themselves are the Chinese Niu xun niu ma xun ma (牛 尋 牛 馬 尋 馬) (Oxen look for oxen, horses look for horses), the English Birds of a feather flock together, the French Dis-moi qui tu hantes et je te dirai qui tu es (Tell me who you frequent, and I will tell you who you are), the Spanish Cada cual con los suyos (Each one with its own kind), the German Gleich und gleich gesellt sich gern (Like and like associate well), and the Italian Dio li fa e poi li appaia (God creates them and then matches them). World proverbs warn people not to laugh at other people’s plight because what goes around certainly comes around, according to the Vietnamese Cười người chớ vội cười lâu, cười người hôm trước hôm sau người cười (Don’t laugh at other people too long; you laugh at them the day before and they will laugh at you the next day). The warning is more succinct in English: He laughs best who laughs last, in Italian: Ride bene che ride l’ultimo (Who laughs last laughs well), and in French:  Rira bien qui rira le dernier (Who will laugh last will laugh well).

 

Providing  practical  advice

 

Proverbs reflect daily living and offer wisdom for people as they cope with life. Give-and-take is expected in relationships, as suggested by the down-to-earth English saying You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours and the Vietnamese equivalent  Có đi có lại mới toại lòng nhau (Reciprocation pleases both sides). The power of money is clearly expressed by the proverb Money talks, which has the Chinese counterpart Duo jin yin po lu li (多 金 銀 破 律 例) (Big money breaks the law) and the Vietnamese Nén bạc đâm toạc tờ giấy (A bar of silver tears up a document). Being discreet is a safety device, because Walls have ears, an English proverb whose practical wisdom is found verbatim in the Vietnamese Tai vách mạch rừng, the Chinese Ge qiang you er (隔 墻 有 耳), the French Les murs ont des oreilles, the Italian I muri hanno orecchi, and the German Die Waende haben Ohren. It is no shame to avoid violent behavior by senseless people, as suggested by the Spanish maxim Al loco y al toro darles corro (To a crazy person and to a bull, be ready to yield) or the Vietnamese Tránh voi chẳng xấu mặt nào (It is no shame at all to dodge an elephant).

 

Proverbs understand human psychology and therefore can provide people with down-to-earth advice. The Vietnamese adage Sự thật mất lòng is a word-for-word expression of its English counterpart Truth hurts. Because truth hurts, an astute piece of advice is offered by the French saying Toute vérité n’est pas bonne à dire (Not every truth is good to tell). Sweet-talking goes a long way, and it costs nothing according to the Spanish Cortesía de boca vale mucho y poco cuesta (Courtesy of the mouth has much value and costs little). Additional wisdom is provided by the Vietnamese Lời nói chẳng mất tiền mua, lựa lời mà nói cho vừa lòng nhau (Words do not have to be bought with money; select them carefully to please the listener). Count on what you have in hands only is the wisdom of the English saying A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, the Vietnamese Một con nằm trong tay hơn mười con bay trên trời (One bird in the hand is better than ten flying in the sky), the Italian Meglio un uovo oggi che una gallina domani (An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow), and the German Ein Spatz in der Hand ist besser als eine Taube auf dem Dach (A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the roof). Once injured, people may become paranoid and avoid situations that remind them of the previous mishap. Reflecting this psychological fact is the metaphorical Chinese saying Jing gong zhi niao jian qu mu er gao fei (驚 弓 之 鳥 見 曲 木 而 高 飛) (The bow-fearing bird flies high upon seeing a bent tree branch). This thought is expressed more directly in English as Once bitten, twice shy; in French as Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide  (Burned cat fears cold water); in Spanish as Gato escaldado del agua fría huye (Burned cat flees from cold water); and in German as Gebrannte Kinder scheuen das Feuer (Burned children fear the fire).

 

Providing  hope  and  optimism

 

Proverbs also provide mankind with hope. Indeed, life is not always tough, as the English saying After a storm comes a calm implies. This optimism is expressed in Chinese as Ku jin gan lai (苦 盡 甘 來) (After bitterness comes sweetness); in French as Après la pluie, le beau temps (After the rain, beautiful weather); and in Vietnamese as Sau cơn mưa trời lại sáng (After the rain, the sun shines again). When the sun shines again and people get another opportunity in life, they should take prompt action, as advised by the English proverb Strike while the iron is hot or the Vietnamese Cờ đến tay phải phất (When the flag is in your hand, do not fail to wave it). But when striking the hot iron or waving the flag, they should remember the importance of solidarity, which is expressed so clearly by the French proverb Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps (One swallow does not make a spring) or the Chinese Gu shu bu cheng lin (孤 樹 不成 林) (One single tree does not make a forest).

 

Educational   values

 

World proverbs are an appealing source for discussing (both orally and in writing) about life from multiple cultural perspectives. The study of world proverbs has the potential to get parents, grandparents, community members involved in the students’ education, making it more significant and authentic. Comparing world proverbs enhances the students’ understanding of the universality of human behaviors and thus may turn the multicultural, multilingual classroom into a more accepting environment for all students. This humanistic educational activity also helps develop students’ divergent thinking skill as well as improve their cross-cultural communication.

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Crystal, D. (1997). The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. NY: Cambridge University Press.

Hirsch, E.D., Kett, J.F., & Trefil, J. (1988). The dictionary of cultural literacy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

 

Lin, M., & Leonard, S. (1998). Dictionary of 1000 Chinese proverbs. NY: Hippocrene Books.

 

Titelman, G. (2000). Random House dictionary of America’s popular proverbs and sayings. NY: Random House.

 

Vu, N.P. (2000). Vietnamese proverbs, popular sayings, and folk songs. Hanoi: Van Hoc.

THE TRƯNG SISTERS: VIETNAM’S REVERED HEROINES

The two paragons of heroism

Lady Trưng hailed from the Phong prefecture.

Enraged by a greedy tyrant and determined to avenge her husband,

she and her younger sister, who shared a solemn oath,

raised the lady-warrior flag asserting their command …

The popular verses above refer to Vietnam’s revered heroines Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị. In the year 40, these two sisters recruited thousands of followers who helped them rout the greedy and cruel Chinese governor Su Ding (Tô Định), who had killed Trưng Trắc’s husband Thi Sách. Su Ding’s cowardly escape to China marked the end of Vietnam’s first Chinese occupation, which had lasted 150 years [1]. Trưng Trắc became the reigning queen of Vietnam until the year 43, when she and her younger sister were defeated by the Chinese marshal Ma Yuan (Mã Viện) and subsequently killed themselves by jumping into a river. Since their deaths almost two thousand years ago, they have been reverently commemorated as the nation’s paragons of heroism on their death anniversary (the sixth day of the second month of the lunar year). Shrines in their honor exist in many places, even in southern Guangdong (Quảng Đông) in China, but the two best-known ones are in Đồng Nhân village near Hà Nội and Hát Môn village in Sơn Tây province.

According to the book Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái (Wonders Plucked from the Dust of Lingnan) written in the fifteenth century, the Trưng sisters were born in Mê Linh village, Phong prefecture. Their father was a Lạc lord in Giao prefecture. Trưng Trắc was a strong and brave woman who was married to Thi Sách, a resident of Diên prefecture. When the egregious Chinese governor  Su Ding killed Thi Sách, Trưng Trắc and her sister Trưng Nhị started an uprising against the Chinese occupation.  Supported by the people of Cửu Chân, Nhật Nam, and Hợp Phố districts, the sisters pacified sixty-five strongholds throughout Lĩnh Nam [2]. As the country’s new sovereign, Queen Trưng Trắc set up her court in Mê Linh, abolished the insidious tribute taxes imposed by the Chinese, and restored a simpler form of government reflecting traditional Vietnamese values. Su Ding escaped to China and was dismissed by the Han court, which later dispatched Ma Yuan (Mã Viện) and Liu Long (Lưu Long), two seasoned generals, to Lĩnh Nam to reclaim it. The fighting lasted for more than a year in Lạng Sơn. Outnumbered by the much more adept enemy, the Trưng sisters and their troops had to retreat to Cấm Khê, where they were defeated. As their troops dispersed, our heroines killed themselves by drowning.

In the thirteenth century, the historian Lê Văn Hưu [3] did not mince his words when he wrote about the heroic deeds of the Trưng sisters, as recorded in Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư (Complete Book of History of Great Viet) compiled by the historian Ngô Sĩ Liên [4] in the fifteenth century:

“Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị were women. They gave one shout and the Cửu Chân, Nhật Nam, and Hợp Phố districts, along with sixty-five strongholds, responded to them. Their setting up the nation and proclaiming themselves as queens was as easy as turning over their hands. This shows that our land was able to establish a royal tradition. Alas, for a thousand years after this uprising, the men of our land bowed their heads, folded their arms in servitude to the Chinese. How shameful this is in comparison with the Trưng sisters!”

The glorious “we are we” legacy

Reflecting on the astute thinking of the scholar Phạm Huy Thông [5] in his 1975 article on a new synthesis of Vietnamese history inspired by recent archeological discoveries, published in Học tập 21(237), two highlights in which were that the destruction of the ancient Viet civilization by the Chinese victors after the Trưng sisters’ short-lived era was a “death that did not become death,” and that “though oppressed by a foreign country for a thousand years, the will that ‘we are we’ among our people was not something that could be shaken loose,” Taylor (1983, p. 339) cogently summarized how contemporary Vietnamese evaluate the Trưng sisters:

“It implies that if the Trung sisters had not resisted, there would be no Vietnamese nation today, that the uprising of A.D. 40 effectively ‘froze’ the Dong-son heritage [6] in a moment of historic courage, insuring that it would not degenerate and invite the scorn of later generations. The Trung sisters were the last of the pre-Chinese popular leaders; their deeds echoed across the centuries of Chinese rule, calling the Vietnamese back to an ancient inheritance.”

Poetry written about the heroines

Two poems written in honor of the Trưng sisters are translated and annotated below. The first one, translated by the scholar Huỳnh Sanh Thông (1996, p. 30), is from the Hồng Đức Anthology compiled in the fifteenth century by the highly literary court of King Lê Thánh Tông. The second one is from the Đại Nam’s National History Explained in Verse, a work by a group of poets that was revised by Lê Ngô Cát and Phạm Đình Toái in the nineteenth century, during the Nguyễn dynasty.

Vịnh Hai Bà Trưng

Giúp dân dẹp loạn trả thù mình,

Chị rủ cùng em kết nghĩa binh.

Tô Định bay hồn vang một trận,

Lĩnh Nam mở cõi vững trăm thành.

Mới dày bảo vị gia ơn trọng,

Đã đội hoa quan xuống phúc lành.

Còn nước còn non còn miếu mạo,

Nữ trung đệ nhất đấng tài danh.

[Hồng Đức Quốc Âm Thi Tập]

Homage to the Trưng queens 

To slay the people’s foe and wreak revenge,                                                  

two sisters took up arms for their just cause.                                                

One battle put Su Ding’s scared wits to rout;                                              

 a hundred tribes rose up to guard Lingnan.  

They climbed the throne – large bounties they bestowed.           

They donned their crowns – sweet blessings they conferred.                    

While streams and hills endure, their shrine shall stand,                          

 a monument to peerless womanhood.  

[Hồng Đức Anthology]                                                                                                                     

Hai Bà Trưng dựng nền độc lập

Bà Trưng quê ở châu Phong

Giận người tham bạo thù chồng chẳng quên.

Chị em nặng một lời nguyền,

Phất cờ nương tử thay quyền tướng quân,

Ngàn Tây nổi áng phong trần,

Ầm ầm binh mã xuống gần Long Biên.

Hồng quần nhẹ bức chinh yên,

Đuổi ngay Tô Định dẹp tan biên thành.

Đô kỳ đóng cõi Mê Linh,

Lĩnh Nam riêng một triều đình nước ta.

Ba thu gánh vác sơn hà,

Một là báo phục, hai là bá vương.

Uy danh động đến Bắc phương,

Hán sai Mã Viện lên đường tiến công.

Hồ Tây đua sức vẫy vùng,

Nữ nhi chống với anh hùng được nao?

Cấm Khê đến lúc hiểm nghèo,

Chị em thất thế cũng liều với sông.

Phục Ba mới dựng cột đồng,

Ải quan truyền dấu biên công cõi ngoài.

Trưng Vương vắng mặt còn ai?

Đi về thay đổi mặc người Hán quan.

[Đại Nam Quốc Sử Diễn Ca]

The Trưng Sisters established independence

Lady Trưng hailed from the Phong prefecture.

Enraged by a greedy tyrant and determined to avenge her husband,

she and her younger sister, who shared a solemn oath,

raised the lady-general flag asserting their command [7].

From the west surged wind and dust,

troops and horses thundered toward Long Biên.

On horseback, the ladies agilely deployed their soldiers,

quickly routing Su Dinh and flattening his fortress.

Mê Linh was to become their capital,

and Lĩnh Nam was where they held their own court.

For three years they served the country,

having both taken vengeance and ascended the throne.

Their heroic reputation reached the north

causing the Han court to dispatch Ma Yuan to topple them.

In Hồ Tây the two sides battled,

but how could women match seasoned male warriors?

Held at bay in Cấm Khê,

the defeated sisters drowned themselves in a river.

The Wave-Calming general [8] erected a bronze pillar [9]

to mark the southernmost border of his country.

With Queen Trưng gone, who could be counted on?

A Han mandarin would be free to rule the land.

[Đại Nam’s National History Explained in Verse]

 

NOTES

[1] Vietnam was under Chinese rule four times, totaling 1,007 years. The first time lasting 150 years (111 BC – 39 AD) was ended by Queen Trưng Trắc. The second time lasting 501 years (43 – 544) was ended by Lý Nam Đế. The third time lasting 336 years (603 – 939) was ended by Ngô Quyền, and the fourth time lasting 20 years (1407 – 1427) was ended by Lê Lợi.

[2] Lĩnh Nam (Lingnan) literally means “south of the mountain range” and is an ancient Chinese name for the area that covered China’s Guangdong (Quảng Đông), Guangxi (Quảng Tây) and northern Vietnam.

[3] Lê Văn Hưu was Vietnam’s first historian. At the request of King Trần Thái Tôn, he became the chief compiler of the 30-volume History of Great Viet (Đại Việt Sử Ký) which was completed in 1272.

[4] Ngô Sĩ Liên was asked by King Lê Thánh Tôn to compile the 15-volume Complete Book of History of Great Viet (Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư) which was completed in 1479.

[5] The French-educated archeologist Phạm Huy Thông (1916-1988) was also a noted poet and educator. He directed the Institute of Archeology in Hanoi from 1967 to 1988.

[6] The Đông Sơn culture flourished during the Bronze Age in Vietnam, when the first Vietnamese kingdoms named Văn Lang and Âu Lạc existed. Also known as Lạc Việt, the Đông Sơn people were good at growing rice, raising buffaloes and pigs, fishing, and sailing. They were also skilled bronze casters whose amazing works included the famous Đông Sơn and Ngọc Lũ drums.

[7] The image of two brave young women on top of elephants leading the troops and raising swords and flags of command is such a sublime icon of heroism!

[8] Wave-Calming is the translation of the honorific title Fu Bo (Phục Ba) that was bestowed upon marshal Ma Yuan when he was dispatched to battle the Trưng sisters.

[9] Before Ma Yuan returned to China, he had a bronze pillar erected to mark the southernmost border of China. On the pillar was engraved this haughty warning: “If this pillar breaks, Giao Chỉ  will perish.” Giao Chỉ was the name of Vietnam at that time.

 

REFERENCES

Đỗ Đức Hiểu (chủ biên, 2003). Từ điển văn học bộ mới. Hanoi: NXB Thế Giới.

Hoàng Thúc Trâm (1941). Dâng hương Miếu Hát. Hanoi: Tri Tân.

Hoàng Xuân Hãn (1956). Đại Nam quốc sử diễn ca. Saigon: Trường Thi.

Huỳnh Sanh Thông (1996). An anthology of Vietnamese poems. New Haven and London:     Yale University Press.

Taylor, Keith Weller (1983). The birth of Vietnam.
Berkeley: University of California Press.

Trần Thế Pháp (Lê Hữu Mục dịch, 1982). Lĩnh Nam chích quái. Hoa Kỳ: NXB Trăm Việt.

Trần Trọng Kim (1971). Việt Nam sử lược. Saigon: Trung Tâm Học Liệu, Bộ Giáo Dục.

Special links:

1.THE TRƯNG SISTERS’ COMMEMORATION IN TORONTO – MARCH 12, 2011- LỄ TƯỞNG NIỆM HAI BÀ TRƯNG – ORGANIZED BY THE VIETNAMESE WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION  OF TORONTO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdDCil3LT5c

2. Lễ Hội Hai Bà Trưng 2014 – Montreal, Canada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RePumZkDjJw

3. Lễ Tưởng Niệm Hai Bà Trưng. Houston TX-2015

http://jsongviet.blogspot.ca/2015/03/le-tuong-niem-hai-ba-trung-houston-tx.html

 

Đàm Trung Pháp

Dallas, Texas

March 15, 2015

Vũ Hoàng Chương (1915-1976): South Vietnam’s Fearless Poet Laureate

Đàm Trung Pháp

According to Mencius, a defining quality of a great man is his fearless adhesion to his principles in the face of threats and the use of force. This crown-jewel element of moral character is expressed in Sino-Vietnamese as “uy vũ bất năng khuất.”

Vũ Hoàng Chương, South Vietnam’s poet laureate, proved this quality by penning the poem VỊNH TRANH GÀ LỢN or ODE TO A PAINTING OF CHICKENS AND PIGS to satirize the victors of the Vietnam War, while ushering in the Lunar New Year of the Dragon (Bính Thìn) in early 1976. The prosodically regulated eight-line sonnet in Vietnamese is given below, followed by my translation of it into English.

Sáng chưa sáng hẳn tối không đành                                                                                               

Gà lợn om xòm rối bức tranh                                                                                                    

 Rằng vách có tai thơ có họa                                                                                                        

 Biết lòng ai đỏ mắt ai xanh                                                                                                           

Mắt gà huynh đệ bao lần quáng                                                                                                  

Lòng lợn âm dương một tấc thành                                                                                               

Cục tác nữa chi ngừng ủn ỉn                                                                                                      

Nghe rồng ngâm váng khúc tân thanh

Dawn it’s clearly not, yet dusk too soon                                                                                  

Boisterous chickens and pigs stir up the painting                                                                                       

Walls have ears, poetry runs risks                                                                                                 

How are we to tell whose heart is red and whose eyes blue                                                     

Brotherly chicken eyes have oftentimes been blinded                                                                         

Pig guts have stayed true in matter of life and death                                                                               

It’s about time to stop your crows and your

oinks                                                                                              

To listen to the dragon sonorously declaim a new song

As anticipated, the poet’s public defiance of the new regime landed him in jail, from which he was released when he was near death. Five days later, on September 6, 1976, the undaunted poet died at home.

Vũ Hoàng Chương’s poetic genius graces the poem with profound allegories, apt metaphors, delightful collocations, amazing expressions capable of double interpretations, and masterful syntactical and semantic parallelism in the two middle couplets (i.e., verses 3-4 and 5-6). Unfortunately, these poetic felicities have been lost in the translation. Wishing to somehow compensate for this huge injustice, I humbly provide the following notes for the original poem. Needless to say, I will be grateful for constructive comments from our readers.

The poem’s title suggests that it is about the celebration of the arrival of a lunar new year (tết) in  Vietnam.  On this occasion, paintings that are bright, showy and simple in content and form (tranh dân gian)  are on display to entertain, educate, or express New Year’s wishes to visitors. Paintings expressing good wishes often contain chickens and pigs in them, as well as generals (tướng quân) and doctors of literature (tiến sĩ). Those focused on entertaining feature such comical themes as the rat that finished first in an imperial examination to select doctors of literature (chuột đỗ trạng nguyên). And among paintings praising the value of education, a popular one shows a toad going to school (cóc đi học).

Verses 1 and 2 allude to a most daunting time of uncertainty in the nation’s history, with rampant lawlessness and utter political chaos, after South Vietnam had to surrender to the invading North Vietnamese military force in the spring of 1975. Chickens and pigs are introduced as the main characters of the painting. They also serve as the metaphors for the new victors of the war, who were indeed boisterous and caused upheavals in the South Vietnamese society.

Verses 3 and 4 make up a splendid syntactical and semantic parallelism graced by a number of popular proverbs depicting the insecure feeling of being surrounded by spies. The phrase “thơ có họa” in verse 3 can be understood as either “poetry with paintings in it” or  “(writing) poetry runs risks.”  The implied meaning of verse 4 is that it is impossible to distinguish friends (whose eyes are blue) from foes (whose hearts are red).

Verses 5 and 6 make up another superb syntactical and semantic parallelism  adorned by a number of delightful collocations joining such words as “mắt” (eye) and “gà” (chicken) to invoke the vision disorder known as nyctalopia (bệnh quáng gà)  and “lòng” (gut) and “lợn” (pig)  to refer to a Vietnamese delicacy often served on festive occasions. While verse 5 is an admission that people in the South have often been duped by communist propagandas, verse 6 extols the unfailing truthfulness in the hearts of these same people.

Verses 7 and 8, the powerful final couplet, clinch the poem with a strong message which scolds the gloating victors and tells them to stop crowing and oinking in order to listen to a sonorous declamation of a new song by the dragon. I surmise the dragon here is the metaphor for the poet himself, and his “new song” (khúc tân thanh) reminds readers of “Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh,” the original title that Nguyễn Du had given to his Truyện Kiều, Vietnam’s poetic magnum opus. And that original title can be translated as “New Song of the Severed Gut.”

Links for Vu Hoang Chuong’s Poem Recital:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SoxZ_aYYkg

Đời vắng em rồi (Thơ Vũ Hoàng Chương – Ngọc Sang & Vân Khánh diễn ngâm)

http://www.dieuam.vn/play-audio-lua-tu-bi-tho-vu-hoang-chuong-nghe-si-thuy-vinh-ngam-4153/

(Lửa Từ Bi – Thơ Vũ Hoàng Chương)

 

Thanh Nam (1931-1985) – His Poem “Thơ Xuân Đất Khách”

Đàm Trung Pháp

One of the most cherished literati in pre-1975 Saigon was the writer and poet Thanh Nam, who along with Nguyên Sa was the driving force behind the magazine “Hiện Đại” [1]. This popular author of more than twenty novels was also noted for his exquisite poetry. He was admired by people in every walk of life, including  famous singers, and top-rank writers and poets. People loved Thanh Nam because of his intellectual probity – he wrote about life as he had actually lived it. Thus, his prose and his poetry were all about real life. “Thanh Nam’s real soul penetrates his literary works,” noted Bình Nguyên Lộc [2]. “The style is the man himself. This saying fits Thanh Nam perfectly,” declared Mai Thảo [3]. Although his first novel was published in Saigon in 1957, Thanh Nam had started writing with his colleagues Ngọc Giao, Nguyễn Minh Lang, and Thy Thy Tông Ngọc in Hanoi in the early 1950s. In 1952, he moved to Saigon and flourished in the literary circle there until the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975.

If we needed just one publication to introduce Thanh Nam, that would be his 1983 poetic collection “Đất khách” (“In exile”); and if we needed to read just one poem typical of him, that would be his “Thơ xuân đất khách” (“Vernal poetry written in exile”).

Thanh Nam penned “Thơ xuân đất khách” in Seattle on February 18, 1977, which was also the first day of the Lunar Year of the Snake (Đinh Tỵ). This first day of the lunar year is a most solemn time, during which the Vietnamese honor their ancestors, visit relatives and friends, wear their nicest clothes, and rejoice. The entire poem is translated into English below, along with annotations and references.

Tờ lịch đầu năm rớt hững hờ

Mới hay năm tháng đã thay mùa

Ra đi từ thuở làm ly khách

Sầu xứ hai xuân chẳng đợi chờ

Trôi giạt từ Đông sang cõi Bắc

Hành trình trơ một gánh ưu tư

Quê người nghĩ xót thân lưu lạc

Đất lạ đâu ngờ buổi viễn du

The calendar leaf marking the new year coolly dropped                                         

Reminding me that seasons had changed                                                            

Since the day I left as an expatriate                                                                                

Two springs of homesickness had willy-nilly gone by                                                               

Drifting from the East to the North [4]                                                                     

The trip was a glaring load of sorrows                                                                     

In a foreign land, expatriation gnawed at me                                                                           

In an unfamiliar environment, I wondered about my journey

A writer in exile who could not write was like a defeated warrior lying on a battlefield, who heard the imaginary sound of bugles commemorating his past dreams. That was Thanh Nam’s plight, awake or asleep. His sense of humiliation was poignant:

Thức ngủ một mình trong tủi nhục

Dặm dài chân mỏi bước bơ vơ

Giống như người lính vừa thua trận

Nằm giữa sa trường nát gió mưa

Khép mắt cố quên đời chiến sĩ

Làm thân cây cỏ gục ven bờ

Chợt nghe từ đáy hồn thương tích

Vẳng tiếng kèn truy điệu mộng xưa

Awake or asleep it was me alone in humiliation                                                                             

The miles were long, my feet tired, my steps forsaken                                                                  

Like a soldier who had just been defeated                                                                                           

I lay on the battlefield, shattered by wind and rain                                                                       

Eyes closed I tried to forget about my warrior life                                                               

To become a vegetable slumped on a riverbank                                                      

Suddenly from the bottom of my wounded soul                                                                

I heard bugles commemorating dreams of yesteryear

The pain felt by expatriates is acute. A year for others is twelve months, but for Vietnamese refugees it is just April, the fateful month in which South Vietnam was overrun by North Vietnam. The calamity caused broken hearts and tangled minds:

Ới hỡi quê hương bè bạn cũ

Những ai còn mất giữa sa mù

Mất nhau từ buổi tàn xuân đó

Không một tin nhà, một cánh thư

Biền biệt thời gian mòn mỏi đợi

Rối bời tâm sự tuyết đan tơ

Một năm người có mười hai tháng

Ta trọn năm dài Một Tháng Tư!

Alas, home country and old friends                                                                      

What was your fate amidst this calamity                                                                      

We lost one another that late spring                                                                            

No tidings from home, not even a letter                                                                   

Pining in an endless wait for your news                                                                                 

My tangled mind is like snow flurries                                                                      

People have twelve months a year                                                                              

For me, the whole long year is just one April!

Experiencing the pains of culture shock [5], the displaced poet feared that he would have to spend the rest of his life on foreign soil, as a worthless person:

Chấp nhận hai đời trong một kiếp

Đành cho giông bão phũ phàng đưa

Đầu thai lần nữa trên trần thế

Kéo nốt trăm năm kiếp sống nhờ

Đổi ngược họ tên cha mẹ đặt

Tập làm con trẻ nói ngu ngơ

Vùi sâu dĩ vãng vào tro bụi

Thân phận không bằng đứa mãng phu

Accepting two lives for one birth                                                                                 

I am enduring the whims of a brutal tempest                                          

Reincarnated in this world                                                                                          

I will have to finish off this parasitic life                                                          

Reversing the order of family and first names                                               

Imitating infants that babble puerile speech                                                             

Burying the past deep into the dust                                                                               

My condition is less than that of a villain

What justified all these daunting changes? Freedom, of course! Nevertheless, the poet recalled with bitterness the forced demise of the South:

Canh bạc chưa chơi mà hết vốn

Cờ còn nước đánh phải đành thua

Muốn rơi nước mắt khi tàn mộng

Nghĩ đắt vô cùng giá Tự Do!

The card game has not started, yet my money is lost                                                      

The chess game still has moves for me, but I must give it up                                                             

I want to shed tears when dreams fade                                                                             

Fathomlessly high is the price of Freedom!

Thanh Nam spoke for all Vietnamese refugees at that time, just two years after the first wave of this historic diaspora, as he ended the poem with a lonesome note:

Bằng hữu qua đây dăm bảy kẻ

Đứa nuôi cừu hận, đứa phong ba

Đứa nằm yên phận vui êm ấm

Đứa nhục nhằn lê kiếp sống thừa

Mây nước có phen còn hội ngộ

Thâm tình viễn xứ lại như xa

Xuân này đón tuổi gần năm chục

Đối bóng mình ta say với ta

[Thanh Nam, “Đất Khách,” trang 13-15]

Among friends who made it to this country                                                            

Some are nursing grudge, others have not given up                                                   

Yet some are leading a complacent life                                                                            

Or enduring a humiliating superfluous existence                                                       

While clouds and water have a chance to meet again                                               

Our dear friends in exile are still afar                                                                   

This spring I welcome my approaching fifth decade                                                                                                                

By getting inebriated all by myself

[Thanh Nam, In Exile, pages 13-15]

 

ANNOTATIONS AND REFERENCES

[1] Thanh Nam was the pen name of Trần Đại Việt, who was born on August 26, 1931 in Nam Định, North Vietnam. He died on June 2, 1985 in Seattle. Among his major works are Hồng Ngọc (1953), “Người nữ danh ca” (1953), Giấc ngủ cô đơn (1963), Buồn ga nhỏ (1963), Còn một đêm nay (1963), Bầy ngựa hoang (1965), Giòng lệ thơ ngây (1965), Những phố không đèn (1965), Mấy mùa thương đau (1968), Đất khách (1983). Nguyên Sa and Thanh Nam’s Hiện Đại magazine was founded in 1960 in Saigon. In 1965 Thanh Nam became managing editor of Tuần Báo Nghệ Thuật.

[2] Bình Nguyên Lộc (1966). Một tác giả viết về một tác giả: Thanh Nam dưới mắt Bình Nguyên Lộc. Tuần Báo Nghệ Thuật issue 36 dated June 18, 1966.

[3] Thanh Nam dưới mắt trời Tây Bắc. In Mai Thảo (1985), Chân Dung. Westminster, CA: Văn Khoa.

[4] Thanh Nam and family were first resettled in New Jersey in October 1975. They later moved to Seattle; thus, they were “drifting from the East to the North.”

[5] How political refugees cope with a new life in America has been observed by social scientists. According to them, it is a painful and complex psychological process that consists of four phases: (1) euphoria, the time during which the displaced people feel extremely glad that they have somehow received a new lease on life; (2) culture shock; (3) stability; and (4) acculturation. Euphoria is only short-lived and may not mean much, but culture shock could last a long time and make their new lives miserable. Its duration depends on the individuals: the older they are, the longer their culture shock will last; and perhaps suffering the most during this trying time would be the sentimental artist whose heart bleeds easily.

Thanh Nam’s Poem Recital Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8twG28bL2s

(THANH NAM’S XUAN DAT KHACH – RECITED BY HOANG OANH)

QUANG DŨNG (1921 – 1988) AND HIS FAMED BALLAD “TÂY TIẾN”

ĐÀM TRUNG PHÁP

Quang Dũng penned the ballad Tây Tiến (Westward March) in 1948, a year after his Capital Regiment (Trung Đoàn Thủ Đô) left Hà Nội. This regiment first saw action on “the day for a nation-wide uprising” in 1946, when 8,000 intellectual youths of the capital city defense force faced 4,500 French troops. The battle was the first effort by these young people to prevent the return of the French colonialists [1].

Quang Dũng was the pen name of Bùi Đình Diệm, who was born in 1921 in Phùng village, Phượng Trì district, Sơn Tây province. His father was a literary man and a canton chief. Quang Dũng was the oldest child and had four sisters and one brother. In 1954 his mother, one of his sisters, and his brother left North Việt Nam for South Việt Nam when the Geneva Accord halved the country.

He attended Bưởi High School and then the Normal School (Trường Sư Phạm) in Hà Nội. He graduated from the teacher-preparation institution, but he soon gave up his teaching career to become the chief of Yên Bái railroad station. At this time he joined the People’s Party (Quốc Dân Đảng); the French even went to his native village to look for him, but all their efforts to arrest him were in vain. Among the young people who supported the secret activities of the People’s Party was a young woman named Bùi Thị Thạch, who later became Quang Dũng’s wife.

The ballad Tây Tiến was written by Quang Dũng in his notebook. His fellow soldiers in the Tây Tiến Regiment [2] cherished it and it was widely circulated. It was the heartfelt appeal from not just one member of that regiment, but from almost every Vietnamese youth who participated in the resistance against French rule, leaving behind their beloved capital city.
The famed ballad was banned in the North, but it was valued in the South. Its author, because of his past affiliation with the People’s Party, was discharged from the military. Later, because of his participation in the Humanities – Fine Literary Works (Nhân Văn – Giai Phẩm) movement, he was imprisoned and forbidden to write. After that, he had to earn his living by working as a proofreader for a newspaper. While Quang Dũng’s poetry was published, read, recited, and set to music in the South after 1954, his poem Tây Tiến was not published in a poetic collection until 1986 in Hà Nội, two years before his death. The bed-ridden poet was too weak to autograph his books for his admirers.

The anguished appeal radiating from the hearts of Hà Nội’s youths shines through every line of Tây Tiến. But their lives in the poem were totally different – they were now living, not in that capital city, but on a Northwest battlefield in the middle of deep jungles and high mountains. As the Westward March was winding down, Quang Dũng started having the sentimental recollection of this military expedition, the jungles, the mountain slopes, the ethnic minority hamlets, the worn-out troops. It was this nostalgic longing that inspired him to write this exquisite ballad.
Tây Tiến is a matchless ballad about the Vietnamese people’s valorous resistance against French colonialism. It recalls the daunting expedition of the Westward March soldiers. Each recollection of the expedition is a salient painting and a stirring song about an unforgettable martial experience. Through such vicarious experiences involving strong emotions and harrowing adversity, readers can catch a glimpse of the perilous selfless life led by the brave soldiers of the Westward March. Among poems on resistance written by different individuals between 1945 and 1954, Tây Tiến stands out, head and shoulders above the rest. It does not mention leaders, it does not touch on patriotism, yet every verse in it is imbued with an ardent love for the country, nature, friendship, and a determination to go to war to stamp out French colonialism.
Below is my English translation of the entire ballad, stanza by stanza, followed by annotations and references.

Tây Tiến

Sông Mã xa rồi Tây Tiến ơi!
Nhớ về rừng núi, nhớ chơi vơi
Sài Khao sương lấp đoàn quân mỏi
Mường Lát hoa về trong đêm hơi

Westward March

Way behind us is the Mã River [3],

Westward March troops!

Yet thinking of jungles and mountains is still a staggering nostalgia

In Sài Khao [4] fog concealed the worn-out soldiers

In Mường Lát [5] on a steamy night the flowers returned

Dốc lên khúc khuỷu dốc thăm thẳm
Heo hút cồn mây, súng ngửi trời
Ngàn thước lên cao, ngàn thước xuống
Nhà ai Pha Luông mưa xa khơi

The upward slope was dauntingly tortuous

Among desolate banks of cloud, gun muzzles sniffed the sky

A thousand meters ascending, another thousand descending

Someone’s house in rainy Pha Luông [6] far away

Anh bạn dãi dầu không bước nữa
Gục lên súng mũ bỏ quên đời!
Chiều chiều oai linh thác gầm thét
Đêm đêm Mường Hịch cọp trêu người

A weather-beaten companion stopped marching

Slumping on his helmet and gun, he left life behind!

In the evening thundered majestic waterfalls

At night in Mường Hịch tigers teased people [7]

Nhớ ôi Tây Tiến cơm lên khói
Mai Châu mùa em thơm nếp xôi

Oh Westward March, with the scent of steaming rice

Her season of fragrant glutinous rice in Mai Châu [8]

Doanh trại bừng lên hội đuốc hoa
Kìa em xiêm áo tự bao giờ
Khèn lên Man điệu nàng e ấp
Nhạc về Viên Chăn xây hồn thơ

The barrack brightened up for a bridal gala

Lo and behold, she was already dressed up

Coy she was as the pan pipe [9] played a Man tune

Toward Vientiane [10] the music inspired poetry

Người đi Châu Mộc chiều sương ấy
Có thấy hồn lau nẻo bến bờ
Có nhớ dáng người trên độc mộc
Trôi dòng nước lũ hoa đong đưa

Those of you who left for Châu Mộc [11] that misty evening

Did you notice the spirit of reeds along riverbanks

The allure of lasses in dugouts

Floating on swift-flowing water like flowers [12]

Tây Tiến đoàn binh không mọc tóc
Quân xanh màu lá dữ oai hùm
Mắt trừng gửi mộng qua biên giới
Đêm mơ Hà Nội dáng kiều thơm

Westward March troops went bald [13]

Pale like leaves yet we stayed fierce like tigers

With wide-open eyes we sent reveries across the border [14]

At night we dreamt of Hanoi and its charming beauties [15]

Rải rác biên cương mồ viễn xứ
Chiến trường đi chẳng tiếc đời xanh
Áo bào thay chiếu, anh về đất
Sông Mã gầm lên khúc độc hành

Scattered along the frontier were graves away from home

Of those who left for battlefields without regretting their youth

Shrouded in military uniforms instead of reed mats, they returned to earth [16]

The Mã River roared a solo-journey dirge

Tây Tiến người đi không hẹn ước
Đường lên thăm thẳm một chia phôi
Ai lên Tây Tiến mùa xuân ấy
Hồn về Sầm Nứa chẳng về xuôi.

Westward March soldiers left without promises

Their remote expedition meant in itself a separation

Those who joined Westward March that spring

Had their minds set for Sam Nua, not the plains [17].

ANNOTATIONS AND REFERENCES

[1] There was a huge mismatch in weapons in this battle in Hà Nội. While the Vietnamese youths armed themselves with small guns, sticks, and spears, the French used machine guns and tanks [Ngô Văn Chiêu, as cited by Hoàng Cơ Thụy (2002) in Việt Sử Khảo Luận, Paris: Nam Á.]

[2] Less than two months after the Hà Nội battle, in early 1947, the youths in the city defense force had to flee from the city. Some took refuge in China while others joined the Westward March campaign as soldiers in the newly-formed Tây Tiến Regiment, leaving behind 1,300 killed or missing in action and 2,500 injured [Hoàng Cơ Thụy (2002). Việt Sử Khảo Luận. Paris: Nam Á.]

[3] The Mã River starts in Northwestern Vietnam, winding from Điện Biên through Sơn La, Laos, and Thanh Hóa before joining the sea at the Gulf of Tonkin.

[4] and [5] The town of Mường Lát and the village of Sài Khao are in Thanh Hóa province. The town and the village are separated by steep slopes and tricky trails. The area is also notoriously foggy. In such poor visibility at night, the troops had to use torches, making them look like “flowers.”

[6] The Pha Luông mountain is in Thanh Hóa province. It was on this mountain that many worn-out Tây Tiến troops simply “slumped on their helmets and guns, leaving life behind.”

[7] and [8] The village of Mường Hịch is a short distance from the town of Mai Châu in Hòa Bình province. Mường Hịch was known for its daring tigers which brazenly stole pigs for food.

[9] The pan pipe (khèn) is a wind instrument consisting of bamboo tubes connected to a wooden sound box. It is very popular with such ethnic groups in Vietnam as the Thai, the Man, and the Hmong.

[10] Vientiane (Vạn Tượng) is the capital city of Laos. It is in the central part of the country, on the Mekong River.

[11] Châu Mộc is a beautiful town in Sơn La province. In this ethnically diverse place, festivals are organized every spring for boys and girls to meet.

[12] Girls in dugouts often helped troops get across the river. Maneuvering their dugouts on swift-flowing water, the lasses looked like floating flowers.

[13] A scourge for the troops, malaria was caused by anopheles mosquitoes that infested their area of operations. The disease made their hair fall and their skin turn pale.

[14] and [15] This elegant couplet became an albatross around the poet’s neck. His detractors charged that the verses were too embarrassingly sentimental and thus could adversely affect the troops’ morale.

[16] The dead soldiers’ burials were worse than those for paupers, whose corpses would be shrouded in reed mats (chiếu) before interment.

[17] Sam Nua (also written as Xam Nua and Sam Nuea) is the major city of Huaphan province in Laos, adjacent to Vietnam’s Sơn La and Thanh Hóa provinces.

Link for Quang Dung’s Tay Tien poem recital:

THE VOW BETWEEN MOUNTAIN AND RIVER: A HEARTWARMING SYMBOL FOR TẢN ĐÀ’S DEVOTION TO HIS HOMELAND

THE VOW BETWEEN MOUNTAIN AND RIVER: A HEARTWARMING SYMBOL FOR TẢN ĐÀ’S DEVOTION TO HIS HOMELAND


Đàm Trung Pháp

Tản Đà is the pen name of the poet Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu (1889-1939). It combines the name of a mountain, Tản, and that of a river, Đà, which are the two famous landmarks of his birthplace in North Vietnam. Born into a family of literati and mandarins, Tản Đà was a link between two important eras of Vietnamese literature — the writings of Confucian tradition of the nineteenth century and the writings under western influence in the early part of the twentieth century. A lifelong poet and journalist, Tản Đà served as publisher of An Nam Tạp Chí in Hà Nội and Nam Định and as editor of Hữu Thanh in Hà Nội. Later, he collaborated with fellow journalists in Saigon. Yearning for a liberation of the country from French domination, he met with and supported the patriots Phan Bội Châu and Nguyễn Thái Học. The two prestigious magazines of that time, Đông Dương Tạp Chí edited by Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh and Nam Phong Tạp Chí edited by Phạm Quỳnh, sought his collaboration because of his great fame. Whether he worked for himself or for others, he remained faithful to his own philosophy of life, especially his theory of “thiên lương” (tentatively translated as “conscience” for lack of a better word). According to Hà Như Chi (1958), Tản Đà’s “thiên lương” can be understood as “a thing that is at the top of the invisible; it is the benevolence that mankind has been endowed with by nature. If it is low, the person will misbehave, be rude, and achieve little; on the contrary, if it is high, it will produce heroes and sages.” He urged people to nurture and develop this innate quality in order to serve life better. As a poet and writer, he admitted that his writing was “for the sake of life” (văn vị đời) and that he embraced both “big dreams” (mộng lớn) and “small dreams” (mộng con). Such heartwarming aspirations pervade the poem Thề Non Nước provided below with its translation into English and annotations.

Thề Non Nước

Nước non nặng một lời thề, Nước đi đi mãi không về cùng non. Nhớ lời nguyện nước thề non, Nước đi chưa lại, non còn đứng không.
Non cao những ngóng cùng trông, Suối khô dòng lệ chờ mong tháng ngày. Xương mai một nắm hao gầy, Tóc mây một mái đã đầy tuyết sương.
Trời tây ngả bóng tà dương, Càng phơi vẻ ngọc nét vàng phôi pha. Non cao tuổi vẫn chưa già, Non thời nhớ nước, nước mà quên non.
Dù cho sông cạn đá mòn, Còn non còn nước hãy còn thề xưa. Non cao đã biết hay chưa? Nước đi ra bể lại mưa về nguồn.
Nước non hội ngộ còn luôn, Bảo cho non chớ có buồn làm chi. Nước kia dù hãy còn đi, Ngàn dâu xanh tốt non thì cứ vui.
Nghìn năm giao ước kết đôi, Non non nước nước chưa nguôi lời thề.

The Vow between Mountain and River [1]

The mountain and the river had a solemn vow, [2] Yet the river kept flowing away without returning. Recalling their eternal pledge, The mountain stays idle while the river is away.
Standing tall, it just watches and waits with impatience, [3] The extended wait has dried up its spring of tears. Its smattering of frail bones has worn out, Its cloud of hair is covered with snow and frost.
The sun is setting in the west, [4] Revealing the mountain’s fading jade and gold. Tall mountain is still young, It misses the river, which may have forgotten it.
Even though stone may wear down and water may dry up, [5] As long as mountain and river exist, their vow should endure. Tall mountain, do you know this yet? Carried to the sea, water now returns to its source as rain.
Mountain and river shall oftentimes meet again; [6] Thus, there is no reason for mountain to be so sad. Although river is still gone, With lush green mulberry fields flourishing, o mountain, perk up!
Since they have pledged eternal vow to each other, [7] The bond between mountain and river shall never break.

ANNOTATIONS

[1] “Mountain and river” (poetically rendered as “non nước”) also means “country” in Vietnamese. This poetic gem is cherished by the people, for it showed the poet’s extraordinary devotion to his native land, a theme he also expounded in other poems. In his Ode to a Torn Map (Vịnh Bức Dư Đồ Rách) he bitterly deplored the transformation of his once-splendid homeland into a “tattered and torn” country, symbolized by a map of a same condition: “Sao đến bây giờ rách tả tơi?” (Why is it now tattered and torn?). In his Đêm Tối (Dark Night), he asked himself, “Kiếm đâu cho thấy mặt anh hùng” (Where on earth will we find a hero) who would emancipate the country already more than fifty years under the atrocious French yoke (Nguyễn Xuân Thọ, 1994). In his essay Bức Thơ Rơi (The Anonymous Letter), although he sounded disappointed, he suggested other ways to protect the race and the culture, reasoning cogently “Há phải vai đeo cung kiếm mới là chân chính ái quốc?” (Must one shoulder bows and swords to be genuinely patriotic?). Although he knew his limits, admitting poignantly “Bốn mặt non sông, một mái chèo” (Four sides of the country, one oar”) in yet another patriotic poem titled Sông Cái, Chiếc Thuyền Nan (Large River, Basket-boat), he did not allow himself to be quiet. Thề Non Nước was not published separately; it was instead part of a story bearing the same title which related the poet’s romance with a songstress named Vân Anh. According to Phạm Thế Ngũ (1966, pages 308-309), the poem can have three different interpretations: “The first one is purely descriptive. The painting in the story showed a mountain with a green mulberry grove at its foot and a scrawny apricot tree. After Vân Anh pointed out that there was only mountain and no river, the poet composed this poem to explain the river’s absence, to be added to the painting. Another interpretation is purely romantic. The poet, like water in the river, kept flowing away while his lover was pining for his return. However, the poet never forgot the vow between them, and indicated that he would come back. The third interpretation is that the poem illustrates the righteousness of its writer, who borrowed the story of a beautiful woman and an artist in a red-light quarter to express his devotion to his country. The vow between mountain and river is also the poet’s vow to his homeland, which he has served since his youth, trying to restore a torn map and save a country fading under the sun. He cautiously informed readers that he would never forget that vow.”

[2] This poem has a clear and tight structure. Presenting a sentimental drama, this opening stanza sets the tone for the poem. The remaining stanzas expound the pain of waiting by the mountain for the river, the explanation for the absence and the eventual return of the river, and the renewal of the vow between the mountain and the river.

[3], [4] These two stanzas depict the pining of the mountain as it hopelessly awaits the river’s return. Tản Đà uses conventional, yet refined, terms to describe the lonesome mountain as well as the moral and physical deterioration of a woman gnawed by an extended wait. The terms xương mai, hao gầy, tóc mây, and the phrase đã đầy tuyết sương, albeit trite, elegantly describe her frail beauty. At the same time, the terms mây, sương, tuyết are all apt for describing a mountain landscape. The terms vẻ ngọc and nét vàng in the third stanza suggest that the woman’s good looks stay on despite the passing of time. The last verse of this stanza, Non thời nhớ nước, nước mà quên non is an agonizing cri de coeur from the mountain to the river. This heartfelt appeal will be matched by a categorically reassuring response from the river (please see annotation [7]).

[5], [6] These two stanzas cover the river’s reiteration of the vow and the sharing of some uplifting news, based on a scientific explanation of the water cycle in nature – the eventual return of water in the form of rain is a certainty. Along with the uplifting news is the river’s calm consolation for the mountain and urging it to cheer up because they will meet again.

[7] This couplet clinches the poem with a heartening renewal of the eternal vow between the mountain and the river. In addition to a convincing interpretation of this vow mentioned by Phạm Thế Ngũ (1966) cited earlier in this article, many readers understand this vow as a sworn determination by Vietnamese patriots who fought to regain their country’s sovereignty. Thus, while the mountain symbolizes those who remained at home, the river stands for those who had to go far away to achieve this common goal.

REFERENCES

Hà Như Chi (1958). Một Thời Lãng Mạn Trong Thi Ca Việt Nam. Saigon: Tân Việt.

Phạm Thế Ngũ (1965). Việt Nam Văn Học Sử Giản Ước Tân Biên (Tập III). Saigon: Anh Phương.

Phạm Thế Ngũ (1966). Kim Văn Tân Tuyển. Saigon: Quốc Học Tùng Thư.

Xuân Diệu (1982). Thơ Tản Đà. Hà Nội: Văn Học.

Dương Đình Khuê (1990). Poèmes de Tản Đà Nguyễn Khắc Hiếu, rassemblés et édités par la maison Hương Sơn, Hanoi, traduits en francais par Dương Đình Khuê. Arlington, VA : Editions Phước Quế.

Trịnh Bá Đĩnh & Nguyễn Đức Mậu (2000). Tản Đà Về Tác Gia và Tác Phẩm. Hà Nội : Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục.

Đỗ Đức Hiển et al. (2004). Từ Điển Văn Học Bộ Mới. Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Thế Giới.

Link for Tan Da’s poem recital:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgpo2TQAmaI

Lý Thường Kiệt’s Poem Nam Quốc Sơn Hà

Heroic Spirit from the South:
Lý Thường Kiệt’s Poem Nam Quốc Sơn Hà

Đàm Trung Pháp

{ To get the bigger size of the slogan, please cick at the above picture — Để thấy khẩu hiệu ( slogan) to và rõ hơn, xin mời Quý Vị bấm chuột vào hình trên – Đa tạ }

 

Lý Thường Kiệt (1019-1105) was one of Vietnam’s greatest generals. His original family name was Nguyễn, but King Lý Thánh Tông himself changed it to Lý as a token of appreciation and gratitude. As a young child, he told his family that he would like to become a general “who would charge into battlefields ten thousand miles away to achieve victories, get knighted, and glorify the family line.” At age 18, he was selected as a cavalry officer. Under King Lý Thánh Tông, in the year 1054, he was appointed to an important post and charged with the pacification of the Thanh-Nghệ region. He pacified 5 prefectures, 6 districts, 3 streams, and 24 caves (Hoàng Xuân Hãn 1950). The king made him a marshal and bestowed upon him the extraordinary authority of “tiết việt” or the prerogative to condemn people to death and only report to the king afterward. The marshal also became the king’s adopted younger brother (thiên tử nghĩa đệ) [1]. Upon hearing that China’s Song (Tống) king was planning to invade Đại Việt, he told the newly-installed King Lý Nhân Tông, “We should strike the enemies first instead of waiting for them to come to us.” With the king’s approval, the marshal and his troops raided three Chinese prefectures, namely Yong Zhou (Châu Ung) in Guang Xi (Quảng Tây) Province, and Qin Zhou (Châu Khâm) and Lian Zhou (Châu Liêm) in Guang Dong (Quảng Đông) Province. Wherever Lý Thường Kiệt and his troops went, he issued “đại cáo” or “great proclamations” to accuse the Song prime minister Wang An Shi (Vương An Thạch) of oppressing the Chinese people and to declare that troops from the Southern king came to stop Wang An Shi’s atrocious new ruling policy (tân pháp). The defeated governor of Yong Zhou committed suicide. All told, about one hundred thousand people in those three prefectures were killed or captured by marshal Ly’s troops (Nguyễn Đăng Thục 1967).

A furious Wang An Shi ordered a large army under the command of several generals, strengthened by alliance forces from Champa (Chiêm Thành) and Chenla (Chân Lạp), to invade Đại Việt. Lý Thường Kiệt’s troops battled them along the Như Nguyệt River, north of Thăng Long, for over one month, with both sides suffering heavy losses. In order to exhort his troops to continue to resist agressors, one night Lý Thường Kiệt had someone in a temple on the southern bank of the river declaim four powerful verses he had written in Chinese [2]. The verses in Chinese characters, their Sino-Vietnamese transliteration, and their translation into Vietnamese by Nguyễn Đăng Thục (1967) and into English by Huỳnh Sanh Thông (1996) appear below:

南國山河南帝居 Nam quốc sơn hà Nam đế cư
截然定分在天書 Tiệt nhiên định phận tại thiên thư.
如何逆虜來侵犯 Như hà nghịch lỗ lai xâm phạm
汝等行看取敗虛 Nhữ đẳng hành khan thủ bại hư

Sông núi nước Nam, quyền vua Nam Hiển nhiên Thiên định hẳn không lầm. Giặc bay trái mệnh đòi xâm chiếm Thảm bại trông kìa, hỡi lũ tham. [Dịch giả: Nguyễn Đăng Thục]

The Southern emperor rules the Southern land. Our destiny is writ in Heaven’s Book. How dare ye bandits trespass on our soil? Ye shall meet your undoing at our hands! [Translator: Huỳnh Sanh Thông]

Asserting the sovereignty of Vietnam, Lý Thường Kiệt’s poem also heralded a heroic spirit from the South when faced by aggression from the North [3]. More than ever before, now is the time for us to review the valiant pages of our history book in order to revive the Vietnamese people’s indomitable national-defense spirit.

ANNOTATIONS

[1] During the Lý dynasty (1010-1225), according to Ngô Thời Sĩ in his Việt Sử Tiêu Án, there were numerous sages and heroes and the people enjoyed long-lasting peace; the country had never been this auspiciously ruled before. It was during this dynasty that Đại Việt (Great Viet) was chosen as the country’ s name and that Thăng Long (Rising Dragon) became the country’s capital. The magnificent Quốc Tử Giám (the agency that oversaw higher education), the nation’s very first university, was established in Thăng Long in 1076 by King Lý Thánh Tông. Đại Việt was totally independent from its northern neighbor.

[2] Nguyễn Đăng Thục (1967) had this to say about marshal Lý Thường Kiệt’s poem: “This is the national psyche reflecting the people’s religious spirit bordering on the mystical. Reporting on the effect of the declamation of the poem, the book Việt Điện U Linh Tập noted that ‘in the stillness of the night, the booming recital of the poem from a temple boosted the Vietnamese troops’ morale. The terrified Song troops simply dispersed.’ Thus, Lý Thường Kiệt succeeded in defending Đại Việt’s national dignity in the face of the Northern forces. Not only did he stamp out China’s intention to re-conquer Vietnam, but he also demonstrated the victory of the spiritual Vietnamese ideology over the socially oppressive ideology of a politico-economic doctrine implemented by Wang An Shi” (page 114).

[3] Since the second half of the twentieth century, this patriotic poem by marshal Lý Thường Kiệt has been considered as Vietnam’s first declaration of independence. According to Hoàng Văn Chí (1964), this independent spirit was praised by a Japanese statesman in front of a Chinese counterpart. He wrote, “After the 1911 revolution and his transfer of presidential powers to Yuan Shi Kai (Viên Thế Khải), Sun Wen (Tôn Văn) visited Japan. He was honored at a banquet given by Inukai Tsuyoshi (Khuyển Dưỡng Nghị), leader of the Japanese Kuomintang (Quốc Dân Đảng Nhật Bản). Asked about his recent visit to Hà Nội, Sun Wen commented, ‘The Vietnamese are servile by nature. They have no future.’ Inukai Tsuyoshi disagreed, saying that ‘Historically, among the Bách Việt group, only Việt Nam has not been Sinicized.’ Sun Wen said nothing more” (page 22).

REFERENCES

Hoàng Xuân Chỉnh (2006). Từ điển nhân danh, địa danh & tác phẩm nghệ thuật Trung Quốc. Stafford, TX: Author.

Hoàng Xuân Hãn (1950). Lý Thường Kiệt. Hanoi: Sông Nhị.

Hoàng Văn Chí (no date). Từ thực dân đến cộng sản. Glendale, CA: Dainamco. [This book is a Vietnamese translation by Mạc Định of Hoàng Văn Chí’s (1964) From colonialism to communism published in New York by Praeger].
Huỳnh Sanh Thông (1996). An anthology of Vietnamese poems. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Lê Hữu Mục (1960). Việt điện u linh tập (Lý Tế Xuyên, thế kỷ XIV). Saigon: Khai Trí.

Nguyễn Đăng Thục (1967). Lịch sử tư tưởng Việt Nam. Saigon: Bộ Văn Hóa Giáo Dục.

Trần Trọng Kim (1971). Việt Nam sử lược (Quyển I). Saigon: Bộ Giáo Dục.
Văn Hóa Á Châu (1960). Việt sử tiêu án (Ngô Thời Sĩ 1726-1780). Saigon: Author.

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