Nguyễn Du Quotes

Trông vời cố quốc biết đâu là nhà.

A hundred years—in this life span on earth
talent and destiny are apt to feud.
You must go through a play of ebb and flow
and watch such things as make you sick at heart.
Is it so strange that losses balance gains?
Blue Heaven's wont to strike a rose from spite.

Cảo thơm lần giở trước đèn,
Phong tình có lục còn truyền sử xanh.

How sorrowful is women's lot!" she cried.
"We all partake of woe, our common fate.

Heaven grants us this hour: now from our gate
all mists have cleared; on high, clouds roll away.

Người quốc sắc, kẻ thiên tài,
Tình trong như đã, mặt ngoài còn e.
Chập chờn cơn tỉnh cơn mê.

West Lake flower garden: a desert, now.
Alone, at the window, I read through old pages.
A smudge of rouge, a scent of perfume, but
I still weep.
Is there a Fate for books?
Why mourn for a half-burned poem?
There is nothing, there is no one to question,
and yet this misery feels like my own.
Ah, in another three hundred years
will anyone weep, remembering my fate?

By lamplight turn these scented leaves and read
a tale of love recorded in old books.