My body is white; my fate, softly rounded, rising and sinking like mountains in streams. Whatever way hands may shape me, at center my heart is red a… - Ho Xuan Huong

Sisters, do you know how it is? On one hand,
the bawling baby; on the other, your husband
sliding onto your stomach,
his little son still howling at your side.
Yet, everything must be put in order,
Rushing around all helter-skelter.
Husband and child, what obligations!
Sisters, do you know how it is?

Hỡi chị em ơi có biết không?
Một bên con khóc một bên chồng.
Bố cu lổm ngổm bò trên bụng,
Thằng bé hu hơ khóc dưới hông.
Tất cả những là thu với vén,
Vội vàng nào những bống cùng bông.
Chồng con cái nợ là như thế,
Hỡi chị em ơi có biết không?

To hell with the fate that makes you share a man... You slave like the maid, but without the pay. If I had known how it would go, I think I would have lived alone.