When I was young, I lived in a countryside region. Every month, when the moon was full, my family gathered in the courtyard around a fire. My grandmother usually recited some line from Truyen Kieu of Nguyen Du. Under the fluorescing light of the moon, with breezing winds, I felt like every single line of poem melted into my body. Especially whenever my grandmother read a line about the image of nature, I felt the connection between the nature in "the Tale of Kieu" and Kieu's Life. Nguyen Du employs the description of nature to deliver the theme of this story. I say this because thought the use of nature symbol, the "Tale of Kieu" expresses the determination to endure the toughest reality and thereby to master even the cruelest destiny.
Nature and Kieu's destiny go along together. Nature is the mirror reflects what in Keiu minds and souls.
English: Ninh Kieu, Can Tho, Viet Nam
1964 - Kieu Chinh in "A Yank in Viet-Nam"
English: Vietnamese novel-in-verse in Nôm (old Vi...Through the description of nature, we can understand what deep down inside Kieu. In other words, nature is the monologue of Kieu. She always believes in destiny. Nature always follows the cycle of life. Nature has its own rule and sticks with it. Likewise, influenced by the philosophy of Confucian, Kieu abides her misfortunates and considers she deserves them. At the beginning of her trails of tear, when Kieu agrees to sell herself to get three hundred liang, she believes her act will repay what her parents gave to her. It is her fate that she has to endure such a bizarre life like this. Du cleverly uses the images of a small raindrop and a leaf of grass to express that Kieu is so small in life. Her voices could not be listened. "A raindrop does not brood on its poor fate; a leaf of grass repays three months...