Here in Đà Lạt, we live very close to a nice little lake called Hồ Xuân Hương. But Hồ Xuân Hương also happens to be the name of a famous poet from the province of Nghệ An who wrote a short little nice poem called "Bánh trôi nước," which happens to be the chè that I wrote about in the previous post. Isn't that an interesting coincidence? Well, here is the poem:
Thân em vừa trắng lại vừa tròn,
Bảy nổi ba chìm với nước non.
Rắn nát mặc dầu tay kẻ nặn
Mà em vẫn giữ tấm lòng son.
This very short and simple poem not only talks about the chè itself but also refers to the resilient character of the Vietnamese woman. If someone can translate this poem into English, please let me know.
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2 comments:
This is the translation for this poem:
My body is at once white and cricle.
Full of vicissitudes with the country.
Hard or crush because of whose hand knead.
But they still keep faithful heart.
haha... I hope that this translation is right.
and... this is another translation by John Balaban and publish in the U.S. in 2000:
The Floating Cake
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 and true.
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