The Tale of Kieu

The Tale of Kiều
Truyện Kiều
A 1932 copy of Kim Vân Kiều tân truyện published in Hanoi, is better known as Truyện Kiều (Tale of Kiều).
Original titleVietnamese: Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh
Chữ Hán: 斷腸新聲
Also known asVietnamese: Truyện Kiều
Chữ Hán: 傳翹
Author(s)Nguyễn Du
LanguageVietnamese
(written in Chữ Nôm)
Date of issue1820
State of existenceEmperor Minh Mạng
Authenticityremake
Genreepic poem
Verse formlục bát (6/8)
Length3,254 verses
PersonagesThúy Kiều
SourcesJin Yun Qiao

The Tale of Kiều is an epic poem in Vietnamese written by Nguyễn Du (1765–1820), well known in Vietnamese literature.[1][2][3][4] The original title in Vietnamese is Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh (斷腸新聲, "A New Cry From a Broken Heart"), but it is better known as Truyện Kiều (傳翹, IPA: [t͡ɕwiən˧˨ʔ kiəw˨˩] , lit. "Tale of Kiều").

In 3,254 verses, written in lục bát ("six–eight") meter, the poem recounts the life, trials and tribulations of Thúy Kiều, a beautiful and talented young woman, who has to sacrifice herself to save her family. To save her father and younger brother from prison, she sells herself into marriage with a middle-aged man, not knowing that he is a pimp, and is forced into prostitution. While modern interpretations vary, some post-colonial writers have interpreted it as a critical, allegorical reflection on the rise of the Nguyễn dynasty.[5]

  1. ^ Huỳnh Sanh Thông (1983). The Tale of Kieu: A Bilingual Edition of Nguyen Du's Truyen Kieu. Yale University Press. p. xx. ISBN 0300040512. A perfect example of the long narrative poem in six-eight verse, it has also stood unchallenged since its publication and dissemination in the second decade of the nineteenth century as the supreme masterwork of Vietnamese literature.
  2. ^ John Balaban. "Vietnamese literature". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25 September 2020. Perhaps the greatest of these statesmen-poets was Nguyen Du in the 19th century. His Truyen Kieu (The Tale of Kieu), or Kim Van Kieu, is generally considered the pinnacle of Vietnamese literature.
  3. ^ "An Introduction to Truyện Kiều - An electronic version". Nôm Foundation. Retrieved 26 September 2020. The Truyện Kiều, The Story of Kiều, by Nguyễn Du (1765-1820) is the great classical poem of Vietnam.
  4. ^ Hoàng Nhật (7 June 2020). "Nguyễn Du và Truyện Kiều: Từ những điều trông thấy đến những điều mơ ước". Kinh tế & Đô thị (in Vietnamese). People's Committee of Hanoi. Retrieved 26 September 2020. Cho đến nay, trong văn học Việt Nam chưa có ai sánh được với Nguyễn Du và Truyện Kiều. [As of now, in Vietnamese literature nobody can compare to Nguyễn Du and The Tale of Kieu.]
  5. ^ Patricia M. Pelley Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past 2002 Page 126 "Many postcolonial critics who focused on the masterpiece of Vietnamese literature — Nguyễn Du's narrative poem The Tale of Kiều — were tempted to interpret it as a critical, allegorical reflection on the rise of the Nguyễn dynasty."