Ca Dao Viet Nam (Vietnamese Folk Poetry)
Translating Vietnamese into English is hard; translating Vietnamese folk poems into English is much harder, or nearly impossible. I applaud John Balaban for taking on the challenge, but some of his interpretations in Ca Dao Viet Nam don’t do it for me. The folkloric tradition, witty wordplays, and lyrical esthetics are lost in transformation.
He translates, “Gio dua trang” as “The wind plays with the moon.” Why plays, and not swings? When he switches the order of “Lon len co hoc, em oi” to “Study hard, little one, grow up,” he has changed the meaning of the sentence, and it sounds quite awkward. As if we’re telling the little one to hungry and grow up so that we don’t have to take care of him anymore, instead of telling him to study hard when he grows up.
“Perhaps I must leave you” is too disruptive and harsh compares to “Co hoi nay anh danh doan bo em.” And “Bad beer soon sends you home” is nowhere near the lyrical harmony of “Ruou lat uong lam cung say.” Why bad beer for ruou lat, and not plain wine? Yet, what baffles me the most is: “Uong an kham kho biet phan nan cung ai? / Phan nan cung truc, cung mai” (“The body is pain. I can’t complain. / My food is bamboo shoots and plums”). Where do the bamboo shoots and plums come from? Besides, those two aren’t classified as kham kho (poverty-stricken) food either.
I am in no way of trying to castigate Mr. Balaban for what he did. In fact, for a foreigner to come up to the people during the war and ask them to sing their favorite folk tunes takes tremendous courage, and he did it. I have respect for him; therefore, I am just simply pointing out the things that don’t work for me. So it is nothing personal.
Lost in translation will always be an issue when bringing one piece of literate from one language into another. The task is even harder when translating Vietnamese poetry or “ca dao” into English. The word play is endless in vietnamese. It’s not translating works like Homer’s “Iliad,” where only the storyline is of importance. Further loss occurs when translated by a foreigner.
I got -An Anthology of Vietnamese Poems: From the 11th to the 20th Centuries- Translated by Huynh Sanh Thong as a Christmas present. It is awesome!
Here’s a stanza from Nguyen Sa’s “The Dress of Ha Dong’s silk”
“In Saigon Heat I suddenly felt so cool
because you wore a dress of Ha Dong’s silk
I’ve always love that color in a dress-
my poems are still made of raw white silk.
or
“Forever” by Xuan Dieu
“Forever, yes forever I’ll love you-
forever means a moment all too brief.
The color red forever lives today-
wild myrle flowers riot on the hills.”
It’s much better to have someone with a fuller grasp of the language. It may not be exact; it’s close enough where the essence is not lost.
Poetry can only be fully enjoyed and understoond in the language it was orginally written. Emotinal attachment is the missing element when poetry is translated.
I don’t know why, but I cannot write poetry in English. I can read it, appreciate it, love it, feel it, but not write it.
Here is a poem I wrote in Vietnames. Enjoy
Gia Tai Em
Em se la giay trang
De anh la giong tho
Trong doi nhung uoc mo
Ghi len to giay trang
Chia se nhung cay dang
Nhung hanh phuc cua doi
Nhung mong dep xa voi
Nhung uoc mo nao do
Gia tai em chi co
To giay trang cho anh
Hoi anh,oi, co danh
Ghi len to giay trang?
QGC
I took the liberty of reprinting your post on my blog (http://samsarashmamsara.blogspot.com/) and I am asking for permission retroactively. If you won’t give me the authorization, I will of course remove it. Thank you in advance.
It’s all good!
Donny,
On the subject of Ca Dao Viet Nam, there is one that either ends with, or contains, the following:
“dde^? to^i khuye^n gio’ gio’ ddu+`ng run ca^y”
Do you happen to know where I could find the entire poem? Google has been of no help, surprisingly enough!
Thanks in advance.
Hi Donny,
You did a heck of a job scrutinizing the book and picking out some very subtle and not-so-obvious mistakes the author has made, like the one in the translation of “Lon len co hoc, em oi.” Just like you said, it’s extremely hard to translate poems from one language to another while preserving the original meanings and emotions. In despite of some flaws, I think John Balaban really made an admirable effort of doing what we, Vietnamese people, should have done long time ago. I just hope he had consulted some Vietnamese intellects before publishing to make his work more compelling.
I’m not sure what “dua” in “Gio dua trang” is, but it’s more likely to be “ddu`a”, which is perfectly translated to “play” in English. But if it is “ddu+a” then “swing” is correct. In “Ruou lat uong lam cung say”, “la.t” (ends with a ‘t’), besides the meaning of vapid or tasteless, also means “light” in opposite to strong or hot wine. So “ru+o+.u la.t” should better be translated as “light wine”. You were right about “Uong an kham kho biet phan nan cung ai? Phan nan cung truc, cung mai”, John has really screwed it up. I don’t even think he understood it.
HmL, below is the entire poem you’re looking for:
DDo^’ ai bie^’t lu’a ma^’y ca^y
Bie^’t so^ng ma^’y khu’c, bie^’t ma^y ma^’y tu+`ng
DDo^’ ai que’t sa.ch la’ ru+`ng
DDe^? ta khuye^n gio’, gio’ ddu+`ng rung ca^y
Rung ca^y, rung co^~i, rung ca`nh
Rung sao cho chuye^?nh lo`ng anh vo+’i na`ng
All my best.
Hi Tuan Anh,
No scrutinizing, just point out things that don’t sound right to me.
It’s “gio’ ddu*a, gio’ dda^?y”
As for “ruou lat,” which (I think) refers to tasteless or plain like water; therefore, “light wine” would have translated if the author was talking about “ruou nhe.” It’s pretty tricky.
Many thanks for the poem as well, Anh Tuan.
(For some reason though, I tend to think it’s much longer than that. My reason? The movie “3 Seasons,” wherein the young lady harvesting the lotus sings something similar, but with more stanzas…)
HmL- This is a song by Pham Duy called “Do Ai.”
Lyrics here
Many thanks, KTN.
It did occur to me to get on Vietshare.com after my posting to look for it (and found it as well.)
Again, thanks.
this is a wonderful site. keep it up.
HmL and Tuan Anh
Đố Ai
Phạm Duy
~*~
Chứ đố ai biết lúa… ư… lúa mấy cây
biết sông… biết sông mấy khúc… ư… ơi
biết mây… biết mây mấy tầng…
biết mây mấy tầng… ơ… ời… ơ…
Đố ai quét sạch… i… ơi… lá rừng
để tôi… để tôi khuyên gió… ư… ơi… gió đừng…
gió đừng rung cây…
gió đừng rung cây… ơ… ời… ơ…
Đố ai biết gió…. ơ… ơi… gió ở đâu
gió hay… gió hay đi vắng… ư… ơi… ơ… lúc nào
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Đố trăng mấy tuổi… i… ư… ơi… trăng già
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mặn mà… mặn mà yêu em
mặn mà yêu em… ơ… ơi… ơ…
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biết em nằm ngủ hay mơ… ơ… ơi… ơ…
Nửa đêm trăng xuống đứng chờ ngoài hiên
nửa đêm anh đến bến bờ yêu thương…
Đố ai tìm được tim ai… ơ… ơi… ơ…
biết em nhặt được tim tôi… ơ… ơi… ơ
để tôi ca hát… cho đời nên thơ
để tôi âu yếm… dâng người trong mơ…
[url=http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd2/15107/Music%20Clip/Do%20Ai.mp3]Đố Ai[/url]
na^ng cao quy mo^
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