Sign in with Facebook
The Tale of Kiều Quotes
The Tale of Kiều
by
Nguyễn Du1,797 ratings, 4.30 average rating, 252 reviews
The Tale of Kiều Quotes
Showing 1-14 of 14
“Across his shoulder is a bag stuffed with wind and moonlight, which is what the world calls poetry.”
― The Tale of Kiều
― The Tale of Kiều
“See the fierce power of a poem.
Learn how words can leap across the years.
She is my sister, though I am alive and she is dead.”
― The Tale of Kiều
Learn how words can leap across the years.
She is my sister, though I am alive and she is dead.”
― The Tale of Kiều
“But since this earth began,
cruel fate has cursed all women.
I look on Đạm Tiên's mossy tomb,
and see my own, in days to come.”
― The Tale of Kiều
cruel fate has cursed all women.
I look on Đạm Tiên's mossy tomb,
and see my own, in days to come.”
― The Tale of Kiều
“My gratitude is written on my bones. It will outlive me. They will find it in my grave.”
― The Song of Kieu: A New Lament
― The Song of Kieu: A New Lament
“Her mother said: 'Are dreams such solid grounds that you will build thereon a tale of woe?”
― The Tale of Kiều
― The Tale of Kiều
“She says: ‘We are cursed,
who are born beneath the peach blossom
and fated to work these green pavilions.
I thought I had escaped them,
but the breeze has blown me back.
To understand life is to know despair.
Genius and beauty are worthless:
they make heaven jealous.
I had filtered my springwater with alum:
it bubbles now with muck and mud.
The potter’s wheel torments all women:
it spins and spins, without throwing us off.
When I left home, I accepted my fate:
but why must destiny still hack away
at a rose already shredded?
Half my youth is gone too soon.
I’ll offer up the rest of it.
I’ll end my young days here.”
― The Tale of Kiều
who are born beneath the peach blossom
and fated to work these green pavilions.
I thought I had escaped them,
but the breeze has blown me back.
To understand life is to know despair.
Genius and beauty are worthless:
they make heaven jealous.
I had filtered my springwater with alum:
it bubbles now with muck and mud.
The potter’s wheel torments all women:
it spins and spins, without throwing us off.
When I left home, I accepted my fate:
but why must destiny still hack away
at a rose already shredded?
Half my youth is gone too soon.
I’ll offer up the rest of it.
I’ll end my young days here.”
― The Tale of Kiều
“I am nobody. I am a woman,' says Kiều.”
― The Tale of Kiều
― The Tale of Kiều
“They speak of the past and the future
and keep repeating the same tender words
as if they have an ocean of them.”
― The Tale of Kiều
and keep repeating the same tender words
as if they have an ocean of them.”
― The Tale of Kiều
“He sees her eyebrow in the arc of the moon;”
― The Tale of Kiều
― The Tale of Kiều
“Liquid music pours out of that moon-bowl:
gentle consolation for a maimed soul.
Hoạn's heart is lulled by the lilting sound
and, just for a moment, her hard face softens.”
― The Tale of Kiều
gentle consolation for a maimed soul.
Hoạn's heart is lulled by the lilting sound
and, just for a moment, her hard face softens.”
― The Tale of Kiều
“How can a man's words be empty as the wind?”
― The Tale of Kiều
― The Tale of Kiều
“Kiều says: 'Mother, I am just a girl
and I can never repay what you have done for me.
But in this unjust world,
clear water turns dirty
while the muck calls itself clean.
Though I live a hundred years
I will carry you all in my heart.”
― The Tale of Kiều
and I can never repay what you have done for me.
But in this unjust world,
clear water turns dirty
while the muck calls itself clean.
Though I live a hundred years
I will carry you all in my heart.”
― The Tale of Kiều
“Losing your lover is a little death:
but she who thinks nothing of her own life
cares even less for the loss of love.
She is a raindrop. She does not mind whether she falls
into a mandarin's garden or a farmer's ditch.
She is a blade of young grass that feels grateful
for three months of spring rain.”
― The Tale of Kiều
but she who thinks nothing of her own life
cares even less for the loss of love.
She is a raindrop. She does not mind whether she falls
into a mandarin's garden or a farmer's ditch.
She is a blade of young grass that feels grateful
for three months of spring rain.”
― The Tale of Kiều
