Nguyễn Du Quotes (12 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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The Tale of Kieu

Nguyễn Du

Nguyễn Du: 12 quotes 2 likes

Famous Nguyễn Du Quotes

“Heaven grants us this hour: now from our gate
all mists have cleared; on high, clouds roll away.”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 3121–3122; quoted by Joe Biden, while welcoming Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Washington (July 2015), as reported in "The Tale of Kieu, lotus and the US President" by Bui Hoang Tam, dtinews.vn (25 May 2016) http://dtinews.vn/en/news/027/45323/the-tale-of-kieu--lotus-and-the-us-president.html: "Thank heaven we are here today, to see the sun through parting fog and clouds."

“Just as the lotus wilts, the mums bloom forth—
time softens grief, and winter turns to spring.”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 1795–1796; quoted by Bill Clinton, in "Remarks at a State Dinner Hosted by President Tran Duc Luong of Vietnam in Hanoi" (17 November 2000) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=1030: "Just as the lotus wilts, the mums bloom forth; time softens grief; and the winter turns to spring."

“West Lake flower garden: a desert, now.
Alone, at the window, I read through old pages.
A smudge of rouge, a scent of perfume, but
I still weep.
Is there a Fate for books?
Why mourn for a half-burned poem?
There is nothing, there is no one to question,
and yet this misery feels like my own.
Ah, in another three hundred years
will anyone weep, remembering my fate?”

Nguyễn Du

"Reading Hsiao-ch'ing", in The Harpercollins World Reader: The Modern World, eds. Mary Ann Caws and Christopher Prendergast (HarperCollins Publishers, 1994), ISBN 978-0065013832, p. 1411
Hsiao-Ching was "a seventeenth-century poet who was forced to become a concubine to a man whose jealous primary wife burned almost all of her poems" — David Damrosch, "Global Scripts and the Formation of Literary Traditions", in Approaches to World Literature (2013), p. 98

“Now we stand face to face—but who can tell
we shan't wake up and learn it was a dream?”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 443–444

“How sorrowful is women's lot!" she cried.
"We all partake of woe, our common fate.”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 83–84

“She peered far into space: where was her home?”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Line 1788

“By lamplight turn these scented leaves and read
a tale of love recorded in old books.”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 7–8

“As you must weigh and choose between your love
and filial duty, which will turn the scale?
She put aside all vows of love and troth—
a child first pays the debts of birth and care.”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 601–604

“Henceforth I'm bound to you for life," he said.
"Call these small gifts a token of my love.”

Nguyễn Du The Tale of Kieu

Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 355–356; quoted by Barack Obama, in "Remarks by President Obama in Address to the People of Vietnam" (24 May 2016) https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/24/remarks-president-obama-address-people-vietnam: "Please take from me this token of trust, so we can embark upon our 100-year journey together."