Trần Tế Xương Quotes

Trần Tế Xương also known by the pen name Tú Xương was a Vietnamese poet and satirist. His poems frequently targeted the "Frenchifying" Vietnamese middle classes.He is also famous for his flunks in his exams.

✵ 5. September 1870 – 29. January 1907

Trần Tế Xương: 1 quote0 likes

Trần Tế Xương Quotes

“What earthly use are these Confucian graphs?
Masters and doctors lie curled up and wilt.
Why not take lessons and become a clerk?
At night champagne, at break of day cow's milk!”

Trần Tế Xương

Poem 71 in An Anthology of Vietnamese Poems, trans. Huỳnh Sanh Thông (Yale University Press, 1996), ISBN 978-0300064100
Variant translation:
What good are Chinese characters?
All those Ph.D.'s are out of work.
Much better to be a clerk for the French:
You get milk in the morning and champagne at night.
Source: Understanding Vietnam by Neil L. Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), ISBN 978-0520916586, p. 55