Reading naughty Vietnamese poems (Singapore)

I was looking for my favourite Korean food place at the Windmill food-court at Holland Village and I found that they had moved out. Sadding..It was always nice to talk to the kindly lady running the place, she would keep me informed of the latest Korean restaurants in the city. Some consolation though; the new stall serves Vietnamese food and is run by equally kindly women from Vietnam. They were happy when I mentioned that I have been to their hometowns. The springrolls I ordered were good too.

It always seemed easier to make friends with immigrants as I guess a little bit of connection, like having been to their hometowns or knowing how to speak a few words of the native land is enough to bring up smiles. Coincidentally, I have also been re-reading poems by a Vietnamese lady who lived in the 17th century.

Ho Xuan Huong was a rarity as she wrote at a time in Vietnamese history when the status of women had declined under the influence of Confucianism from China. Spring Essence is a collection of poems translated by John Balaban.

Poems like this one “Phan dan ba” or “The Condition of Women” speaks of life under the male dominated society. The translation is below.

Ho Xuan also wrote poems with double meanings, often sexual in nature. Below she laments on sharing a husband. The top two lines are a bit blurred, they read — Screw the fate that makes you share a man. One cuddles under cotton blankets; the other’s cold.

Ho Xuan used Nom, a writing system that uses Chinese characters but is closer to actual Vietnamese speech. Most Vietnamese poets at that time used to write in proper Chinese — a language of the elite.

Here is another naughty poem by Ho Xoan. Can you guess what she is talking about?

If you are in Singapore, you can borrow the book from the National Library.

2015: The book is no longer available at the National Library. But worry not. Seems one of the only two copies in circulation at a library in the world is at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.