February 6, 2006

• A Ferry Man or Anh Lai Do by Nguyen Binh

  In the flower festival post, two objects lingered in my mind, a ferry and a hammock.  These two objects remind me of an old Vietnamese poem, Anh Lái Đ̣ or A Ferry Man written by Nguyễn Bính. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Hammock or vơng is an ordinary item in daily life of Vietnamese.  To me it is one of the most intimate images of childhood when I grew up listening to the lullabies that my mom sung to my nephews and nieces to sleep on hammock.  The word vơng instantly brought me the verses in Trịnh Công Sơn’s song  Mẹ ngồi ru con đong đưa vơng buồn đong đưa phận ḿnh.  Mother lulled her child, swayed the hammock sadly swayed her destiny…

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  The poem Anh Lái Đ̣ was written in the traditional folksy poetry style (ca dao), 6 and 8 form (thể lục bát) that was very difficult to translate.  The fundamental structure of ca dao has minimum 2 verses.  Vietnamese is a monosyllabic language, hence each word has a single syllable.  The first verse has six syllables and the second has eight.  A poet can make the poem as long as he/she wants to but he/she must keep this simple rule. The sixth syllable of the first verse has to rhyme with the sixth syllable of the second.  And the eighth word of the second verse has to rhyme with the sixth word of the third verse, so on. For example:
  
  Năm xưa chở chiếc thuyền nầy
  Đưa cô sang băi tước đay chiều chiều
  Để tôi mơ măi mơ nhiều.

  
  

   

  
  

  You see the word “nầy” rhyme with the word “đay” and “chiều” with “nhiều.” The poem is simple but mentions about old Vietnamese wedding customs that I am not sure of the meaning such as tiền cheo which you will see them in the poem later.  Using Vietnamese-English dictionary by Bùi Phụng, the words tiền cheo, mean engagement fees.  Edit:  Mietxanh posted that tie^`n cheo was a fee that the future bride ought to pay to the town if she was going to marry and leave her home town.

  
  

   

  
  

  The poem was about a ferry man who every day took a woman to cross a river so she could collect jutes (đay) to weave a hammock.  Every day during the trip he day dreamed that he would pass an exam to become a royal officer.  The royal officer would return to his village to be carried on a hammock.  His hammock and hers would cross the river on the same ferry.  Rumor had it that the wedding was very grand.  The groom family rented nine ferries to bring the bride family across the river.  The bride family wanted nine thousands arecas (cau) as gift to the bride’s relatives.  The engagement fees and the wedding cost together were estimated about nine thousand “quan” (an old monetary unit, a coin with square hole). 

  
  

   

  
  

  The ferry man wandered around town to ask people to buy his ferry.  A buyer had bargained the ferry cost down to nine coins but he changed his mind.

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  Lacquer paintings of ferries

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Anh Lái Đ̣	A Ferry Man
  - Thi Sĩ : Nguyễn Bính	Translated by Anonymouswish
  Năm xưa chở chiếc thuyền này Cho cô sang băi tước đay chiều chiều Để tôi mơ măi mơ nhiều Tước đay se vơng nhuộm điều ta đi Tưng bừng vua mở khóa thi Tôi đỗ quan Trạng vinh quy về làng Vơng anh đi trước vơng nàng Cả hai chiếc vơng cùng sang một đ̣ Đồn rằng đám cưới cô to Nhà trai thuê chín chiếc đ̣ đón dâu Nhà gái ăn chín ngh́n cau Tiền cheo, tiền cưới chừng đâu chín ngh́n Lang thang tôi dạm bán thuyền Có người trả chín quan tiền, lại thôi!	Previous year, this ferry took You across the river to collect jutes daily Let me daydreaming on and on to make red jute hammock for our use Exuberantly the King announced an exam I passed first place returned home with honor My hammock went first, hers was behind Both hammocks were on the same ferry   Rumor was her wedding great The groom rent nine ferries to greet the bride The bride wanted nine thousand arecas Engagement fees and wedding cost were about nine thousands. Wandering I tried to sell my boat Someone wanted it for nine coins but changed his mind.

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  Vietnamese traditional wedding.  

  
  

  Most items used are from these sites:

  
  

   

  
  

  http://www.vietnameseartwork.com/itemList.aspx?GroupID=24

  
  

   

  
  

  http://www.tuvy.com/Countries/vietnamese/culture/wedding_of_vietnam.htm

  
  

   

  
  

  http://www.geocities.com/tvng2/onglaido.html

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

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  37.

  In the flower festival post, two objects lingered in my mind… Total eProps: 46 | Total Comments: 25 Posted by anonymouswish – 2/6/2006 at 10:27 AM

  • 6:07 am
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