31-12-2011 | THƠ

Tục Ngữ Việt Nam dịch sang Anh Ngữ

  THE VIETNAM REVIEW

   Tre già măng mọc

   Đục nước béo cò

   Trúc dẫu cháy đốt ngay vẫn thẳng

   Gà một mẹ đá nhau

:: Tre Già Măng Mọc

In Vietnamese, tre designates any of several species of bamboo that may grow as tall as 30 meters: its hollow, jointed stems, up to a foot in diameter, are used in making fumiture and all types of implements (baskets, coops for chickens and pigs, cooking utensils) and even in building boats or houses.

Bamboo grows from new shoots that sprout from the roots of mature plants: the shoots develop so quickly that, in some cases, a plant is apt to grow 36 inches in 24 hours. Most bamboo plants reach full height within a few months. The tender shoots, called măng, are eaten as vegetables. (The Vietnamese call asparagus măng tây or western shoots'.)

Tre già măng mọc: "As bamboos grow old, young shoots spring up."; Contrary to the generation gap cliché in modern English, the Vietnamese proverb stresses continuity between one generation and the next: it implies the hope that the young will carry on to completion what is left unfinished by the old. When a young person dies, the Vietnamese will express grief saying, Tre khóc măng: "The old bamboo mourns the young shoot."

In neutral terms, the proverb may also be quoted to report a changing of the guard: as a person or group exits a new one moves in and takes over.

:: Đục Nước Béo Cò

The English proverbial phrase, to fish in troubled waters, finds its equivalent in this Vietnamese folk saying: Muddy waters, fat herons.

As wading birds, herons (cò) prey on small fishes that teem in the muddy or turbid (đục) waters (nước) of ponds and rice fields.

A confused state of affairs always gives opportunists a chance to make fat profits at the expense of the community.

:: Trúc dẫu cháy đốt ngay vẫn thẳng

In Vietnamese, the name trúc refers to a pecies of small, relatively short species of bamboo (as contrasted with the much larger and taller tre).

A bamboo stem has knots or nodes, and each section between two knots is called a đốt or joint. Trúc dẫu cháy đốt ngay vẫn thẳng (Even when the bamboo is burned, its straight joints stay straight and true): this proverb portrays an honest person whom neither misfortune nor persecution can divert from what is right. Throughout East Asia, the bamboo symbolizes unswerving devotion to principle.

:: Gà một mẹ đá nhau

Cocks from the same mother fíght each other. This proverb serves as a reminder that fratricidal strife has all too often marked and marred the history of the Vietnamese. The most tragic case was the protracted war between the Trịnh and the Nguyễn. The poet-statesman Nguyễn Trãi (1380-1442) once urged all his compatriots to work together and avoid quarrels either provoked or exacerbated by outsiders:

"A womb's own flesh and bone - strong brotherhood./ From one root spring all branches, north and south./ Chopped off, an arm or leg will not grow back./ Torn up, a shirt or skirt can be replaced./ Learn to give way and yield - all will go well./ Know both when to be hard, when to be soft."