Poems of Hồ Xuân Hương : 𥙩𫯳終 - On Sharing a Husband
| 𥙩𫯳終 | On Sharing a Husband | 𪟂吒丐刧𥙩𫯳終 几撘𧜖葻几汵㳥 𠄼時𨑮𪽗咍庒𠤆 没𣎃堆吝固㤨空 故𢶸咹𥸷𥸷吏吼 扲朋爫摱摱空功 身尼𠸠別羕尼𠰚 他𱏯催停於丕衝 | Screw the fate that makes you share a man. One cuddles under cotton blankets; the other’s cold. Every now and then, well, maybe or maybe not. Once or twice a month, oh, it’s like nothing. You try to stick to it like a fly on rice but the rice is rotten. You slave like the maid, but without pay. If I had known how it would go I think I would have lived alone. |
| Lấy chồng chung | Chém cha cái kiếp lấy chồng chung Kẻ đắp chăn bông kẻ lạnh lùng Năm thì mười họa hay chăng chớ Một tháng đôi lần có cũng không Cố bám ăn xôi xôi lại hỏng Cầm bằng làm mướn mướn không công Thân này ví biết dường này nhỉ Thà trước thôi đành ở vậy xong. |
| Notes | |
| Hồ Xuân Hương, like her mother, was a vợ lẽ, a concubine, or wife of second rank. Traditionally, Vietnamese women wielded considerable economic and political power, but by 1800 the condition of women had deteriorated as the Vietnamese nation itself began a collapse under domestic and foreign pressures. Many women could choose only between struggling alone or becoming concubines, risking the indignities in this poem. Men, meanwhile, could have many wives. The king was permitted 126 wives in six different categories, while even a student scholar could have “five concubines, seven wives.” See Hoa Bang, Hồ Xuân Hương, Nhà Thơ Cách Mạng (Saigon: Gon Phuong, 1950), p. 106. Chém cha (“screw”) is a curse, meaning “cut father.” Năm thì mười hoạ (“five out of ten times”) is a folk expression. | |