DESCRIPTION:
The Tale of Kiêu 11 - The Fire of incense - Lửa Hương.
Realization and Music : Vinh-Thien Quach.
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Voyage en Image et en Musique :
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The Tale of Kiêu 11.
The Fire of incense.
Frome verse 381 to verse 422.
Poem: Nguyễn Du (1766-1820).
Music: Vĩnh-Thiện Quách.
Voice: Xuân Phú.
English Translation: Lê Xuân Thủy.
I must reproach you for your indifference, whispered Kim. Oh, my dear, how could you let the incense grow so cold immediately after it was kindled?
In order to chase away my sorrow, I have spent all my time dreaming of you. Now, my hair has become grey as if imbued with and dew.
It was winds and rains that kept me from you, replied Kiêu. I am sorry for behaving so cruelly to the friend of my heart. The absence of my family gives me a little freedom today. Here is my heart. I came to humbly thank you for your generous sentiments about me.
She walked around the edges of the rock-works. There seemed to be a recently fenced passage at the end of the wall. Kiêu tucked up her sleeves and opened the lock of the Peach Grotto as to disperse the clouds to see more clearly the way to Thiên Thai.
The more they looked at each other, the more happiness showed on their faces.
She wished him ten thousand good things ; he asked her how she endured the cold and head. Then side by side they went into the study room, whispering sweet words as light as winds and moonlights and calling upon mounts and rivers to witness their solemn oaths.
Brush holders and copper cases of poems laid on the desk. Hanging on the wall was a wash drawing of a pine, so well depicted that it appeared as if a pine, so well depicted that it appeared as if affected by winds and miss. Kiêu was entrance with admiration over those brush strokes that seemed alive before her eyes.
This is a rough sketch I have just finished, Kim said. Please write a few words to embellish it.
With her fairy hand, Kiêu laid the brush on the upper part of the picture and scribbled a quatrain like the wind lashing against the falling rain.
Wonderful, exclaimed Kim. You really have the talent of emitting jade and pearls. Even the famous Pan or the young poetess Tsie could not write better than this. If the good deeds of your antecedent lives were no immense, what chance would be heavy enough to replace them?
When I looked furtively at your handsome face, said Kieu, I said to myself that, if you did not wear jade at the Court, you must being at least to the Gold Door. When I think of my destiny that is as frail as the dragonfly’s wing, I wonder whether Heaven will consent to bless our union. I remember when I was still a child, physiognomies made this prediction: When your interior light and beauty shine outside, one thousand autumns of cruel fate will condemn your beauty and talents.

Son when I look at you, I think of myself. You are a noble man, I am a humble girl. It is wise of us to live together.
Isn’t our meeting a revelation of dusting? Kim said. So far, man’s firmness has often triumphed over destiny. If any unhappy event occurs against our union, I will immolate my whole life to realize our oaths that have been carved on gold and stone.