Ngyuen Trai

Translated from Han by Nguyen Do and Paul Hoover

Nguyen Trai (1380-1442) is one of the two great poets of Vietnamese history. The other, Nguyen Du, lived from 1765 to 1816. Nguyen Trai's poems have been translated into other languages including English, but the quality of both the selections and their translation is barely respectable, and none are in print. When properly translated, his work stands beside that of Tu Fu or Wang Wei, indeed beside the great poets of history. Unfortunately, no individual volume of his poetry exists in English translation. A national hero, his poetry is memorized by school children and quoted in speeches by dignitaries. It has influenced the work of many Vietnamese poets including Ho Chi Minh. Most importantly, his poems express the universal human condition in a voice both lyrical and tough-minded.

Nguyen Trai's body of work consists primarily of eight-line poems in traditional form, which he wrote both in Han (ancient Chinese) and Nom (Vietnamese Chinese). Such poems hold strictly to five or seven characters to the line. This is consistent with the Chinese wu-lü (five character lines) and ch'i-lü (seven-character). Lines 3:4 and 5:6 have thematic and tonal counterpoint with each other as "couplets." Our plan is to translate roughly 150 of his poems both from Han and Nom, as well as Binh Ngo Dai Cao, a long poem celebrating Vietnamese independence from Chinese rule. It will be the first extensive translation of his work to appear in English.

Nguyen Trai was born into a mandarin family in 1380 at Thang Long, the first official name of Hanoi, where was his mother and her relatives lived. His maternal grandfather was one of the most important ministers of the court. Nguyen Trai's mother married her private teacher, who had been raised in the poor countryside village of Nhuy Khe, so he could sympathize with both wealthy and impoverished people. Nguyen Trai expresses homesickness for both Nhuy Khe and Con Son in his poems; they were also his places of retreat.

At only twenty years of age, Nguyen Trai passed his doctoral examination and became a very high-ranking government official in the justice system of King Ho Quy Ly. Seven years later, the Chinese Ming Dynasty seized power in Vietnam and sent Ho Quy Ly's entire court, including Nguyen Trai's father, to jail in China. Later on, the Ming legislature tried to force Nguyen Trai to collaborate with their regime. When he refused, he was placed under house arrest.

In 1420, Nguyen Trai traveled to the central province camp of Lê Loi, a wealthy landowner leading the resistance to Ming forces. His purpose was to persuade Lê Loi to launch a political and military operation called "Binh Ngo Sach" (Plan to Destroy the Ngo, another name for Ming). Lê Loi not only accepted the plan, but also named Nguyen Trai as his most senior, therefore most powerful, advisor. In 1427, Lê Loi's forces defeated the Ming and drove them out of the country, then known as Dai Viet. However, when Lê Loi became Emperor, Nguyen Trai was offered a position below that of minister, less than he deserved.

The poet's role in the war of independence was crucial. He conceived of a "hearts and minds" campaign to win the sympathy of the common people. According to folk legend, he ordered his men to write in honey on thousands of forest leaves words to the effect: "Lê Loi will be your king. Nguyen Trai will be your savior." Honey attracted ants, which in eating it chewed messages into the leaves. The populace was suitably impressed and supported Lê Loi's campaign.

Nguyen Trai continued in service to the Emperor as First Minister, but jealousy was created regarding his high position at court and upstanding moral character as a Confucian. At one point, he was jailed by the Emperor but eventually found blameless and released. He was skillful in political matters, but there is no indication that he sought to rule.

Following the death of Lê Loi, Nguyen Trai went into retirement. But trouble soon followed when the Emperor's son and successor died mysteriously while on a royal visit to Nguyen Trai's country estate. The court falsely accused him and his first wife of poisoning the young Emperor. On September 19, 1442, he and all three generations of his family were beheaded, with the exception of a son with whom one of Nguyen Trai's several wives was then pregnant.

The Lê Dynasty was to rule for 360 years, one of the longest in Vietnamese history. In this period, land reforms were instituted, the first map of Vietnam drawn, and the Hong Du Code was established, providing legal and property rights for women.

Nguyen Trai is an impressive poet in feeling, intellect, and language. "Closing the Seaport" concludes:

From the past to the present, the creator's philosophy varies as much
As the color in eternity of water and smoke.

The lines ring as clearly as a temple bell, and their import is profound. Simple in diction and set in ordinary circumstances, his poems strike that note of sublimity and insight available to true poets. In going to the heart of things, they are able to speak across the centuries and beyond the supposed limits of history and culture.