with graveyard rites and junkets on the green.

As merry pilgrims flocked from near and far,* 45

the sisters and their brother went for a stroll.

Fine men and beauteous women on parade:

a crush of clothes, a rush of wheels and steeds.*

Folks clambered burial knolls to strew and burn

sham gold or paper coins, and ashes swirled. 50

Now, as the sun was dipping toward the west,

the youngsters started homeward, hand in hand.

With leisured steps they walked along a brook,

admiring here and there a pretty view.

The rivulet, babbling, curled and wound its course 55

under a bridge that spanned it farther down.

Beside the road a mound of earth loomed up

where withered weeds, half yellow and half green.

Kieu asked: "Now that the Feast of Light is on,

why is no incense burning for this grave?" 60

Vuong Quan told her this tale from first to last:

"She was a famous singer once, Dam Tien.*

Renowned for looks and talents in her day,

she lacked not lovers jostling at her door.*

But fate makes roses fragile—in mid spring* 65

off broke the flower that breathed forth heaven's scents.

From overseas a stranger came to woo

and win a girl whose name spread far and wide.

But when the lover's boat sailed into port,

he found the pin had snapped, the vase had crashed.* 70

A death still silence filled the void, her room;*

all tracks of horse or wheels had blurred to moss.

He wept, full of a grief no words could tell:

`Harsh is the fate that has kept us apart!

Since in this life we are not meant to meet, 75

let me pledge you my troth for our next life.’

He purchased both a coffin and a hearse*

and rested her in dust beneath this mound,

among the grass and flowers. For many moons,*

who's come to tend a grave that no one claims?" 80

A well of pity lay within Kieu's heart:

as soon as she had heard her tears burst forth.*

"How sorrowful is women's lot!" she cried.

"We all partake of woe, our common fate.

Creator, why are you so mean and cruel, 85

blighting green days and fading rose-fresh cheeks?*

Alive, she played the wife to all the world,

alas, to end down there without a man!

Where are they now who shared in her embrace?*