Tale of Kiều — A Timeless Cultural Heirloom

A brief analysis of Tale of Kiều by Nguyễn Du and its impact on the Vietnamese people.

At the start of his brilliant bilingual edition of Nguyễn Du’s Tale of Kiều, Huỳnh Sanh Thông wrote:

“Tặng đồng bào tị nạn Việt Nam cùng thân hữu khắp thế giới.”
“To Vietnamese refugees and their friends throughout the world.”

If anyone understood what being exiled feels like, it would be Nguyễn Du (and, to some extent, Huỳnh Sanh Thông). Nguyễn Du lost both of…