CHỊ EM THÚY KIỀU
Thơ Việt Nam
Đầu lòng hai ả tố nga
Thúy Kiều là chị, em là Thúy Vân
Mai cốt cách, tuyết tinh thần
Mỗi người một vẻ mười phân vẹn mười.
Vân xem trang trọng khác vời,
Khuôn trăng đầy đặn nét ngài nở nang.
Hoa cười, ngọc thốt đoan trang,
Mây thua nước tóc, tuyết nhường màu da.
Kiều càng sắc sảo mặn mà
So bề tài sắc lại là phần hơn.
Làn thu thủy, nét xuân sơn,
Hoa ghen thua thắm, liễu hờn kém xanh.
Một hai nghiêng nước nghiêng thành
Sắc đành đòi một tài đành họa hai.
Thông minh vốn sẵn tính trời,
Pha nghề thi học đủ mùi ca ngâm.
Cung thương lầu bậc ngũ âm,
Nghề riêng ăn đứt hồ cầm một chương.
Khúc nhà tay lựa nên trương,
Một thiên bạc mệnh lại càng não nhân!
Phong lưu rất mực hồng quần,
Xuân xanh xấp xỉ tới tuần cập kê.
Êm đềm trướng rủ màn che,
Tường Đông ong bướm đi về mặc ai.
Dịch tiếng Anh:
First came too graceful young girls as elder children,
Thúy Kiều, the eldest, and her young sister Thúy Vân,
With their high personality and their pure minds,
Each one her own manner, both perfectly refined.
Vân looked sedate with her distinguished grace,
Her large eyebrows and her full-moon face. (2)
Flowers bloomed in her sweet smile so nicely,
Pearls resounded in her sober voice so mildly.
Clouds couldn't match her smooth hair in undulation.
Snow would yield up to the freshness of her complexion.
Kiều looked keener in her charm and undoubtedly
She surpassed her sister both in talent and beauty;
With her eyes so bright as Autumn water shimmering,
And her eyebrows so fresh as young mountains in Spring.
Nice flowers would envy her charming lips' freshness,
Willow leaves'd get angry with her eyebrows' greenness.
Her single glance might even shake the Royal Castle (3)
Her single smile could even make the Nation tremble (4)
In beauty, she would no doubt have no equal,
In talent, if there could be, just one in all.
Intelligence was her natural inborn blessing,
From which sharpened her skill in poetry and painting.
And of course in music, her earnest devotion:
An excellent player of the lute with passion,
She mastered all the playing techniques and singing,
And composed herself beautiful pieces for playing.
Those included her favorite melody "Ill Fate",
Sounding so sad that it made any listener's heart ache.
Like other young ladies of noble family
Who were classified as Red-trouser category (5)
At their full-moon age - age of wearing fancy hairpins,
They lived peacefully behind curtains and screens,
Like exquisite flowers growing in a sumptuous hall,
Unaware of those bees and butterflies beyond the East wall.
CHÚ THÍCH:
2) Full-moon face: Her face was round, showing a fresh beauty at her full-moon age (age of sixteen, as in the sixteenth day of lunar month, the moon is fully round).
(3) (4) This means she was in such a beauty that might seduce the King so that he forgot his duty in running the nation while it was in danger.
(5) Young girls of noble family usually wore red trousers, that was why they were called "Red-trouser category"
Trích từ web cá nhân của nhà văn Trần Thanh Giao
Tiêu đề: Dịch Truyện Kiều ra thơ tiếng Anh!!! 
Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:02 pm
