Too Clean to See
Oh magistrate, how spick
And span thine awful brick do sist.
For noble poise, a twist
Of fate be pled by wrist and heart.
A harlot’s knack is art.
In spite the cangues dispart, a shock
May infiltrate high flock,
As one’s splendor, bemock for grime,
Is brilliant in time.
Talents withheld by crime of view,
Must we deserve the few?
Grand empathic virtue implores
You pardon this amour,
None further shall endure, no more, no more.
Author’s Note/Reflection:
When reading The Tale of Kiều, I found myself infuriated that none of Kiều’s poetry was represented, just brushed off to the effect of narration, “She obeyed and raised the brush into a poem… The judge praised” (Nguyễn, lines 1453-1455). The purpose of this unessay project is to create a poem that Kiều ‘likely’ wrote to win over the judge. For context, in episode XIII, Kiều faces trial for well… Sinh’s crimes. The judge expresses how all prostitutes are the same and accuses Kiều of being dirty and untruthful, ignoring the glaring issue of how Kiều and the other sex workers got into their field (being not by choice). Sinh explains that Kiều is creative and literate, this surprises the judge and requests for Kiều to, there and now, draft an original poem about her current “cangue” situation. She writes her piece and gets the highest praise, Kiều also narrowly avoids guilty prosecution. Again, this poem was never actually written for the reader to see – that is where Too Clean to See hopefully fills that gap.
Formatting this poem was equally invigorating as it was challenging. That is mostly akin to my poem being a lục bát, 1700s traditional Vietnamese folk verse – the same poetic form seen in The Tale of Kiều. This poetic form was, at the time, preferred among the Vietnamese people over the dominant Chinese regulated verse, or jintishi. Instead of every line consisting of seven syllables like in jintishi, lục bát favors an alternation of six and eight-syllable lines with additional “flat” rhymes.
Lục bát formula:
• ♭ • ♯ • ♭A
• ♭ • ♯ • ♭A • ♭B
• ♭ • ♯ • ♭B
• ♭ • ♯ • ♭B • ♭C
• ♭ • ♯ • ♭C
• ♭ • ♯ • ♭C • ♭D
• = any syllable; ♭ = Flat (bằng) syllable; ♯ = Sharp (trắc) syllable; ♭A = Flat syllable with “A” rhyme.
There is no length requirement, a lục bát can be anywhere from two lines to two thousand. Translating this form to English isn’t very one-to-one as “flat” and “sharp” syllables aren’t expressed the same in English as they would be in Chinese or Vietnamese. This causes English lục bát to follow a continuous iambic rhythm – making this form perfect for stage narratives. (Huynh, 9-11)
Moving on to Too Clean to See, I will discuss and dissect the poem by varying lines:
“Oh magistrate, how spick
And span thine awful brick do sist.
For noble poise, a twist
Of fate be pled by wrist and heart.”
I wanted this poem to be secretly satirical, using words and old meanings of those words just so Kiều could get a few jabs in while still gaining the trust of the judge. A notable example of this is the use of the word “awful”. How we use this word now is typically in a negative fashion, but in the 1700s, the period The Tale of Kiều’s set in, “awful” literally meant “awe-inspiring” (Lynch, 3). With that, we have Kiều complimenting the judge’s courtroom in a 1700s reading, but a modern reading would have the opposite effect, flipping the kudos into an insult. Ultimately these introductory lines are Kiều sucking up to the judge.
“A harlot’s knack is art.
In spite the cangues dispart, a shock
May infiltrate high flock,
As one’s splendor, bemock for grime,
Is brilliant in time.
Talents withheld by crime of view,
Must we deserve the few?”
The body of Kiều’s plea serves as addressing the judge’s preconceived notions of sex work. Kiều never flat out says that patriarchy and sexism are the true evils that bind her and the others. Instead, she acknowledges the judge’s points and respectfully tells him that he is too rich and ‘clean’ to understand that prostitutes have talents far greater than their intended services. If only the judge would release the hindering cangues, he may then see that these women and children are human beings, not devious monsters.
“Grand empathic virtue implores
You pardon this amour,
None further shall endure, no more, no more.”
Hoping that the judge understood her case, Kiều states one final petition. The idea is that she is not only asking the judge to appeal to her but for him to be more empathetic when facing any sex worker in court. [Yes, I did break form by adding an extra “no more” in the very last line, any poetic structure has its creative liberties!]
Works Cited:
Huynh Sanh Thông. An Anthology of Vietnamese Poems: From the Eleventh through the Twentieth Centuries. Yale University Press, 1996.
Lynch Jack. A Guide to Eighteenth-Century English Vocabulary. 2006
Nguyễn Du. The Tale of Kiè̂u: A Bilingual Edition of Truỵên Kiè̂u. Yale University Press, 1992.
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