14 Mar 06 Reading naughty poems at a Holland Village foodcourt
I was looking for my favorite Korean food place at the Windmill food-court at Holland Village and I found that they had moved out. Sadding..It was always nice to talk to the kindly lady running the place, she would keep me informed of the latest Korean restaurants in the city. Some consolation though; the new stall serves Vietnamese food and is run by equally kindly women from Vietnam. They were happy when I mentioned that I have been to their hometowns. The springrolls I ordered were good too.
It always seemed easier to make friends with immigrants as I guess a just little bit of connection, like having been to their hometowns or knowing how to speak a few words of the native land is enough to bring up smiles. Coincidentally, I have also been re-reading poems by a Vietnamese lady who lived in the 17th century.
Ho Xuan Huong was a rarity as she wrote at a time in Vietnamese history when the status of woman had gone down a lot under the influence of Confucianism from China. Spring Essence is a collection of poems translated by John Balaban.
Poems like this one “Phan dan ba” or “The Condition of Women” speaks of life under the male dominated society. Below is a translation of this poem.
Ho Xoan also wrote poems with double meanings often sexual in nature. Here she laments on Sharing a husband. The top two lines are a bit blurred, they read - Screw the fate that makes you share a man. One cuddles under cotton blankets; the other’s cold.
Ho Xoan used Nom, a writing system that uses Chinese characters but is closer to actual Vietnamese speech. Most Vietnamese poets at that time used to write in proper Chinese - a language of the elite.
Here is another naughty poem by Ho Xoan, can you guess what she is talking about?
If you are in Singapore, you can borrow the book from National Library. Link
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LOL. This is new to me. Thanks for sharing. I must check if people will start borrowing this and maybe even reserving this after reading your blog post : )
YUM!
The vietnamese spring rolls at my campus are awesome… at 50 cents a piece.. yum!
HI stephanie, nice bumping into you the other day. thanks ivan
Ha! Can’t believe I’ve never come across these poems before. Glad I found your blog; interesting stuff and I’m looking forward to reading more:)
2 fingers one finger no more he
stike it in and pulls it out but
in the end you still have to
clean it out
So where has that particular Korean food stall moved to since that time, any idea? They must have been good for you to have enjoyed it so much.