Reading Notes Week 9 Nguyen Du Part A

This poem was somewhat long and hard for me to understand. But from what I did understand, it seemed like it was about a girl, Kieu, who went through a lot to save and protect her family. It seems as though she sacrificed a lot, and did things she did not want to do and that went against what she would normally do. It's like she gave up her soul for her loved ones, "Kieu said: "When one who shines in talent dies, the body passes on, the soul remains. In her, perhaps, I've found a kindred hear: let's wait and soon enough she may appear." (Pg. 552) I really liked this part of the poem, as it's like it has a few different meanings; for one thing, after she said this, "a whirlwind rose from nowhere, raged and raved. It blustered, strewing buds and shaking trees..."(Pg. 552), as if whomever she was talking to heard her and by shaking everything up was to let her know she was heard. I also just like the meaning of when someone passes away, even though they are physically gone, their souls remain and live on. I also really liked it and can relate to it because in the last week, a good friend that I've know for over 18 years, passed away from cancer. She was genuinely one of those people who seemed to be friends with everyone; she had a heart of gold, she was genuinely nice to everyone, and everyone loved and cared for her. The day I found out, the only thing I could think of, all day long, was her. And all I could keep asking myself was, "Why her? Of ALL the people in the world, of ALL the mean, rude, terrible people out there, why take HER?!" At the end, the last paragraph also made me go back to these thoughts. I even wrote on the side margins that maybe the point of the poem was that if you be good and do good, good things will come to you or come back to you.