Week 9 Close Reading Analysis Nguyen Du

Although this story/poem was sort of hard for me to follow, one passage (on page 552) from it that really struck me was:

"Alive, she played the wife to all the world,
alas, to end down there without a man!
Where are they now who shared in her embrace?
Where are they now who lusted for her charms?
Since no one else gives her a glance, a thought,
I'll light some incense candles while I'm here.
I'll mark our chance encounter on the road -
perhaps, down by the Yellow Springs, she'll know."

I guess this stuck out to me because I just like the way it flows. I know it doesn't rhyme or anything but I just like the message that it seems to give. The message that first jumps out is that the narrator is obviously describing a woman who is a friend, lover and wife of someone and she is deeply cared for. People like to embrace her and men have lusted for her charm.

Yet as the narrator goes on, they say that "no one else gives her a glance, a thought," which really got me thinking: it seems like she is loved and cared for by many people, and also desired by men, but this seems to contradict that because no one gives her a glance or thought. Does that mean she is just desired but not wanted? Is she only loved and cared for by family and close friends? Do men not want to look or think about her? That is, I guess, why I liked this, because it gets me thinking and lots of questions arise.

I also liked it because I felt I could relate to it on a personal level. I guess I can relate to it because I feel as though I help and "play wife to all the world...to end down there without a man!" It's like I help others and make others feel good almost on a daily basis, and do nice things for my boyfriend. Yet when I was younger, I felt like I would never find someone to share my life with, no one to embrace me (or for me to embrace), no one to lust for my charming ways, no one would give me a glance, and it really made me sad. There's so much love for me to share, with friends, family and my significant other. On the contrary, though, perhaps it's a brief history, or foretelling, of what once was; like she hasn't met her true love yet, and she has to "light some incense candles" and mark the encounter on the road, as if to remember where she came from and how it goes to show how one can grow and prosper and be wanted by others.

I know this passage can be interpreted in many different ways. But this is just how I read it and how it translated in my mind.