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1. Essay Number 1
2. Essay Number 2
Compose Short Độc Tiểu Thanh Kí 1
BY NGUYEN DU
Question 1.
- Nguyen Du empathizes with Thanh Ki because he sees similarities between her fate and his own. Thanh Ki, though possessing complete talent and beauty, faces injustice in her life. She marries but only as a concubine, her literary talent is suppressed and destroyed by society. Nguyen Du, through Thanh Ki's tragedy, reflects on his own life's struggles in the realm of literature.
Question 2.
“The grudge of ages unanswered” symbolizes Thanh Ki's grievance, which echoes the grievances of both past and present individuals, unresolved grievances spanning generations in the realm of literature.
Question 3.
Nguyen Du's compassion for the unfortunate woman of literary talent reflects his humanitarian spirit. He admires Thanh Ki's talent while expressing sympathy for the fate of gifted yet ill-fated individuals.
Question 4.
Two thesis sentences:
- Sentence 1: the author depicts changes in scenery, transitioning from present to past 🡪 sighs of sorrow
- Sentence 2: the author illustrates life changes 🡪 Nguyen Du's loneliness, the insignificance in posterity's eyes, sympathy for the drifting, unstable fates.
Two real sentences: summarizing two major grievances
- Cosmetics: symbolizing beauty 🡪 beautiful but ill-fated
- Literature: symbolizing talent 🡪 gifted yet fated to struggle
Two conclusion sentences: lamenting for oneself
- The author poses a question to posterity after 300 years
- The deepest pain remains unspoken
Compose Short Độc Tiểu Thanh Kí 2
BY NGUYEN DU
A. BASIC KNOWLEDGE
1. Little Thanh
- She was a Chinese girl with both talent and beauty, living in the early Ming dynasty.
- Intelligent and knowledgeable in various arts such as poetry and music.
- Became a concubine in a noble family. The main wife was jealous, forced her to live alone. Suffering, she fell ill and passed away at the age of 18.
- Her sorrows were expressed in poetry, but most were burned by the main wife. Only a few poems survived. They were printed and titled as Remaining Part (burned and survived).
2. Reasons Nguyen Du sympathized with Little Thanh
- Due to compassion for the unfortunate fate of talented and beautiful women.
- Because Nguyen Du's life was also full of ups and downs, as turbulent as Thanh's.
- Because of the thought of whether anyone understands, sympathizes with oneself like one's own understanding of Little Thanh.
3. Contents of the first two lines of poetry
- These two lines describe a specific event. But it was imagined by Nguyen Du.
- The scenery of West Lake in that imagination is the basis for evoking emotions in the poet's heart. This is one of the characteristics of medieval poetry: emotions aroused by external scenes, emotions inspired by landscapes, bursting out.
- The mood of the two lines is longing, compassion, and reverence for a talented poetic soul experiencing hardship in life.
4. Discussion on Verses 3 and 4:
- Moved by Thanh's life, Nguyen Du reflects on the generalization of the fate of talented and literary individuals.
“Cosmetics may be buried but resentment lingers
Literature, despite fate, remains.”
- These lines are constructed in opposition:
+ Cosmetics may be buried - Literature, despite fate
+ Resentment lingers - Remains despite burning
- Despite being opposite, they ultimately convey the same idea: beauty and literature never die. However, in the human world possessing them, there's always turmoil, fate's whims, even death in lonely sorrow.
- The author focuses on reality in these first four lines, thoughts based on verifiable truths.
6. Target Audience in the Last Four Verses
- Verse 5 continues the intention of the first four lines (mainly of verses 3 and 4):
+ The poet realizes the irrational: (Beauty and fate, Talent tied with misfortune in a verse (The Tale of Kieu), unable to accept it yet unable to find the cause or way to interpret that irrationality, hence lamenting: “The grudge of ages unanswered.”
7. Issue of the 'Individual Human'
- Nguyen Du is one of the first medieval literary figures to write about the 'individual human', especially about the fate of artists.
- Nguyen Du's humanitarian heart is elevated when he writes about the unhappiness of a female artist.
8. Artistic Value of the Poem
- It portrays the inner turmoil of the author.
- From the emotional response to the fate of the talented yet ill-fated woman, Nguyen Du expands to the larger issues of society, humanity, then expresses thoughts about himself.
- The climax of this emotional state is in the last line, the poem ending with a question mark (in the text), expressing the loneliness of a great artist. It demonstrates humility but also subtly affirms the talent of the poet himself.
