Translation of William Noseworthy (new version)
| [I] have created and transmitted this poetryFor all friends and relatives to hear
On the 15th of January in the year of the Chicken France sent their officers to take us with them The agent sent the letter to [force hire] coolies They conscripted four Cham of Phan Rang To leave their fields and houses and go with them We sat so disheartened, sighing Beside [ourselves], thinking and afraid of the journey ahead Suddenly we saw an old Cham [man] arrive by boat In the estuaries, where the peninsula sticks out He descended and the ordered [us] to walk To arrive at NhaTrang, the French Sent us to walk to see the Po Nâgar tower We ascended to take advantage of the view We found the tower of incomparable beauty |
| From the soil of this land, lush trees growThe Kinh people offer silk and light oil lanterns day and night [for her/Po Nâgar]
The ancestral Yang and Cham ancestors of old Fled this land and allowed the Kinh people to worship here The temple tower was built at the edge of the sea On top of a majestic mountain, remaining there for years I looked to find the inscriptions Around the shrine or the tower in the land of KhánhHòa The land where everything grows Mangoes, jackfruit, banana, papaya, sugarcane, pomegranate Where buffalo, horses and cows are raised too Working the rice fields (or) dreaming of the land of Phanrang That country where bamboo is planted around the house The buffalo and cows are penned in, but do not have rings in their noses When harvest arrives, or it is time to plow Cattle do not have their noses pierces, they have yolks or horns In the night, we slept, and the French called early We prepare to go up to the lands of the Raglai Some were brought back, for them to discuss We finalized the collection of inscriptions, then headed onward to PhúYên |
| They pay only 4 đồng per monthThe officers went to PhúYên to see all the towers
And asked which towers have writing Taking people from that land as they found them That country they found is covered in peaks They cultivate sugar cane like the land in Phan Rang There are many fields[1] with stones placed around them There is little forest, [but] planting in many villages, every place is like this We were miserable like one can not explain Going across the land, depending only on God the Father When we arrived in PhúYên, the Kinh people asked: “Brothers arriving like this, how many are there of you?” That country has more sunshine, less rain As in the land of Phan Rang, that has rain and sun In that country they harvest areca Picking and cutting it to sell everywhere There is much hardship, they don’t make enough to eat There are many mountain peaks, and less land for padi plots, They don’t have carts like Phan Rang or PhanRi They pack the grain and carry it on horseback |
| That land has a mountain named Horse’s NeckBrothers we were tired, our suffering immense
There Jatam Po and Bien Kuw I went first to the area of BìnhĐịnh Into the dragon’s den, I was so scared In the land of BìnhĐịnh there are so many Kinh people, both big and small They herded us and we (had minds) like children But the wiser French, the isolated themselves behind That country is so very very rich The sell silk at the market in the towns, blankets The shirts paired with trousers For each customer to buy what is very fitting Press sugar cane to make sugar In the market they have goods without shortage For their hungry buyers All kinds of food and drink, according to any taste They also strike the gong very frequently According to each customer, they have hats with large brims Trays, lacquer boxes, basins and copper Cham platters Siamese shoes, good umbrellas, cotton skirts, in the [city] streets by the thousands |
| There we waited for the French shipsThey pursued up to the far away Raglailands of An Khê
The crows, the French called early Ordered [us] to ascend to An Khê to see the land of the Raglai After finishing I returned To tell them what our Raglai neighbors were like I found two stone elephants They also have a cow god with Rak and many towers there Gardens in that land were very good Delta soil, paddyland and areca better than any other place One can sow peas anywhere, run grapes and grow sugarcane There is indigo dyed silk and also coconut When one sees the tower shrine, it is so beautiful, it makes one want to write poetry It makes me wonder why the Cham kings left this land and fled With the kings lost, the Cham people are now without these fruits of plenty The land was fertile, but they left it miserable The officers order [us] to search for And find the towers with collapse door frames Without statues or steles, as they have also Been taken away, and only traces remain |
| We went to find the epigraphyCopying each and every stone, recording all to bring home
As the French ordered us to go to Quảng Ngãi And the Vietnamese said there were many towers there As we left, we asked the Yang gods to bless us If we could find many statues by the grace of the heavens We travelled for more than three days Arrived at the foot of the mountains before the last night’s rest Found the Kinh with whips in hand, The shortest and ugliest man, said he knew me He said I must just know That if I want to go, he can place the request Because he heard someone had threatened us with a knife As the gods have given the Kinh the rest of fate We returned to darkness, and slept, with thanks according to the path In the morning I put gunpowder in the gun I finished, and rejoined the French agents I revealed the whole story the Kinh had told To the French agent, who then sighed |
| In Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi they have plannedTo raise arms, and prepare to kill us
And once they have they will spread the message Across the land [in order to] surround [the stronghold], and now they will surely strike The 20th of June, an attack will hit Huế At seven the morning, the French officers shot them down at the walls With enough smoke and fire to obscure the heavens The Nguyễn soldiers perished as ants,[2][even] horses and elephants did not survive Then, they breached the ramparts Soldiers survived, but did not know where to go At high noon[3] they were first releaved Hungry, with dark circles, under eyes, unable to stand Panicked and stumbling, the fell to the ground So, exhausted they could not stand, stunned by the smell of gunpowder They crept out from the attack on the citadel They stood up to find one French soldier TônThấtThuyếtthen assited the king to flee Running out to another place With NguyênSoái spreading the message across the land How to strike [?], they planned: ten days later |
| The Nguyễn General came to the WesternersDelivering written commitments, (but) would not dare strike
With seven French ships docked at Huế Free in the morning, they went to search for and bring back the king And so we left On the hlapboat with thirty fathoms of long blue sea Going to the interior of HảiPhòng Red as the words of a song someone sings in their hometown We stayed there for five days on that boat The Pondicherians and the Westerners built many multi storied houses there With many Kinh people in that land The worked swidden and padi, plowed with only one cow They plowed with a harrow, and do not want to smile Theyspeak to buffalo dissimilar from the people of BìnhĐịnh The Kinhwomen wear dresses without buttons They wear the same belts as men If they go to market to buy and sell They also carry [their goods] as we Cham do, with the load not on their shoulders but on their head There is much rain in that land and little sun And so they wear hats, with wide brims |
| These Kinh men don’t wear pants,They wear dyed grass colored shirts, with another loincloth underneath
And they are so numerous, the Kinh, they are like locusts in that land The poor wear loincloths, they have no pants Silk dress is only for the rich And they [the rich] have had pants for just the mandarins But that river is also much higher than the delta There is plenty of rice[4] and very little drought They speak as if they were rose-ringed parakeets I heard this language, but cannot understand it [But] that land is very rich Whatever is wanted, there is no shortage They love to go and buy arbitrary things At the market, buying and selling all day, all kinds of things The land outside the west, densely populated by Jawi There is one of every kind of villa, they built houses with floors a plenty And the land is rich with grain in season Where the poor wear linens as in our Phanrang Phanrang, PhanRik, Cham, or Bani The French have taken them, from every part of the countryside |
| The train [steamboat?] ran day and night (nonstop)They led (us) to arrive at the land of IaMưng
The French agents, and the Kinhgive positions and titles To defend the hold of IaMưngthe created:QuangKôngXit The Westerners returned to strike and returned on Sunday Deployed the ship Salut,day and night, without rest 50 French soldiers were killed in a single day When they were buried, they were stripped of their clothes While the French do not leave their dead, no matter who they are Take off their clothes, and leave them naked We are so afraid at night we do not sleep Incapacitated with exhaustion, we are hungry, but cannot swallow We still pray to the gods for their blessings If we still have health, there is also gratefulness for our protection We hear the song of the guns: boomboom Panicked and unable to speak, we are hungry but cannot swallow With the assistants praying together, asking the gods and the yang This area was called by the Kinh coolies: KhaoQuang In that land, the rafts are used to build houses Where they live on the water year round, raising chickens and ducks |
| To go from this house to that one, there is no need to crossOnly a small boat tied to a raft
It goes wherever, morning and night The canoe and raft, the houses built from wood We walked a long distance, (days upon) months (That is) some think it unusual, that I missed you, dear friends and relatives This travel to see the whole country of the Kinh With the vestiges of the temples and towers, the relics of the Cham To protectpriests of both sides, Cham and Bani Cham customs are still, new and old, part of us Listed as such, they should also include the words of advice Keeping the tradition of [our] fathers and grandfathers, do not let these perish We children today may not understand Keeping in mind this message, whatever the custom [seek to] understand it O, all you people, please compare We honestly do not know all the practices, Cham or Bani [So] I pray often for life For Cham and Bani, in all ten regions of the earth |
| In reality I have not yet been, and will never goTo the region of HarơkKah, which is so far from Hà Nội
Seeing the land outside has made me sad Why did our father and grandfathers run from that land and leave us to suffer? France sent arrangements so quickly They then hire a boat to return to Phanrang anew From then to now, you[5] work with us Why do you not understand? Why are you so foolish? We bow down on our knees and cry They do not listen and they lead us into the land of Saigon I feel[6] both sad and angry Every time I submit the report to them, the scold me as an idiot They shout toxic words that make me cry They assigned me to arrest the bad people, cowards For one month, they hand me my salary, paying me only with slaps in the face Everyone else got out, and I reported alone PhanRik has JadharWak [JaThakWa?], Bien Kuw Treasurer Dah Kaukfeels sorry for the alcoholic Jathauw |
| Ja-aik, the Po of the village of TrìĐức, and [head] of a well-educated familyGambles and drinks on whatever day
Jamul Cek the villager of Như Ngọc Jathen Ong at ChấtThườngis always sick Klum Jiep has gone far away with a heavy heart I was so sad and skinny and did not want to say anything Brothers, we have had enough Chinese with Westerners, their land has wealth that cannot compare They raise crocodiles, gorillas, deer, bears Storks, kanong, herons and pelicans They raise every kind of bird in the forest Peacocks, pheasants, snails and jungle fowl They make cages to hold them together and breed them They catch female tigers and keep them in cages with males, to breed them Thick Green billed pigeons, Coucal birds, otters and vultures Jaliha, wild boars and small apes, turkeys [I] saw them, but afterword could not describe them Grandmothers and children, lords and ladies, listen but don’t understand Grandmothers and children, lords and ladies, large children, boys and girls |
| I also visited one country that was very strangeFrom boys to girls, all wore rings pierced in their nose
This country had no tall people, only short ones Immersed in black ugly forms, with gold and silver in their noses Younger girls appeared so ugly They argued with us, spoke lies without end A country of shaved heads, spread with ash Girls, the same as boys, large children too Men did not wear clothes, only animal skin Women too, were dressed very harshly The wore scarves the same as us [I] (only) found the animal skin was different, with one piece to hold everything in They had baldness the same as the Chinese Baggy clothes, that people call JawaAhauk Only the women had hair All the men were bald like the Chinese or us when we preform Rija We also saw one more country Just a little bit (bus as if) old, tall, only heavy and beat up (Short-cut off) pants as if they were sufficient size [Their] clothing was also like this, dark blind ugly boys |
| I saw two siblings (one older and one younger)Both were boys, The westerners took them to raise them for fun
One country more [,] had [people] with frizzy hair The Westerners called them Latin, [and] they were terrible beyond words They had dark skin and wore red clothes They spoke so harshly, one sees them and hates them already There was one [more] country, where their skin was darker still Where no-one had hair, all shaved their heads and wore caps No matter what ship, they will work for it With spry mouths, The Westerners call them Melayu One more country, with shaved heads, who all wear xaro The Westerners rely upon their country and pirate from it [Their] skin is thin, even the small are skinny They dress like opera performers, but that failed as we watched There is another country where they study AkharBini The Westerners and the Chinese call this land Java Their land is very rich They plant trees along both sides of the boulevards With mangoes, sesame, jackfruit and every kind of cultivatable tree The luxurious foliage allows one to play outside without finding it sunny and hot |
| The curvy streets, straighten up in formOne does that find high or low anywhere, puddles and potholes are filled
There are office buildings and hanging lanterns in the night To light the way, all sorts of improvements This land has many Westerners, Java The urban markets are larger than in other cities Depending on your whims you can buy Enough of any kind, grain or fruit And I found those people ground stone Using soil mixed with flash* to make the road They are roads without ox-carts For wherever you want to go, there is a train or a carriage So, if one travels there they do not become tired The crowd of carriages run along only in an instant As the market sells enough of every kind Moderately (priced) compared to everywhere else, there is every king of foreign luxury there I found they had made many rice mills That pound and grind, and sift altogether at the same place They make meal in order to sell The Westerners make iron bridges and boats run below |
| And then moving on to praise the water systemPlanted, and sweet, but there is no well to be found
And I found Mien (Khmer) people selling them Although (I) have not yet gone to their area, they spoke with me I predicted or spoke what was in my heart That they should tell me what their country was like But they poorly told me to go places Speaking of the Cham of that place, they have aged people They have the nephew of Tuan Phaow, now old Here life is really difficult for the Cham children in this place Asking GOD for a long life And speaking with the Cham and the Bani, who told about many dozens of areas And many different regions that [I] still have not been to I unfortunately can not speak about, my family members, ladies and gentlemen! Taking in many places but remembering So relatives grandmothers and children, aunts and uncles, take this story Find out way [I] speak like this But dare not to admit more [as it would be] Treacherous for you grandmothers and children, as sinful actions bring misfortune With thanks to the lord we go to find (Every kind of everything) around the country to bring this (gift) [I have] given |
| I think that you grandmothers and children, aunts and unclesIn any country remember but in our desire
Lots of sadness, not knowing which road to take The French spoke falsely with us, why didn’t we understand You, aunts and uncles, think to compare We are little children who still don’t understand how shallow depths and low hills come out And what the French actually have, they say that they have Work at the end in agreement with Po Paxeh and Po Acar But we children are imbecilic They said that this was not devised, brought and recounted The French told me to write down on paper And to date, but they did not speak with me The French ordered me to calculate work already done, And with etiquette [I] did not give up, why make such [a complaint?] Remember what you bring back to tell your grandmothers and children Aunts and uncles, who you pay the gift of words [to] Days later I was brought to as the strangers I said all the words with the grandmothers and the children, aunts and uncles And the letters (books) collected in all the villages They put them in an iron casket, they took everything and left
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| And so the French, what did they say?They did not know how they took everything and where they went, and we did not know either
We always think the more anxious we are (About their work) along the stone temple towers I searched until I could find someone to teach me [AkharBitau] The French said that country was far away If you want to learn there, it is your choice younger brother We were there twenty days Westerners have so many strange talents, they sent a telegram Only a good person Who stood here could send to Mien (Khmer) general to know They would send the message in advance [and] (After) three days (I saw) them come to pick us Cham people up Near that day (they) asked me to distribute the pay Preparing to take the train and return We went out to see every kind of boat on the water We found a priest had gone up, and he called to ask Brothers, where have you arrived from? One side asked and one side responded, how to describe the ruins of the Cham towers |
| Then they said that the country has been lostDisplaced and rotten with nothing surviving
We think that [we are] very lost and cried buckets of tears Pity eats the water of our eyes, as we sit biting out fingers The lord does not understand our sadness We choked on our words, and people ask: why is it like this? To return to bow down again and cry (About) the words of the Kinh that they spoke to us to listen to the truth The French officers stomped their feet and evicted us (If) [you have] regrets, go to see the old land Marshal Then they asked: which Kinh spoke? Down the command ship prepared to take us back to Phan Rang The French sent us to wait They have a ship at Phan Rang and how happy they were Ja-aihPpo with JaThauwthe alcoholic Goes to play, but lost in the streat, blaming me Jatheng Ong of village ChấtThường is often sick Klum Jiephas a beer belly with Ja-aihPpo drunk on rice wine By the time they return there is new hope for a new beginning As we ask the gods and saints for health and new blessings |
| Seeing the eyes of the aunts and uncles immensely welcomingThe French still go with them no matter how much the land or the domain
Insurgents want to kill us brothers and sisters Yang bless them anew to avoid loss We asked so many times for help But we cannot avoid debts in return The French arrest us, causing much suffering From morning to night, everywhere to find Cham The Vietnamese country is prosperous From the mountains to the streets, everywhere is crowded Why do they not know GOD [?] Our lands now belong to them, but why don’t they offer appropriate worship [?] Towers and temples, they are abandoned Traces of the gods are now broken And we go to see [something] really pitiful Tears don’t dry on the nose, they fall on the road As we go to see the ancient relics So numerous, my dear relatives and friends The Cham and Bani, the future is lost The country of old has disappeared, and [we] have just sat, watching the heavens |
[1] The Vietnamese term rẫy implies a kind of light farming associated frequently with swidden agriculture; in Cham the word is apuh
[2] Perished as ants is a metaphor to explain that the Nguyễn soldiers perished easily and in large numbers
[3] When the sun makes a right angle with the earth. According to Vietnamese culture, Buddhist monks (thầyphậttử) must eat at this time of day which is also called đúngngọ.
[4]In Vietnamese lúa is a particular term that refers to the fresh rice that cannot be eaten
[5] In this sense the French were referring to the Cham people as lesser by using the term mầy
[6] Sentiment in Vietnamese is often expressed through the stomach: bụngtôinửabuồnnửagiậnliterally means: my stomach is both sad and angry