counterpart, And mindful are the gods on rosy cheeks to dart celestial spite… English translation by Phan Huy MPH (2010): In the hundred-year span of a human life, Talent and fate are always apt to strife. Through experience of a harrowing change, What we witnessed filled our hearts with tearing pain. ‘Tis not a wonder that Heaven gives then takes, And with the fair sex He used to be jealous. English translation by Timothy Allen (2019): It's an old story: good luck and good looks don't always mix. Tragedy is circular and infinite. The plain never believe it, but good-looking people meet with hard times too. It's true. Our ending is inevitable: long years betray the beautiful. Heroic couplet translation by Nguyễn Bình (2021): A hundred years alive in Man's demesne, 'Tween Fate and Talent hatred seems to reign. Of oceans changed to various berry plains, The sight imbues the heart with cruel pains. It is not strange that no one's rich in all, That rosy cheeks cause envious Heav'n to brawl. English translation by Vuong Thanh (2022): Within a hundred-year lifespan in this earthly world, Genius and Destiny have a tendency to oppose each other. A turbulent mulberry-field-covered-by-sea period had passed. The things that we saw still deeply pain our hearts. It’s not strange that beauty may beget misery. The jealous gods tend to heap spites on rosy-cheeked beauties. Artistic adaptations As an integral part of Vietnamese literature for 200 years, The Tale of Kiều had been the inspiration for numerous works. The poem had been adapted into numerous other art forms, including cải lương, chèo, pantomime and Western-style operas. The first theatrical film created in Vietnam, in 1924, was . The film followed closely the plot of the poem. The 30 or so actors in the film were traditional opera performers, and so the film was not a critical or commercial success. The musician Phạm Duy adapted The Tale of Kiều into an epic song cycle entitled Minh họa Kiều ("Illustrating Kieu") in 1997. The Tale of Kieu was the inspiration for the 2007 movie Saigon Eclipse, which moved the storyline into a modern Vietnamese setting with a modern-day immigrant Kiều working in the massage parlor industry in San Francisco's Mission District to support her family back in Vietnam. Additionally, Burton Wolfe directed a musical adaptation which premiered September 10, 2010 in Houston. 's 2020 music video entitled