The ''Tale of Tống Trân and Cúc Hoa'' (宋珍菊花 ''Tống Trân Cúc Hoa'') is a traditional

epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...

lục bát Lục bát (, ) is a traditional Vietnamese verse form – historically first recorded in Chữ Nôm script. "Lục bát" is Sino-Vietnamese for "six-eight", referring to the alternating lines of six and eight syllables. It will always begin with ...

verse from 18th or 19th Century

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. The poem is anonymous. The poem was widely published in the early days of Vietnamese printing, including engraved plates with illustrations. It is counted as one of the principle works of the

chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represented by new characters ...

script verse-story genre.

Plot

Tống Trân is a poor student. When Cúc Hoa his wife dies Tống Trân, as Orpheus in Greek myth, descends into the underworld to seek from the Emperor of the Underworld her release, which he receives.Anthology of Vietnamese popular literature - Page 210 1984 "The Emperor of Darkness granted him the right to bring back Cuc Hoa to the earth, and the couple lived happy for ever."

References

Vietnamese poems {{poem-stub