Translation: hòa máu
From: tran_n_a@yahoo.com <tran_n_a@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2023 6:04 AM
To: Ngo Thanh Nhan <ngo.thanh.nhan@temple.edu>; Tan Pham <nxb315kio@gmail.com>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] [External] Re: another translation question - hòa máu
Thanks, everyone! Nice to know that I got I got it right the first time. Cheers, Nu-Anh
From: Tan Pham <nxb315kio@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 2:53 PM
To: Ngo Thanh Nhan <ngo.thanh.nhan@temple.edu>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] [External] Re: another translation question - hòa máu
Hi Nu-Anh,
I am with Prof. Hue-Tam on this one; your first thought, " shed blood together", is on the right track. It is difficult to imagine the writer of the original passage using collective and abstract terms for different social classes, such as thợ thuyền, dân cầy tư sản would use a blood oath (cắt máu ăn thề) which generally applies to a small group of individuals.
Kind regards,
Tan Pham (NZ)
Author of a book series on Vietnamese history: A Traveller’s Story of Vietnam’s Past.
Volume One: The Bronze Drums and The Earrings. ISBN: 978-0-473-59804-4.
Volume Two: One Thousand Years - The Stories of Giao Châu, the Kingdoms of Linyi, Funan and Zhenla. ISBN 978-0-473-63527-5.
From: Ngo Thanh Nhan <ngo.thanh.nhan@temple.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 12:46 PM
To: Hue-Tam Tai <huetamtai@gmail.com>; tran_n_a@yahoo.com; vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] [External] Re: another translation question - hòa máu
Dear Nữ Anh,
Sorry for coming late to this thread of discussion.
In popular discussion of scholars in Vietnam on historical DNA (probably to find out whether peoples from Africa moved past
Southeast Asia then going up to the territories called China, or the other way around traditionally), the term hòa huyết is used
to indicate mixing blood or blood fusion... It may relate to hòa máu used in Nam Quốc Sơn Hà.
If the author of the term is still alive, you may want to ask him/her/they.
We have also seen the term giọng ca phi giới tính, just to note grown up male voice without losing their teen voices. Although
the term phi giới tính is now popular among the LGBTQ+ to indicate something else. We then asked the authors.
Best,
Ngô Thanh Nhàn
From: Hue-Tam Tai <huetamtai@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 8:09 AM
To: tran_n_a@yahoo.com; vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] another translation question - hòa máu
My week for translation.as well!
I'd translate the phrase as " shed blood together".
one can overthink the various possible meanings of a simple phrase.
Hue-Tam Ho Tai
Harvard University emerita
From: tran_n_a@yahoo.com <tran_n_a@yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 7:46 AM
To: vsg vsg <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] another translation question - hòa máu
Dear list,
Thank you for everyone's suggestions on the previous translation question. This appears to be translation week for me, as I have another translation question. I am translating one of the primary sources from the collection that I posted (or rather am still in the process of posting) on the website of the US-Vietnam Center. The document is a newspaper article from the official newspaper of the VNQDĐ in Hanoi in 1946. You can see it here (scroll down to "A2. GIAI CẤP ĐẤU TRANH HAY DÂN TỘC TRANH ĐẤU"): https://usvietnam.uoregon.edu/en/nu-anh-trans-collection-series-a-political-visions-before-1954/.
Here is the original: "Trong cuộc tranh đấu phản đế quốc, thợ thuyền, dân cầy tư sản phải hòa máu với nhau để gây dựng quốc gia."
My question is about the meaning of hòa máu in this context. At first glance, I thought it meant the different social classes should shed blood together in the shared struggle and that the blood would mix together. But upon a second reading, I am inclined to believe that it only means that the different social classes should unite and struggle together. I was unable to track down any classical references, but the phrasing makes me think of a blood oath (cắt máu ăn thề?). I understand hòa máu can also mean intermixing and hybridizing (like racial mixing, for example), but that doesn't seem to the case here as the paragraph does not say anything about commingling to produce hybrid, presumably class-less or all-class progeny. I would be interested in hearing other people's thoughts on the meaning of the term in this context and whether it's a reference to anything.
Cheers,
Nu-Anh Tran
Associate Professor
UConn