Old disk depicting Kiều’s Tale found in Nghệ An

HÀ TĨNH — A monument management centre in the central province of Hà Tĩnh has announced the discovery of an old pottery disk that depicts the Kiều sisters, the characters in the famed Tale of Kiều poem epic.

Hồ Bách Khoa, head manager at the centre designated for the Tale of Kiều’s author Nguyễn Du, said on Thursday that his centre got the disk from antique collectors in neighbouring Nghệ An Province.

Khoa believed that the disk was produced in the 1940s by pottery makers in the southern region of Việt Nam.

The disk is 17cm in diametre and in good condition. The white disk decorated with a blue coloured painting depicting a scene from the Tale of Kiều, in which the Kiều sisters are walking and enjoying the spring when they meet the horse-riding Kim Trọng character.

Khoa said the scenes in the Tale of Kiều were rarely depicted on pottery produced in the southern region, so the disk is a rare item. Khoa said the centre is showcasing the disk for researchers and the public.

Nguyễn Du (1765-1820) was a mandarin and a gifted poet of Việt Nam in the imperial time. His epic poem the Tale of Kiều is one of the greatest poems of the country. — VNS