Eng to Viet translation plz

[Yoyo]

Hi there,
I have a special tribute to my mother. I cannot write the right Vietnamese words to her and need help. The document below is very lengthy so I don't mind if it will be finished in 2 or 3 weeks. I hope you enjoy reading it:

In 1945, France occupied Vietnam. Whilst under the French ruling, the French had put Cambodian migrants into Vietnam and urged the Cambodians to kill the Vietnamese civilians, creating a massacre. For a few days, my grandparents Nguyen Thi Hoa and Thai Ngan Ngoc along with their children Nia and Ky, hid underground and were forced to commence living there. While my grandparents were hiding, the Cambodian migrants burnt down Vietnamese houses, including theirs, and so they were left with empty pockets. They then moved to a different town, My Xuyen, which was more peaceful and quiet. Beginning with no money at all, Hoa conceived my mother, Thai Thi Sau.

Thai Thi Sau was born in 10th October 1951, in a small tropical village called My Xuyen, situated in the warmer southern part of Vietnam. The lands in South Vietnam used to be fertile and nutrition-enriched, but became devastated and eroded due to wars. The country’s situation seriously affected my mother’s life.

My mother grew up in a small tropical village with alluvial land. She was in a poor and hard-working family with five other siblings: Ky, Nia, Vu, Sen and Bay – all had very strong beliefs in Buddhism. As a result of being one of the youngest in the family, she had the fortune of gaining more privileges than the older members; and had enough money and the opportunity to go to and finish school. Her older siblings did not finish school due to circumstances - they had to work in order to survive and look after the entire family.

“One cold, foggy, windy, and early morning, my mother held my hands. We walked along a long and narrow path. We always walked along this path, but this time it felt different because this time, it was my first day of school” ~ my mother.

In her childhood years, she was very studious: she pleaded with her parents to start school earlier than most children did. An unforgettable, happy memory for Sau was the day she received an award in Grade One. Her school gave out awards at the end of each year - to only one student in each year level. My mother was the very first to have her name announced. On that same day though, she was so ill such that her cousin had to “piggyback” her so that she could attend school to receive her achievement award. She received a framed gilded certificate signed by the principal and the teachers at the school, and a gift set, which included a book (The Dhamma), which contained the teachings and the enlightenments of the Buddha.

The Dhamma had a significant effect on her from that day until now. She still remembers the positive aspects that the book taught, and it still influences many of her daily actions. She also tries to teach my brother and me her strong beliefs from the book such as Karma, history and the stories about Buddha.


The saddest moment in her life was when she was quite young about six years old. A family member made a mean and hurtful joke by saying that she was an “adoptive daughter”. This was because she had different facial features compared to all her siblings: bigger eyes, and noticeably darker skin (“like a Cambodian”). A family friend who was a Cambodian woman came to her house one day and one of her sisters, Vu, cruelly told her to leave the house with her “real” mother. My mother believed it was true. She was so scared that she tried to hide in her bedroom. She cried often. When her depression became severe, sometimes she thought of suicide.

It was not until she entered her adolescent years that people started to recognise and show that she was not an adoptive daughter. She went shopping one day and her parents’ friend whom she had never met before asked her “Are you Hoa’s daughter?” She concluded that you must never play a mean joke on a child, because that is lying and can be extremely detrimental to the child’s innocence and future interests. Also, if you do not want something to happen to you; you should not do those things to others. You should behave and act with honesty.

The blossoming moment in her life was at university: her parents were by now quite wealthy, so she had the opportunity to study in a prestigious and well-known university in Can Tho. She learnt Teaching, Biology, and achieved a degree as a Bachelor in Natural Science from the Faculty of Pedagogy. Out of five-hundred students who tried to enter the study field, only forty were able to enter. One of those forty people was my mother, Sau. She was a fine-looking young woman. Many of her male friends tried to pursue her. In the end, she chose to like only one of them. The one she chose, Thanh, was my father. Sometimes I ask her why she chose him. Every time, her response is a shy and silent one, looking at me as if she knows something that I do not know: but now I have a probable answer - he was kind, gentle, generous, and loved her so very much. My father was charming with words. He wrote a love letter that went something like, “This morning, I suddenly feel fully alive again - all because one girl said to me, ‘I love you’.”

In 1973, she finished University and became a High School teacher near her village. My father became an intelligence soldier and had to stay far away. The worst moment in her life was when she had to experience the Vietnam War. The young men in University had to leave and fight. Among them, was her first and only lover, my father. She remembers clearly the day when they had to separate. It was also when her close University friend died because of cancer in her brain. That day felt gloomy and dim. They sent daily love letters to each other. It was close to their engagement day, until the Communists captured Thanh, and sent my father to a re-education camp to attempt to “retrain” him to become a fanatical communist. Thanks to his strength of character, they never succeeded.

Then came Wednesday 30th April 1975, when the Communists overran Vietnam. My mother’s life altered dramatically. Her family lost all their wealth to the communists. Sau lived in fear, with insufficient food. She knew that they were watching her moves at school as they did not want her teach anything opposing them. If they caught her doing that, or saying something criticising them, they would send her to jail. It was time to leave her home country and seek for a better life.

My father was able to liberate himself from jail by lying to the Communists. Everyone believed that it was better to die in the sea than live under the tyranny of the Communists. He quickly married my mother. On their voyage to find freedom, they floated on the sea with a fragile-looking boat that was built to hold one hundred, but carried twice that number. Thunder stroke: the boat dunked in and out; another push could easily throw out all of the people sitting in. They had to suffer thirst, starvation and witness many people thrown out of the boat, their death caused by starvation: one eleven-year-old girl; another seven-year-old girl; a thirteen-year-old girl; and a thirty-four-year old woman. Even now, she can still see the horrific vision when the girl sitting next to her collapsed. Sau saw her with purple and swollen eyes. Another passenger tied the clothes she had packed along with her around her body, and chucked her out of the boat.

Finally, after four persevering and callous days and nights, her boat entered the safety of another country’s territory - Malaysia. My mother had heard many stories of robberies from pirates, but luckily, her boat did not go through that situation. Maybe Buddha accepted her prays and in return, She gave her a favour.

She stayed at a refugee camp in Pulau Bidong then on 25th February 1981, Australia greeted her with open arms. Once again, she underwent a major change in her life. Stepping on a new and unfamiliar land, she felt a worry-free, serene, and pleasant atmosphere - “I have never forgotten about that feeling”. Perth was beautiful and comfortable. The air felt fresh and had a sweet aroma as there were many wildflowers. The famous Swan River looked magnificently shaped. She owned only the clothes she was wearing, so her life had started back to the poverty of her beginning. She strongly felt determined into accepting any job she could do, so that she could help her starving relatives in Vietnam.

With loyalty, love and devotion from her husband and a strong bond, together they were able to overcome the difficulties. They collected strawberries on a farm, working even when it was raining or under the hot scorching sun during summer. They also worked in a sewing factory. Then, luck was finally on their side, because out of seven competing married couples, Sau and Thanh were offered employment for the billionaire, Lang Hancock after being interviewed thoroughly. The media often featured stories about the Hancocks. Sau became the housekeeper for Lang Hancock’s daughter, Gina, and Thanh, my father, became a caretaker for Lang Hancock.


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