Marriage Gifts Alter Vietnamese Families
結婚禮物 改變越南家庭
By Norimitsu Onishi

QUANG YEN, Vietnam – In the end, Bui Van Vui lived only three months in the new house that two of his daughters, married to men in South Korea, had helped him build here. Dying of throat cancer, he had exhorted the contractor to hurry.
到頭來，裴文偉 (音譯)只在新房子住了三個月，這是他在兩個嫁到南韓的女兒幫助下蓋的房子。他在得了喉癌，自知不久於世之際，還一直催促包商加緊趕工。

“This house was his dream,” Mr. Bui’s widow, Nguyen Thi Nguyet, 60, said recently.
裴文偉的寡妻阮氏月今年60歲，她最近說：「這棟房子就是他的夢。」

The couple, like many others in the Vietnamese countryside, had prospered in recent years, thanks to daughters who, driven by dreams of better lives for themselves and Confucian filial piety for their parents, had emigrated to marry South Korean men.
這對夫婦一如越南鄉下的許多其他夫妻，近年靠兩個女兒興旺起來；女兒為了改善生活，也基於儒家重視孝道的傳統，遠嫁到南韓，作了南韓人的妻子。

The money they and others earned in South Korea, wired regularly to small towns in Vietnam, often manifested itself in new homes.
這兩個女兒以及其他越南人在南韓賺的錢，按時匯回越南的小村鎮後，往往變成了一棟棟的新房子。

The young Vietnamese women typically married older South Korean men who, because of their low incomes or previous marriages, had difficulty finding a Korean bride. South Korea’s competitive marriage marketplace gave birth to a booming industry of marriage brokers who took these men on tours of Vietnam, where they chose wives.
越南小姐通常嫁給年紀較大的南韓老公，這些南韓男人因為所得較低，或受先前婚姻影響，很難再找到南韓新娘。由於南韓婚姻市場競爭激烈，促使婚姻仲介業蓬勃發展；仲介者帶著這些男人到越南，讓他們自己選老婆。

It was during such a tour in 2007 that Mr. Bui and Ms. Nguyen’s daughter, Bui Thi Thuy, then 22, met her husband, Kim Tae-goo, a widowed apple farmer in his mid-50s. At a karaoke bar in Hanoi, none of the two dozen women there initially expressed interest in Mr. Kim. But Ms. Thuy stepped forward after Mr. Kim promised to send $100 a month to the parents of the woman who would marry him.
在2007年一次相親之旅中，裴老先生與妻子阮氏月22歲的女兒裴氏水，與55歲上下、鰥居的南韓蘋果農金大國相遇。當時在河內一家卡拉OK店裡聚集了20多名越南女子，她們原先全對金大國沒什麼興趣。等到金大國承諾要是嫁給他，就按月寄給她的父母100美元後，裴氏水便走上前去一口應承下來。

Ms. Thuy and Mr. Kim settled in rural South Korea and had a daughter, but they separated a year ago. Ms. Thuy now lives in Seoul with a younger sister who also married a South Korean man.
裴小姐跟著金先生回到南韓鄉下住下，並且生了個女兒，但兩人已在一年前分手。裴小姐目前在首爾跟妹妹同住，而妹妹也嫁給了南韓人。

At Ms. Thuy and Mr. Kim’s wedding could not conceal his disappointment that his daughter was marrying a man his own age. Mr. Kim reminded him of the $100 he would send each month. “He didn’t keep his promise,” Ms. Nguyen said of her son-in-law. In four years of marriage, he sent a total of $880, she said, adding, “He’s poor.” Mr. Kim declined to be interviewed for this article.
2007年裴小姐與金先生在河內舉行的婚禮上，裴老先生對於女兒嫁給年紀跟自己差不多的男人難掩失望之情。金先生提醒他會按月寄給他100美元。阮氏月數落他的（前）女婿說：「他說話不算話。」她說，婚後四年他總共只寄來880美元，「他很窮」。金先生則拒絕接受紐約時報訪問。

By contrast, Ms. Nguyen said, she received more than $100 a month from her younger daughter and her Korean husband.
相較之下，她每個月從小女兒和她的南韓老公那裡收到100美元以上。

With their daughters in South Korea, the family began thinking of building a new house.
由於女兒都在南韓，這個家庭開始考慮蓋棟新房子。

In early 2010, Mr. Bui learned he had throat cancer, and he sought treatment in Hanoi. After it proved ineffective, he focused all his remaining energy on completing the house, and the house was completed in October 2010. In the last three months of his life, Mr. Bui grew so weak that he could no longer walk up to the second floor. The tumor in his throat swelled to the size of a grapefruit, leaving him unable to talk to his family, including Ms. Thuy, who had flown in from South Korea.
2010年年初，裴老先生知道得了喉癌，於是到河內求醫。藥石罔效之後，他便集中心力來完成新房子，而房子也在當年十月落成。在他生命的最後三個月裡，裴先生身體非常衰弱，根本爬不上二樓。他喉嚨裡的腫瘤長到像葡萄柚那樣大，根本沒法跟家人說話，包括從南韓飛回來看他的大女兒在內。

Shortly after her father’s funeral, Ms. Thuy returned to South Korea. But her parents had kept a small plot of land for her.
在父親葬禮結束後不久，大女兒又回南韓。但雙親留下了一小塊地給她。

“After her child grows up,” the mother said, “maybe Thuy can come back to live here.”
媽媽說：「等她的孩子長大後，說不定她可以回來住。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/world/asia/for-some-in-vietnam-prosperity-is-a-south-korean-son-in-law.html

2012-03-27聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 任中原譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版下