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Vietnamese
Etymology
As explained by poet Hoàng Cầm, who coined the name of the fictional plant, to a friend: "diêu bông" is based on "hoa phiêu diêu" ("the fleeting flower").[1] Blend of phiêu diêu (“floating, fleeting”) + bông (“flower (dialectal)”).
The real-life plant behind the imaginary diêu bông plant has been identified as Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum, known as bọ mẩy or đắng cẩy in Vietnamese.
Pronunciation
Noun
diêu bông
- An imaginary plant, whose leaves an unwed maiden challenges her suitors to find for her in order to marry her
1959, Hoàng Cầm, Lá Diêu Bông, lines 5–9:Chị bảo:
Đứa nào tìm được Lá Diêu Bông
Từ nay ta gọi là chồng.
Hai ngày em tìm thấy lá
Chị chau mày: Đâu phải Lá Diêu Bông.- Big Sis said:
Whoever can find the Diêu Bông Leaf
From now on I will call him my husband.
Two days later, I found the leaf
Big Sis knit her brows: Not Diêu Bông Leaf.
1990, Trần Tiến, Lá Diêu Bông:Em đố ai tìm được lá diêu bông
Em xin lấy làm chồng- You challenged thus: whoever could find diêu bông leaf
You'd fain marry him as your husband
References
Further reading
Hoàng Cầm (17 September 2004) "Sự Tích Bài Thơ Lá Diêu Bông" (The Tale of the Poem on Diêu Bông Leaf) (in Vietnamese)