Body Eats

The word mình, body, has wide application in Vietnamese. It is sometimes used as a first person pronoun, as in “body has lived here for a long time,” or “body does not know him.” Body is I. It is also we or us. As in: “Body eat rice; they eat bread.” Body is also used to address one’s spouse. As in: “Body, what would you like to eat today?”

A spouse can also be referred to as “my house.” As in: “My house is not home at the moment. Please call back later.” To be married is to live in a new house, to be engulfed in another body.

The core of the Vietnamese body is not the heart but the stomach. Instead of saying “I don’t know what’s in his heart,” a Vietnamese would say, “I don’t know what’s in his stomach.” To be content is to have a happy stomach, vui lòng. To be in grief is to have a rotting stomach, thúi ruột. To be in extreme anguish is to have one’s stomach chopped into pieces, đứt ruột.

Eating is the body’s primary function. Whatever else the body does, it must ăn, must eat. To dress is to ăn mặc, eat and dress. To talk is to ăn nói, eat and talk. To have sex is to ăn nằm, eat and lie down with somebody. To be married is to ăn ở, eat and live with somebody.

To win at anything, a bet, a soccer match, is simply to ăn, to eat, an echo back to the days when to win is to swallow one’s opponent whole, perhaps. To dominate or decisively defeat someone is to ăn sống, eat raw.

To indulge in pleasures is to eat and play, ăn chơi. To celebrate is to eat with happiness, ăn mừng. To go to a party is to eat at a party, ăn tiệc. One doesn’t celebrate the New Year, one eats during the New Year, ăn Tết.

To look for work is to look for something to eat, kiếm ăn. To work is to make and eat, làm ăn. A good business prospect is described as having something easy to eat, dễ ăn. To do well in business is to eat customers, ăn khách.

To spend money is to eat and digest, ăn tiêu. To take a bribe is to eat money, ăn tiền. To work an illicit job, thievery, prostitution, is to eat dew, ăn sương. To steal is to eat in secret, ăn trộm.

Eating, and how one eats, becomes a metaphor for nearly everything, as these proverbs testify:

A magpie, starved, eats banyan fruit. A phoenix, starved, eats chicken shit.
Fish eat ants, ants eat fish.
Have vegetable, eat vegetable. Have rice gruel, eat rice gruel.
The smart eat men, the stupid are eaten.
Tailors eat rags, artists eat paints.
Father eats salty food, son's thirsty.
Eating new rice, telling old stories.
Eat in front, swim behind.
Eat for real, fake work.
Arrive late, gnaw on a bone.
Ate rice gruel, pissed in the bowl.
A bowl of sweat for a bowl of rice.
A piece of meat is a piece of shame.
Selling ass to feed mouth.
Two hands, two eyes are just enough to feed one stomach.
Better to die sated than to live hungry.

To be homeless is to eat the wind and lie with the dew, ăn gió nằm sương. This phrase used to refer to the hardships of a long journey, a concept similar to the English “travel,” a variation on travail, from the French travailler, to work.

To inherit property is to eat fragrance and fire, ăn hương hỏa, which refer to the incense and oil lamp on the ancestral altar present in most Vietnamese homes.

A remote place is described as where “dogs eat rocks, chickens eat pebbles,” chó ăn đá gà ăn sôi.

To be primitive is to eat fur while living in a hole, ăn lông ở lỗ.

To die is to eat dirt, ăn đất.

A common Vietnamese greeting is “Have you eaten yet?”

One should always answer, “After eating dew all night, I’m more than ready to eat and to lie down.”

[Louise Bourgeois, "Femme-Maison," 1947]