Covintree holds a bachelor's degree in English and is currently pursuing a master of fine arts in writing at Emerson College. In this essay, Covintree examines various ways to interpret specific lines in the text in relation to the search for nirvana.

Written during a time of political turnover and upheaval in her home country of Vietnam, Ho Xuan Huong's poem, "Spring-Watching Pavilion," found in the collection Spring Essence, captures a calm moment of serenity. In this poem, Ho discusses the discovery of enlightenment in the midst of an environment where such discovery could seem impossible. John Balaban has translated the poem from its original into English. In his poetic translation, Balaban has attempted to maintain the flavor of the original poem while making it easier to comprehend for the English reader. Fortunately, as Balaban explains in the Introduction to Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan...