1. The legend of Bà Triệu is based on my reading about Triệu Thị Trinh in David G. Marr’s Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945.
2. The poem is an abbreviated translation of Trạng Quỳnh’s explanation of his five-fruit painting in the tale “Thi Ngũ Quả.”
3. “The Party’s Three Delays” is from David Chanoff and Doan Van Toai’s ‘Vietnam’: A Portrait of its People at War.
4. The idea of interbeing is from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change.
5. The lyrics are translated from Lê Thương’s “Hòn Vọng Phu 3.”
6. “Dewdrops” is by Nolan W. K. Kim.
7. The poem “Mới Ra Tù Tập Leo Núi” is a Vietnamese version of Hồ Chí Minh’s poem written in Chinese after his release from prison in southern China in 1943. The poem appears in Nhật Ký Trong Tù / Prison Diary.
8. The lines are from Hồ Chí Minh’s letter to the indigenous minorities in Pleiku.
9. The lyrics are translated from Nguyễn Văn Thươ ng and Kim Minh’s “Đêm Đông.”
10. The idea of eternal return is from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. Graham Parkes.
11. The passage is from Zhuangzi, trans. Hyun Höchsmann and Yang Guorong.
12. The passages are from Sun-tzu: The Art of Warfare, trans. Roger T. Ames.
13. The hymn to Mother Earch is based on my reading about Pô Nagar in Nguyễn Thế Anh’s essay in Essays into Vietnamese Pasts, eds. K.W. Taylor and John K. Whitmore.
14. The quote is by William Jennings Bryan.
15. The rumor that Hòn Vọng Phu had crumbled and scattered in the ocean is mentioned in Andrew Lam’s “The Stories They Carried” in Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora.
16. The quote is from Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.
17. The lyrics are translated from Lê Thương’s “Hòn Vọng Phu 1.”
18. The lyrics are translated from Lê Thương’s “Hòn Vọng Phu 2.”
19. The lines spoken by the children are adapted from Subramanian Shankar’s translation of Kanian Poongundranar’s “yaadhum oore, yaavarum kelir.”
20. The lyrics (from John Hodges’ 1844 “Buffalo Gals,” originally published as “Lubly Fan”) are quoted from Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Buffalo Gals, Won’t You Come Out Tonight.”