Which Vietnamese female poet was honored by UNESCO as a world cultural celebrity?

The only female poet honored by UNESCO

Poet Ho Xuan Huong was born in 1772 and died in 1822. She was the daughter of Ho Phi Dien (1704 - 1786), a native of Quynh Doi village, now Quynh Doi commune, Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province. There are many different records and studies about her writing career. Previously, literary historians believed that Ho Xuan Huong lived and wrote in the second half of the 18th century, mainly under the Tay Son dynasty. However, some newly discovered documents show that she mainly wrote under the Nguyen dynasty, around the first half of the 19th century.

She is known as the "Queen of Nom poetry". Illustrative photo.

Previously, Ho Xuan Huong was known as the author of unique and distinctive Nom poems. However, according to the discovery published in 1964 by researcher Tran Thanh Mai, she not only composed Nom poems but also wrote Chinese poems. Her poetry collection "Luu Huong Ky" is a work that combines both languages, creating a poem in both Chinese and Nom.

Ho Xuan Huong was famous for her outstanding intelligence but she did not have much education and her love life was full of difficulties. According to legend, she had two marriages. According to scholar Hoang Xuan Han (1908-1996), in an article published in the Journal of Social Sciences , Paris, No. 12/1983, she was the wife of Tran Phuc Hien, the son of a meritorious mandarin of the Nguyen Dynasty, when he held the position of Tham Hiep Tran Yen Quang from about 1815 to 1818, before that he had been the Tri Phu Vinh Tuong.

Ho Xuan Huong is also the only female poet among the seven Vietnamese cultural celebrities ever honored by UNESCO. The UNESCO General Assembly unanimously agreed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of her birth and the 200th anniversary of her death, affirming the literary and artistic values and the ideas on gender equality and women's liberation that she left behind. Ho Xuan Huong deserves to be a global cultural celebrity, a poet of great stature. Her contributions to the ideas of human liberation, especially women in the feudal era, are considered pioneering and have timeless value.

"Strange star" of Vietnamese medieval literature

Poet Ho Xuan Huong is considered a "strange star", a rare genius in Vietnamese medieval literature. The beauty in her poetry is like a privilege of women, because when talking about women, we are talking about beauty. Ho Xuan Huong affirms the comprehensive beauty of women, both physically and mentally.

In her poetry, the desire to be herself, to have her beauty and talent recognized, is evident through bold and honest verses: "My body is both white and round" (Banh troi nuoc), "How old are you, my dear? You are also beautiful and I am also beautiful... Forever young for a thousand years" (To nu). Ho Xuan Huong not only honors the beauty of women as a product of creation but also expresses the spirit of resistance, against feudal views. For that reason, she is considered a Renaissance author of Vietnamese literature in the Middle Ages.

In 2021, Ho Xuan Huong's poetry was translated into 13 different languages around the world . Photo: Internet

Ho Xuan Huong's works have been passed down to the present day through two main sources. First, more than 50 of her Nom poems have been passed down since her lifetime, with many different versions, copied or engraved in Nom. Second, the remaining source in old documents discovered by author Tran Thanh Mai, mainly the poetry collection Luu Huong Ky - copied together with many other texts in the collection Du Huong Tich Dong Ky. The poetry collection includes 24 poems in Chinese and 26 poems in Nom.

However, due to existing through many generations in oral form, Ho Xuan Huong's poems have undergone many changes, far from the original. In the process of transmission, the addition and subtraction of words is inevitable, making the restoration of the original difficult due to the appearance of too many different versions. In addition, some original copies have been lost or mixed with the works of others.

The poetess Ho Xuan Huong is not only highly regarded in Vietnam but also received international admiration. Rabindranath Tagore once praised her, and later, the famous French poet Jan Rixtal also honored her in the preface to his translation of Ho Xuan Huong's poems into French, considering her "one of the great names of Vietnamese literature and undoubtedly one of the leading female poets of Asia".

As of 2021, Ho Xuan Huong's poetry has been translated into 13 different languages around the world. In particular, Vietnamese through her poetry has become a multi-meaning, meaningful, sharp, unique and talented artistic language, posing no small challenge to contemporary "talents" and "literary people" when translating her works into foreign languages.

Source: https://danviet.vn/nu-si-viet-nam-duy-nhat-nao-duoc-unesco-vinh-danh-la-danh-nhan-van-hoa-the-gioi-20240907193024142-d1182874.html