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Poet, Nguyen Du(1765-1820)
source: Wikipedia
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Nguyễn Du
He
is a 16th Century Chinese-language, chữ nôm (the ancient writing
script of Vietnam), Vietnamese poet who is most known for writing the epic
poem, The Tale of Kiều.
He was
born in a great wealthy family in 1765 in Bích Câu, Thăng Long. He was the
seventh child of Nguyễn Nghiễm, a former prime minister under the Lê dynasty.
By the age of 10, Nguyễn lost his father, and his mother at age 13, so for most
of his teen years, he lived with his brother Nguyễn Khản or with his
brother-in-law Đoàn Nguyễn Tuấn.
At the
age of 19 (some sources say 17), Nguyễn passed the provincial examination and
received the title of "tú tài" (Bachelor's degree), which made him
(very roughly) the equivalent of a high school graduate. However, in Nguyễn
Du's time this was a far more difficult credential to get both because few
people were wealthy enough to devote themselves to study and because of
exacting standards applied.
Nguyễn's
mother was his father's third wife, noted for her ability at singing and
composing poetry. In fact, she made her living by singing, which at that time
was considered a disreputable occupation. It is said that Nguyễn may have
inherited a part of his talents from his mother. He loved listening to
traditional songs; and there was a rumor that, when he was 18, he himself
eloped with a songstress.
After
passing the provincial exam, he was appointed to the position of a military
advisor in the Royal (Trịnh) army. After the Trịnh lords were defeated in 1786
by Nguyễn Huệ (the second youngest, most able and popular of the three Tây Sơn
brothers), Nguyễn Du refused to serve in the Tây Sơn administration. He was
arrested and held for some time before moving back to his native village in the
north of the country.
When
Nguyễn Ánh defeated the Tây Sơn and took control over all of Vietnam in 1802,
Nguyễn Du agreed to serve in his administration (many mandarins from the north
refused to do this as it was widely felt that a mandarin should only serve one
dynasty). At first he was given his old post of military advisor but after a
decade he was promoted to ambassador to China (1813). While in China, he
discovered and translated the Ming dynasty era tale that would become the basis
for the Tale of Kieu. He was later appointed to two more diplomatic missions to
Peking, but before he could depart for the last one, he died of a long illness
for which he refused treatment.
Nguyễn's
father had been a minister under the Lê dynasty, and his family had benefited
greatly under their rule. For most of his life, Nguyễn Du was haunted by what
he felt was his own betrayal of the rightful rulers of Vietnam, which occurred
when he accepted a post under the Nguyễns.
OTHER WORKS
·
Bắc
Hành Tạp Lục (Travels to the North, 北行雜錄)
· Điêu la thành ca giả (吊羅城歌者)
· Long thành cầm giả ca (龍城琴者歌)
· Nam Trung Tạp Ngâm (Various Poems)
· Mộng đắc thái liên (夢得採蓮)
· Ngẫu hứng V
· Ngô gia Đệ cựu ca cơ (遇家弟舊歌姬)
· Thác lời trai phường nón
· Thanh Hiên thi tập (Poems of Thanh
Hiên)
· Văn chiêu hồn
·
Đọc
(or Độc) Tiểu Thanh kí (Reading (or reader of) Tiểu Thanh's diary)
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguyễn_Du
==============================================
Lan
Cao
 |
Vietnamese writer, Lan Cao
source: https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/lan-cao
|
Lan Cao (born 1961) is the author of
the novels Monkey Bridge
(1997) and The Lotus and the Storm
(2014). She is also a professor of law at the Chapman University School of Law,
specializing in international business and trade, international law, and development.
She received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. She has taught at Brooklyn
Law School, Duke Law School, Michigan Law School and William & Mary Law
School.
She was born in Saigon, South Vietnam
and grew up in Saigon's twin city, Cholon. In 1975, when Communist forces
defeated South Vietnam, she was flown out of Vietnam. She lived in Avon,
Connecticut, with a close family friend, an American colonel, later promoted to
Major General, and his wife. Cao received her B.A. in political science from
Mount Holyoke College in 1983 and her J.D. from Yale Law School. After law
school graduation, she worked as a litigation and corporate attorney at the NYC
law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She also clerked for a
federal judge, Constance Baker Motley of the Southern District of New York, who
was the first African-American woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme
Court in Meredith v. Fair, where she won James Meredith's effort to be the
first black student to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lan_Cao
==============================================
Bảo
Ninh
 |
Hoàng Ấu Phương a.k.a. "Bảo Ninh"
source: listal.com |
Hoàng Ấu Phương, also known by the pen
name Bảo Ninh (born 18 October 1952 in Nghệ An), is a Vietnamese novelist,
essayist and writer of short stories, best known for his first novel, published
in English as The Sorrow of War.
Ninh narrated that American bombing
raids during the Vietnam War, beginning in 1965 when he was 14, destroyed
ordinary people's homes and upended their lives. As a result of the bombing his
own school in Hanoi was relocated, which enthused him to anger rather than
fear. He stated that Americans entering Vietnam were viewed as no different
from earlier French colonizers, and that he inherited this view from his
parents.
During the Vietam war, Ninh served in
the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade, when he was 17 years old. He stated that the
Vietnamese people who fought against the Americans were not specifically
fighting for Marxism, but rather fighting to bring peace for their country.
Hunger was a frequent problem for Ninh and his fellow soldiers, who often moved
back and forth from their homes to the battlefields. Out of the five hundred
who went to war with the brigade in 1969, Ninh is one of ten who survived.
Ninh described the fear caused among
Vietnamese soldiers by American airpower while in combat during the war:
“While the bombs were falling, only a stone wouldn't be terrified. If the Americans noticed movement in the forest, they would eliminate the forest. Who knows how much money was spent? American taxpayers' money. If a cluster of napalm bombs were dropped, the jungle would turn into a sea of fire. Can you imagine a sea of fire?”— Bảo Ninh
Ninh later called the war
"fratricide" fueled by American firepower.
"In war, no one wins or loses. There is only destruction." — Bảo Ninh
OTHER
WORKS
·
The
Sorrow of War - 1990
·
Hanoi
At No Time - 2003
·
Rambling
while stuck in traffic - 2005
·
Are
old stories true? - 2009
·
Selected
writings - 2011
·
Short
story - 2013
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bảo_Ninh
Disclaimer: The author does not claim the OWNERSHIP of any of the information above.
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