Selected Works of Vietnamese Poet Ho Xuan Huong to Be Read at the Library of Congress on Dec. 2


John Balaban, professor of English and poet-in-residence at North Carolina University, will read from "Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong," at noon on Thursday, Dec. 2, in Room LJ-119 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event, which is sponsored by the Asian Division, the John W. Kluge Center in the Library of Congress and the Library of Congress Asian American Association, is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required.

Edited and translated by Balaban and published in 2000 by Copper Canyon Press, "Spring Essence" is a collection of 49 poems by Ho Xuan Huong, (1775-1820) one of Vietnam's most celebrated poets, whose name translates as the book's title. Its publication marks the first time that any writing in the ancient language of Nom has been published using movable type rather than woodblock printing.

Ho Xuan Huong was a concubine at the end of the second Ly Dynasty (1428-1788), a period of calamity and social disintegration in Vietnam. She followed Chinese classical styles in her poetry, but her poems were anything but conventional. At a time when impropriety was punished by the sword, her work was imbued with sexual innuendos. Through her writing, she ridiculed the authority of the decaying Buddhist church, the feudal state and Confucian society. She preferred to write in Nom, a language that faded after the French invasion of Vietnam in the 17th century.

Balaban will be joined by Southeast Asian area specialist Lien Huong Fiedler, who will read selections from "Spring Essence." Ngo Thanh Nhan, a linguist at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Science, will play the traditional 16-string dan tranh as well as discuss his work using the computer to preserve the vast tradition of Vietnamese writing in Nom.

Since 1992 Nhan has been developing a system for computers to read and display Nom, a calligraphic writing system devised in A.D. 1000 to represent the Chinese-like script of spoken Vietnamese. Only a few dozen people in the world today can read or write Nom. As a result of Nhan's work, Nom documents can be scanned by an optical character recognition device and translated into Quoc-Ngu (national script). It can then be printed and translated into English. When Nom is fully digitized, nearly 1,000 years of Vietnamese culture will be accessible.

The Library's Asian Division holds a collection of nearly 2 million books, periodicals, newspapers, manuscripts and microforms, which is among the most significant assemblage of such materials outside of Asia. The collection includes a number of important works in Nom, including original poems by Ho Xuan Huong and a copy of "Kim Van Kieu," the most significant work by Nguyen Du (1765-1820), who is considered to be Vietnam's "national poet." The Asian Division also holds more than 30 books in various languages about the poet Ho Xuan Huong.

Through a generous endowment from John W. Kluge, the Library of Congress established the Kluge Center in 2000 to bring together the world's best thinkers to distill wisdom from the Library's rich resources and to stimulate and energize interaction with policymakers in Washington. The Kluge Center houses five senior Kluge Chairs, other senior-level chairs and nearly 25 postdoctoral fellows. For more information about the fellowships, grants and programs offered by the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, visit the center's Web site at www.loc.gov/kluge/.

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Pretty cool eh? Way to to Ho Xuan Huong, you've done it again.

WTF.. i've been in Congress Library a hundred times, but never knew they have a Vietnamese sections.. o__O Hmm thursday, I can't go though

This is one of my favorite Hồ Xuân Hương's poem

Tạo hóa gây chi cuộc hí trường
Đến nay thắm thoát mấy tinh sương
Lối xưa xe ngựa hồn thu thảo
Nền cũ lâu đài bóng tịch dương
Đá vẫn trơ gan cùng tuế nguyệt
Nước còn cau mặt với tang thương
Nghìn năm gương cũ soi kim cổ
Cảnh đấy người đây luống đoạn trường

That is a great poem. Wow...

Poems with normal words are much better than han words.

translation please.
BTW since you don't even know much about Han words how do you they are better?

Ever heard of opinions?

And don't assume that I don't know Han words.

Another poem of Hồ Xuân Hương. If my memory serves me right, she was also an official during the Nguyen dynasty.

Vàng tỏa non tây, bóng ác tà ...
Ðầm đầm ngọn cỏ, tuyết phun hoa
Ngàn mai lác đác, chim về tổ
Dặm liễu bâng khuâng, khách nhớ nhà
Còi mục thét trăng miền khoáng dã
Chài ngư tung gió bãi bình sa
Lòng quê một bước càng ngao ngán
Mấy kẻ tình chung có thấu là ....

on the article, it said "Ho Xuan Huong was a concubine at the end of the second Ly Dynasty (1428-1788)". Besides, women couldn't hold official in that era anyways. Yes they can be be commander but usually in revolution.

That article is kind of wrong. Heheh...

"Ho Xuan Huong was a concubine at the end of the second Ly Dynasty (1428-1788)..."

It's the Le Dynasty, not Ly.

The poem above " Thang Long tha`nh hoa`i co^?" is written by Ba` Huye^.n Thanh Quan. Perhaps you was mistaken Ba Huyen Thanh Quan for Ho Xuan Huong? People don't even know what was her real name. Because her husband was a chief official of Thanh Quan district, people then just called her Ba`Huyen Thanh Quan. "Thang Long Thanh Hoai Co" noted her compassion when she saw the old abandoned Thang Long capital. The Nguyen dynasty has already chosen Hue as the new capital that time.

Oh oh, What an honour to have so many scholars out there !

I really prefer Nôm poetry, it's kind of essence of the Vietnamese culture, it directly addresses my soul. Hán-Việt poetry is...meaningless to me.




The French invaded Vietnam not earlier than in the 19th century. And in the 18th, the Tây So*n tried to reintroduce Nôm in Mandarinal exams.

^Second.. and True That!

Absolutely, positively, didly-didly-o.

BHTQ was a Le^ loyalist whose poems reflected "the good old days" of the late 1700's. Most of her poems were composed in the 1810's and 1820's, decades after Gia Long had already unified the country under the Nguyen rule. She was considered as a Ngu.y in those days. Her most notable references on the subject of ma^t' nu*o*c' were nho*' nu*o*c' +dau long` con quo^c' quo^c' and thu*o*ng nha` moi? mie^ng. cai' da da (or more like gia gia). Quo^c' gia in this case was the Le^ Dynasty which ended in 1790.

Welcome back Doan Du

Thank you, Thang' Bay? Tro*i` Mu*a