Xuân Diệu


Ngô Xuân Diệu more commonly known by the pen name Xuân Diệu, was a prominent Vietnamese poet. A colossal figure in modern Vietnamese literature, he wrote about 450 poems especially love poems, several short stories, and many notes, essays, and literary criticisms.

Life

He was born in Gò Bồi, Tùng Giản commune, Tuy Phước District, Bình Định Province, Vietnam. His father was Ngô Xuân Thọ, a teacher, and his mother was Nguyễn Thị Hiệp. He studied in Qui Nhơn, Huế, and later Hanoi. He obtained a degree in agricultural engineering in 1943 and worked in Mỹ Tho for a while before returning to Hanoi.
In 1943, he joined the Viet Minh and became one of the leading poets writing to promote resistance against the French.
Although well known for his love poems, he was married for only six months without consummating the marriage before divorcing from his wife and died a bachelor. Many people believe that he was homosexual along with his lifelong friend the famous poet Huy Cận, as shown through his many poems about love dedicated to various men. These poems include "Tình trai" and "Em đi". In his memoirs published in 1993, the writer Tô Hoài confirmed that Xuân Diệu was reprimanded while in the Viet Minh for molesting other men in bed.

Works

Throughout his career, Xuân Diệu had been variously known as a romantic poet, "the greatest poet among the new poets", and "the king of love poems".
He was a member of the literary movement Tự Lực Văn Đoàn and one of the leaders of the Thơ Mới movement. Representative works he wrote during this period include: Thơ Thơ, Gửi Hương Cho Gió, and the short story Phấn Thông Vàng.
His poetry collections Thơ thơ and Gửi hương cho gió are regarded as his masterpieces. They glorify love, life, happiness, and love of life. By that, he also glorified youth, spring, and nature as the cradle for love. He also grieved for the passing of time, the precariousness of life and showed thirst for everlasting life.
His works are often studied by secondary school students in Vietnam. A street in Hanoi is named after him.

Vietnamese

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