Vietnam national hero’s poem published in English
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A poem collection in English of Nguyen Trai, Vietnam’s 15th century national hero will be introduced in Hanoi this weekend.
The book release ceremony will feature Paul Hoover, an American poet, editor and creative writing professor at San Francisco State University, and Vietnamese poet Nguyen Do who translated Nguyen Trai’s works.
Other literature figures that will join as guest speakers include poet Nguyen Duy and critic Pham Xuan Nguyen.
Named “Beyond the Court Gate,” the collection introduces selected poems of Nguyen Trai, a Le Dynasty’s noted scholar, poet, a skilled politician and a master tactician who wrote simply and beautifully of nature, friends, and his difficult life in the court, Paul said.
Unlike many classic Chinese poets who mostly found expression through landscape, Nguyen Trai wrote about his own life with such intimacy and immediacy that many contemporary readers can easily identify with, commented the book’s publisher Counterpath Press.
The event will be held on May 20 at Hanoi University of Culture and then be brought to Nghe An, Quang Ngai and Ho Chi Minh city.
