Xuân Diệu

Ngô Xuân Diệu (February 2, 1916 – December 18, 1985) 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 (largely in posthumous manuscripts) 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 (maternal homeland). His father was Ngô Xuân Thọ, a teacher, and his mother was Nguyễn Thị Hiệp. He studied in Qui Nhơn, Huế, and later Hanoi (1938–1940).  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 (and apparently addressed to) various men.  These poems include "Tình trai" ("Man's Love", about the love affair between the French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine) and "Em đi" ("You leave", a heartfelt poem dedicated to a younger man with whom the poet shared a house for several years).  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 himself gave Hồ Xuân Hương the sobriquet "the Queen of Nôm poetry").

He was a member of the literary movement Tự Lực Văn Đoàn (Self-Reliance Literary Movement) and one of the leaders of the Thơ Mới (New Poetry) movement.  Representative works he wrote during this period include: Thơ Thơ (Poetry poem, 1938), Gửi Hương Cho Gió (Perfume Flies with the Wind, 1945), and the short story Phấn Thông Vàng (Golden Pine Pollen, 1939).

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.

Notes

External links

Vietnamese
Xuân Diệu poetry
Xuân Diệu poetry collection

English

On the phone
Love
Flowers bloom to wilt

Category:20th-century Vietnamese poets
Category:Vietnamese writers
Category:Gay writers
Category:1916 births
Category:1985 deaths
Category:People from Hà Tĩnh Province
Category:People from Bình Định Province
Category:Vietnamese male poets
Category:20th-century male writers
Category:LGBT people from Vietnam