Hoàng Cầm (poet)


Hoàng Cầm was pen name of Bùi Tằng Việt, a Vietnamese poet, playwright, and novelist. He is best remembered for his poems such as Bên kia sông Đuống, Lá diêu bông or the plays Kiều Loan and Hận Nam Quan. Being involved in the Nhân Văn affair, Hoàng Cầm retreated from the Vietnam Association of Writers in 1958, later in 2007 he was awarded the National Prize for Literature and Art by the Government of Vietnam.

History

Bùi Tằng Việt was born in 1922 in the Việt Yên District, Bắc Giang to a scholar who came from the Song Hồ commune, Thuận Thành, Bắc Ninh. Graduated from the Thăng Long High School in Hanoi, Bùi Tằng Việt began his career as a writer and translator for the Tân dân xã publishing house which was owned by Vũ Đình Long, from that time he chose the pen name Hoàng Cầm which is the Vietnamese name of a fundamental herb in Traditional Chinese medicine.
In 1944, due to the tense condition of the war, Hoàng Cầm returned to his hometown Thuận Thành and participated in the Việt Minh movement. After the August Revolution, Hoàng Cầm once again went to Hanoi and found a theatre company named Đông Phương. He began to organize cultural activities for the Vietnam People's Army from 1952 in the position of the Director of the Public Performing Company of the General Department of Politics. After the First Indochina War, Hoàng Cầm worked for the Vietnam Association of Writers from which he soon withdrew in 1958 because of his involvement in the Nhân Văn affair. In March 2007, Hoàng Cầm was awarded the National Prize for Literature and Art by the Government of Vietnam. He died on 6 May 2010 in Hanoi at the age of 88.

Works