Nguyen Du’s 250th birthday celebrated throughout the year

A host of events to celebrate the 250th birth anniversary of NguyenDu, prominent Vietnamese poet and World Cultural Celebrity (1765 –2015), will be organised this year, the authorities of central Ha Tinhprovince told the press in Hanoi on June 2.

Thehighlight will be a national ceremony to pay homage to the poet thisNovember in Ha Tinh. Although the poet spent his life in Hanoi, hisfamily roots stem from Ha Tinh and will be the centre of thecelebrations.

Other activities, including anumber of seminars, talks and competitions on Nguyen Du and his hallmark“Truyen Kieu” (the Tale of Kieu) alongside several documentary film andtheatre productions based on life of the poet and his family arescheduled to be launched throughout the year.

These events present an opportunity to educate the youth of the culturalcelebrity and the beauty of his cultural legacies as well as promotethe image of the province’s people and landscape, the provincialauthority said.

Nguyen Du, also known as To Nhuand Thanh Hien, was born in 1765 in a noble family in Thang Long (Hanoi ). His father was the former prime minister under the Le Dynasty.

His most beloved work is the Tale of Kieu, a3,254-line classic verse novel written in “luc bat” (six-eight), atraditional verse form of Vietnam.

Itrecounts the life, trials and tribulation of Thuy Kieu, a beautiful andtalented young woman, who had to sacrifice herself to save her fatherand younger brother from prison. She sold herself into marriage with amiddle-aged man, unaware of his profession as a pimp. He later forcedher into prostitution, marking the start of a series of tragic events inher life.

Throughout the poem, Nguyen Du depicted the beauty of true love and loyalty and the unyielding hope for justice.

In Vietnam, the Tale of Kieu is vastly popular, so much so thatmany people know the epic by heart and it has been published in 30languages worldwide to date.

Last month, aFrench rendition of the Tale of Kieu, namely Kim Van Kieu or a Joke ofFate, was performed by the French Isabelle Genlis in Paris withVietnamese Ho Thuy Trang playing “Dan Tranh” – Vietnam’s folk 16-cordzither – in the background.

The passionate melodious version enchanted local audiences during the hour-long show.

It took Genlis, who works at the institute for contemporary oralliterature in France, three years to translate the poem into French,she said.

The artist affirmed that she wouldbring the Tale of Kieu to more French audiences this year in honour ofNguyen Du, who she regarded as the Shakespeare of Vietnam.

VNA

Nguyen Du’s 250th birthday celebrated throughout the year

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