Hoàng Cầm (22 February 1922 – 6 May 2010) was pen name of Bùi Tằng Việt, a

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese 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 Writers' Association 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 Bắc Giang () is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital of Bắc Giang Province. Its name, deriving from that of the Province Sino-Vietnamese, means "north of the river." The location is very convenient for transportation: it is 50 km north ...

to a scholar who came from the Song Hồ commune, Thuận Thành,

Bắc Ninh Bắc Ninh () is a city in the northern part of Vietnam and is the capital of Bắc Ninh province. The city is the cultural, administrative and commercial center of the province. The city area is 82.60 square km, with a population of 501,199 in N ...

. Graduated from the Thăng Long High School in

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

, 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 Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

name of a fundamental herb in

Traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of acti ...

. In 1944, due to the tense condition of the war, Hoàng Cầm returned to his hometown Thuận Thành and participated in the

Việt Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...

movement. After the

August Revolution The August Revolution ( vi, Cách-mạng tháng Tám), also known as the August General Uprising (), was a revolution launched by the Việt Minh (League for the Independence of Vietnam) against the Empire of Vietnam and the Empire of Japan in ...

, 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 Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

from 1952 in the position of the Director of the Public Performing Company (''Văn công'') of the General Department of Politics. After the

First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

, Hoàng Cầm worked for the Vietnam Writers' Association 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

* Hận ngày xanh (1940) * Bông sen trắng (1940) * Cây đèn thần (1941) * Thoi mộng (1941) * Tỉnh giấc mơ vua (1942) * Hận Nam Quan (1944, 1942) * Bốn truyện ngắn (1939–1943) * Kiều Loan (1945) * Ông cụ Liên (1952) * 99 tình khúc (1955) * Tiếng hát quan họ (1956) * Đêm Lào Cai (1957) * Những niềm tin (1965) * Men đá vàng (truyện thơ, 1989) * Bên kia sông Đuống (1993) * Lá diêu bông (1993) * Về Kinh Bắc (1994) * Tương lai (kịch thơ, 1995)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoang Cam Vietnamese novelists Vietnamese male poets Vietnamese dramatists and playwrights 1922 births 2010 deaths Nhân Văn–Giai Phẩm affair People from Bắc Ninh province 20th-century Vietnamese poets 20th-century novelists 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century male writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers