Tố Hữu (4 October 1920 – 9 December 2002) was a Vietnamese revolutionary poet and politician. He published seven collections of poems, the first of which was the 1946 collection entitled ''Từ ấy'' (Thenceforth), which included many of his most popular and influential works that were written between 1937 and 1946. Following the establishment of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
Tố Hữu, whose real name is Nguyễn Kim Thành, was born 4 October 1920 in Hoi An, Quang Nam province, as the youngest son of the family. At the age of 9, he and his father returned home and lived in Phu Lai village, now in Quang Tho commune, Quang Dien district, Thua Thien province. His father was a poor scholar, could not earn a living and struggled to earn a living, but he liked poetry, liked collecting proverbs and folk songs. He taught To Huu to write old poems. His mother was also the daughter of a scholar, knew many folk songs of Hue and loved him very much. His parents helped to nourish the soul of To Huu poetry. In 1938 he met a teacher, who had given him the pseudonym "Tố Hữu", taken from Đỗ Thị's sentence which means "big willpower available in my son". Tố Hữu accepted this name but interpreted it as a "pure friend". His mother died when he was 12 years old. At the age of 13, he entered Hue National University. Here he was directly exposed to the ideas of
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, Gorky, ... and approached through books, combined with the mobilisation of members of the Communist Party of Vietnam ( Le Duan, Phan Dang Luu, Nguyen Chi Dieu) soon communist ideals. In 1936 he joined the Indochina Democratic Youth Union. In 1938 he was admitted to the Indochina Communist Party. In April 1939, he was arrested, tortured and exiled to Thua Phu Prison (Hue) and transferred to Lao Bao Prison (Quang Tri) and many other prisons in the Central Highlands. In March 1942, he escaped from the prison Đắc Glêi (now in Kon Tum), went to Thanh Hóa and contacted the party (through his secret activities in the district Hậu Lộc, Thanh Hoa province). In 1945, when the August Revolution broke out, he was elected Chairman of the Rebellion Committee of Thua Thien-Hue.
Tố Hữu moved quickly and successfully through what became the Communist Party of Vietnam. During the pre-unification period (before 1975) Tố Hữu was most influential in setting cultural policy in
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
, especially in deciding the bounds of what was permissible for intellectuals and artists to publish and perform during this tightly controlled period. His control of intellectual and artistic production was matched only by
Trường Chinh
Trường Chinh (, born Đặng Xuân Khu; 9 February 1907, Xuân Trường District, Nam Định Province – 30 September 1988, Hanoi) was a Vietnamese communist political leader and theoretician. He was one of the key figures of Vietnamese poli ...
and
Hồ Chí Minh
(: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Pri ...
himself. Intellectual discontent with this control was expressed by the poet Lê Đạt who, during the Nhân Văn affair, declared that Tố Hữu considered writers and artists petty bourgeois elements, and regarded literature as a mere tool of politics. As an example, he mentioned the case of Nam Cao whom Tố Hữu compelled to write a work on the rural taxation system, a topic with which the writer was by no means familiar.
He continued to hold many important party and government posts, including member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Central Committee,
Deputy Chairman
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...
of the
Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
(as the government cabinet was then called), and the same post that was later renamed Deputy Prime Minister.
As the leader of the cultural section, he was named as the chief instigator of the persecution of intellectuals during the Nhân Văn affair. However, according to the musician Văn Cao, one of the prominent victims, the main author of this policy was
Trường Chinh
Trường Chinh (, born Đặng Xuân Khu; 9 February 1907, Xuân Trường District, Nam Định Province – 30 September 1988, Hanoi) was a Vietnamese communist political leader and theoretician. He was one of the key figures of Vietnamese poli ...
, the general secretary of the communist party at that time. According to Văn Cao, Tố Hữu, as a poet, was not sufficiently hard-hearted to pursue such a policy on his own. (See the article at the Vietnamese Wikipedia).Bright Quang - Road to the United States: Part 2 2006 - Page 13 "He also trained a few Vietnamese to forget the Vietnam nation, like Poet Tố Huu, who heard the dead Lenin, Tố Hữu poeticized a poem, “I cry my dead parents are only one time I will cry to my Uncle Ho Chi Minh only three times, But I cry for ..."
During his career, Tố Hữu was awarded the
Gold Star Order
Gold Star Order ( vi, Huân chương Sao vàng) is the highest decoration in Vietnam awards and decorations awarded by the Government of Vietnam for a military or civil "personnel who completed exceptional service or organization established excel ...
, the 60-year membership badge, and the Hồ Chí Minh Award, the highest award for literary and artistic accomplishments conferred by the Vietnamese state.
Tố Hữu enjoyed a steep rise in the party and government culminating in an equally steep and precipitous decline. He was blamed for the disastrous 1985 attempt at monetary reform and the ruinous
inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...
that resulted from its unsuccessful implementation. Inflation had risen 700% by 1986. Tố Hữu had to step down from his position as deputy prime minister and played no further political role in Vietnam. Despite his political fall from grace, Tố Hữu remained the Communist Party's poet-laureate. He died in 2002, at the age of 80.
List of main works
*Từ ấy (Henceforth) (1946), 72 poems
*Việt Bắc (Viet Bac) (1954), 26 poems
*Gió lộng (Windy) (1961), 25 poems
*Ra trận (Head to war) (1962-1971), 35 poems
*Máu và Hoa (Blood and Flowers) (1977), 13 poems
*Một tiếng đờn (A sound of music) (1992), 74 poems
*Ta với ta (Me with myself) (1999)
List of popular poems
*Bác ơi (Uncle)
*Bà má Hậu Giang (Mother Hau Giang)
*Bài ca xuân 1961 (The song of Spring 1961)
*Bài ca quê hương (Homeland song)
*Bầm ơi! (Mommy)
*Con cá chột nưa (Fish and vegetables)
*Có thể nào yên? (Could it be okay?)
*Đi đi em! (Go, brother!)
*Em ơi... Ba Lan (Honey ... Poland)
*Gặp anh Hồ Giáo (Meet Ho Giao)
*Hai đứa trẻ (Two children)
*Hồ Chí Minh (Ho Chi Minh)
*Hãy nhớ lấy lời tôi (Remember my words)
*Hoa tím (Purple flowers)
*Hoan hô chiến sĩ Điện Biên (Hooray Dien Bien soldiers)
*Kính gửi cụ Nguyễn Du (To Nguyen Du)
*Khi con tu hú (When the gowk calls)
*Lao Bảo (Lao Bao)
*Lạ chưa (Strange)
*Lượm (Luom)
*Mẹ Suốt (Mother Suot)
*Mẹ Tơm (Mother Tom)
*Mồ côi (Orphan)
*Một tiếng đờn (A sound of music)
*Miền Nam (South)
*Mưa rơi (Rain falling)
*Năm xưa (The old year)
*Nước non ngàn dặm (Thousands of miles across country)
*Sáng tháng Năm (May's morning)
*Emily, con ơi (Emily, my daughter)
*Ta đi tới (Let's go)
*Ta với ta (Me with myself)
*Tạm biệt (Goodbye)
*Từ ấy (Henceforth)
*Tâm tư trong tù (Confidant in prison)
*Tương tri (Understand each other)
*Theo chân Bác (Follow Uncle)
*Tiếng chổi tre (The sound of bamboo brooms)
*Tiếng hát sông Hương (Singing on the Perfume River)
*Tiếng ru (Lullaby)
*Với Lênin (With Lenin)
*Vườn nhà (Home garden)
*Việt Bắc (Viet Bac)
*Việt Nam máu và hoa (Vietnam blood and flower)
*Xuân đang ở đâu... (Where is spring)
*Xuân đấy (That Spring)
See also
*
History of Vietnam
The history of Vietnam can be traced back to around 20,000 years ago, as the first modern humans arrived and settled on this land, known as the Hoabinhians, which can be traced to modern-day Negritos. Archaeological findings from 1965, which are ...
References
* ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...