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

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

ese poet, playwright, and novelist. He is best remembered for his poems such as '' Bên kia sông Đuống'', ''

Lá diêu bông ''Lá'' (Irish language, Irish for "Day"; later known as ''Lá Nua'', Irish for "New Day") was an Irish-language daily newspaper based in Belfast. It was the first daily newspaper in Ireland to be published in Irish. ''Lá Nua'' belonged to the ...

'' or the plays ''Kiều Loan'' and ''Hận Nam Quan''. Being involved in the Nhân Văn affair, Hoàng Cầm retreated from the

Vietnam Writers' Association The Alliance of Arts and Literature Associations of Vietnam (''Liên hiệp các Hội Văn học nghệ thuật Việt Nam'') is the senior official body representing all the culture associations in Vietnam. It was founded 1957-1958 as the bodies b ...

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

Việt Yên Việt Yên is a district-level town () of Bắc Giang province in the Northeast region of Vietnam. Việt Yên borders on the south with Bắc Ninh province; on the west with Hiệp Hòa district; on the east with Yên Dũng district; and on t ...

Bắc Giang Bắc Giang () is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital of Bắc Ninh 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 Song Hồ commune,

Thuận Thành Thuận Thành ʰwə̰ʔn˨˩:tʰa̤jŋ˨˩is a Phường, ward of Bắc Ninh province in the Northeastern Vietnam, Northern Midlands and Mountains of Vietnam. History On April 19, 2025, after the dissolution of former Bắc Ninh province for ...

Bắc Ninh Bắc Ninh () is a city in the Northern Vietnam, 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 populat ...

. Graduated from the Thăng Long High School in Hà Nội, 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 Vũ Đình Long (19 December 1896 - 14 August 1960) was a Vietnamese dramatist noted for the first western style spoken play in Vietnamese - ''A cup of Poison'' in 1921. The Western-influenced style of "théâtre parlé" (kịch nói) was a depart ...

, from that time he chose the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Hoàng Cầm which is the Vietnamese name of

Scutellaria baicalensis ''Scutellaria baicalensis'', with the common name Baikal skullcap or Chinese skullcap, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. Distribution The plant is native to China, Korea, Mongolia, and Russia in the Russian Far East and Si ...

– a fundamental herb in

Traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...

. 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 (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Vi ...

movement. After the

August Revolution The August Revolution (), also known as the August General Uprising (), was a revolution led by the Việt Minh against the Empire of Vietnam from 16 August to 2 September 1945. The Empire of Vietnam was led by the Nguyễn dynasty and was ...

, Hoàng Cầm once again went to Hà Nội and found a theatre company named ''Đông Phương''. He began to organize cultural activities for the

Vietnam People's Army Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

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, and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War) was fought between French Fourth Republic, France and Việ ...

, Hoàng Cầm worked for the

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 Hà Nội at the age of 88.

Works

Source:

Proses

* Hận ngày xanh (1940, based on

Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist, he became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, aligning more w ...

's works) * Bông sen trắng ("The white lotus", 1940, based on

Andersen Andersen () is a Danish- Norwegian patronymic surname meaning "son of Anders" (itself derived from the Greek name " Ανδρέας/Andreas", cf. English Andrew). It is the fifth most common surname in Denmark, shared by about 3.2% of the populati ...

's fairy tales) * Cây đèn thần ("The wonderful lamp", 1941, based on

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

) * Tỉnh giấc mơ vua ("Wakening from a king's dream", 1942, based on Arabian Nights)

Plays

* Hận Nam Quan ("The hatred on the South Pass", 1944) * Kiều Loan (1946) * Cô gái nước Tần ("The Qin girl", 1949) * Viễn khách (1952) * Lên đường (1952) * Ông cụ Liên (1952) * Lào Cai (1957) * Trương Chi (1983) * Tương lai (1995)

Poems

* Thoi mộng (1941) * Những niềm tin (1965) * Men đá vàng (truyện thơ, 1989) * Bên kia sông Đuống (1948) * Lá diêu bông (1959, included in both Mưa Thuận Thành, Về Kinh Bắc, and 99 tình khúc collections)

Poetry collections

* Tiếng hát quan họ ("The

Quan họ ''Quan họ'' () singing is a Vietnamese folk music style characterized both by its antiphonal nature, with alternating groups of female and male singers issuing musical challenges and responses. Quan họ is common in rituals and festivals, and ...

melodies", 1956) * Mưa Thuận Thành ("The Thuận Thành rain", 1991) * Về Kinh Bắc ("Coming back to Kinh Bắc", published in 1994, includes 51 poems composed during 1959–1960) * 99 tình khúc ("99 love poems", published in 1996, includes 98 poems composed during 1941–1995)

References

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