13 ho xuan huong biography

13 ho xuan huong biography: Hồ Xuân Hương was a

Huong spent the rest of her life in a quaint house near Ho Tay in Hanoi, making a living as a teacher and private tutor. Her hobbies included not needing any men in her life and traveling, as evidenced by many of her poems. Back then, Vietnamese poetry was heavily influenced by China's Tang poetry, which featured extremely strict rules regarding imagery, rhythm and enjambment.

Yet, our insides remain hearty. The poem has only one stanza, comprising four lines. However, for the scope of this article, attempting to translate her work and retain its layered meanings is impossible. Ho Xuan Huong, both as a writer and a famous literary figure, remains a symbol of female intellect who was well ahead of her time and unmatched by her male counterparts.

Then, too, it was never rigorously standardized but remained dependent on the skill and whim of anyone who chose to write in it; its inconsistencies and obscurities bedeviled anyone who tried to decipher it.

13 ho xuan huong biography: Ho Xuan Huong (),

It freed Vietnamese poets from complete reliance on an alien medium [Chinese] and allowed them to speak in their own voice at last. Ho's decision to compose and record her poetry in Nom was both spirited and unusual, considering that the majority of literature at the time was written in the dominant Chinese script, but it was perhaps not entirely unexpected, considering the pride Vietnamese culture places on its poetic heritage.

But poetry, portable and passed along by individual voices, has remained the most lasting of Vietnam's arts. Poetry is not incidental to the literary tradition of the country but its very heart and soul. It is impossible to study either the literature or the intellectual history of Vietnam without delving into Vietnamese poetry. Vietnamese poetry, technically speaking, is a delicate and exacting practice and a demanding lyrical form.

And since like-sounding words can mean vastly different things, a whole world of double meanings also is possible in any poem. Ho even hid additional messages and allusions that could only be revealed by reading parts of the poem vertically as well as horizontally.

13 ho xuan huong biography: Ho Xuan Huong is the

In its original habitat it remained an aristocratic medium, the embodiment of Confucian decorum and restraint …. In Vietnam, by contrast, the regulated poem shed its haughty reserve … and went native …. It lifted all taboos and welcomed any word, however vulgar, that circumstance might justify. Her poems contain virtually no Chinese literary allusions, being essentially Vietnamese in inspiration and form.

Ho's poems were often controversial for their sensual content. Many women could choose only between struggling alone and becoming concubines …. Men, meanwhile, could have many wives.

13 ho xuan huong biography: Ho is believed to have been

For details, see Vietnamese language. Quotes "My body is like a jackfruit swinging on a tree, My skin is rough, my pulp is thick. Dear prince, if you want me then pierce me upon your stick Don't squeeze, i'll ooze and stain your hands. Our match had not begun When fate intervened. The sin he will have to bear, for a hundred years - Right now, love's burden is all mine.

Three times the temple's bell surges like a wave Unsettling the puddle where sky and water mingle. Truly the sea of Love cannot be emptied And the stream of Grace flows easily everywhere. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item.