Chế Lan Viên was a Vietnamese poet. He was born Phan Ngọc Hoan, in Đông Hà, in Central Vietnam. He grew up in Quy Nhơn further south, and started writing poetry at an early age. His first collection, published when he was seventeen, gained him notice as a poet of original, if morose, sensibilities. He participated in the events of the August Revolution of 1945, in the Quy Nhơn area. Afterwards, he wrote for a number of journals, including Quyết Thắng in support of the Việt Minh's movement against French rule.After the Geneva Agreements of 1954, Chế Lan Viên returned to Hà Nội, taking on responsibilities as a leading member of the Writers' Association of Viet Nam .After the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, Chế Lan Viên lived and worked in Hồ Chí Minh City . A prolific writer, he remained active in the literary scene, producing poetry, essays, memoirs, and commentary and criticism until his death in 1989. He was married to the novelist, Vũ Thị Thường; their daughter, Phan Thi Vang-Anh, is a writer as well. Wikipedia
“Nothing at all is lost
When life has clear purpose.”
"When You Have Purpose", as quoted in Understanding Vietnam by Neil Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), p. 267, and in Renovating Politics in Contemporary Vietnam by Zachary Abuza (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), p. 58
"The Enemy and Us", in Vietnam Courier (December 1972), quoted in Traveling to Vietnam: American Peace Activists and the War by Mary Hershberger (Syracuse University Press, 1998), ISBN 978-0815605171, p. 180
"The Graves", as quoted in Understanding Vietnam by Neil Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), pp. 163–164
As quoted in Translation as Transhumance by Mireille Gansel (Feminist Press, 2017), ISBN 978-1936932085
"On the Way Home", in A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry, ed. Nguyễn Ngọc Bích (Alfred A. Knopf, 1975), p. 167; quoted in full in Buddhism & Zen in Vietnam by Thich Thien-an (Tuttle Publishing, 1992)
"Skull", in A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry, ed. Nguyễn Ngọc Bích (Alfred A. Knopf, 1975), ISBN 978-0394494722, p. 166
Original in Vietnamese https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/che-lan-vien-to-a-skull/vietnamese/, and an English translation by Hai-Dang Phan https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/che-lan-vien-to-a-skull/, available at Asymptote.
“They destroy
while we want to live”
As quoted in Translation as Transhumance by Mireille Gansel (Feminist Press, 2017)
"Creation", as quoted in "Shattered Identities and Contested Images: Reflections of Poetry and History in 20th-Century Vietnam" by Neil Jamieson, in Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1992, p. 89, and in Understanding Vietnam by Neil Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), ISBN 978-0520916586, p. 164
"The Funeral Procession", as quoted in Understanding Vietnam by Neil Jamieson (University of California Press, 1995), p. 164
