Doan Thi Diem

Đoàn Thị Điểm (1705–1748) was a poet and translator. She is considered one of the greatest poets in Vietnamese literature.

She was born in Bắc Ninh, lived and taught in Sài Trang, Chương Dương and Thăng Long (former name of Hanoi), then died in Nghệ An. She was a concubine of Nguyễn Kiều, a mandarin and envoy to China. She was well-known as a poet from the age of 15, and is best remembered for a 408-line translation into Vietnamese in Nôm script of Đặng Trần Côn's Chinese poem "Chinh Phụ Ngâm." Scholars consistently note that her translation surpasses the original in imagery and poetic technique. Many other works are referred to, but lost.

Linh Dinh started this entry.

Works

• Tục truyền kỳ, also known as Truyền kỳ tân phả, a collection of seven tales, two of which have been lost
• "Chinh Phụ Ngâm," translated into English as "The Song of a Soldier's Wife" by Huỳnh Sanh Thông. Lady Borton has also translated a part of it. Borton's "Lament of a Warrior's Wife" is available in WOMEN ON WAR: An Anthology of Women's Writings from Antiquity to the Present, edited by Daniela Gioseffi (The Feminist Press 2003) and Defiant Muse: Vietnamese Feminist Poems LINK NOT FOUND SEPTEMBER 2009, edited by Lady Borton, Nguyễn Thị Thanh Bình and Nguyễn Thị Minh Hà (The Feminist Press 2007). It has also been translated into French by Tuần Lý Huỳnh Khắc Dụng and Japanese by Y. Takeuchi.