Nguyễn Du Writes The Tale of Kiều

Truyện Kiều, the Tale of Kiều, is the great classical poem of Vietnam. Its author, Nguyễn Du, called it Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh, usually translated as "A New Cry from a Broken Heart," but readers have long known it simply as Truyện Kiều or Kim Vân Kiều. The poem runs to 3,254 lines in lục bát, the "six-eight" couplet form of Vietnamese folk poetry, and it is widely regarded as the most significant work of Vietnamese literature.

Nguyễn Du came from a prominent family of mandarins. He passed the official examinations at 19 and served the Lê dynasty, as his family had done for generations, until it fell in 1787. He then withdrew to the mountains near his home village until Gia Long, the new Nguyễn ruler who unified the country in 1802, summoned him to court. He reluctantly obeyed, held a series of official posts and led a diplomatic mission to Beijing. He died at Huế in 1820.