Remember Luu Quang Vu!

Although Luu Quang Vu's life was short, he lived and worked to the fullest, making significant contributions to Vietnamese literature in many genres: poetry, prose, drama, and more.

Luu Quang Vu was born on April 17, 1948, in Thieu Co commune, Ha Hoa district, Phu Tho province; he was the son of playwright Luu Quang Thuan and Mrs. Vu Thi Khanh. Luu Quang Vu spent his childhood peacefully in Phu Tho with his parents.

Luu Quang Vu and Xuan Quynh

In 1954, when peace was restored, his family moved to Hanoi. His artistic inclinations and talents were evident from a young age, and the rural landscape of the Northern midland region left its mark on his later works.

From 1965 to 1970, he enlisted in the military, serving in the Air Defense-Air Force branch. This was the period when Luu Quang Vu's poetry began to flourish. He married film actress To Uyen in 1969.

From 1970 to 1978, Luu Quang Vu was discharged from the army. Living during a difficult period for the country: the post-war era, the centrally planned economy with its numerous hardships and difficulties; Luu Quang Vu had to do all kinds of jobs to make a living. From working at the railway rubber factory managed by Ta Dinh De, to working under contract for the Liberation Publishing House, to doing timekeeping for a road construction team, to painting billboards and posters...

During this period, Luu Quang Vu divorced actress To Uyen and married poetess Xuan Quynh for the second time in 1973.

From 1978 to 1988: Luu Quang Vu worked as an editor for the Theatre Magazine and began writing plays with his first play, "Living Forever at 17," a rewritten version of a script by Vu Duy Ky.

His works have left a significant mark on the Vietnamese public, particularly in the post-war years, especially the 1980s. Luu Quang Vu's plays, short stories, and poems are rich in realism and humanism, and deeply reflect the different stages of his life.

Despite his relatively young age, he authored nearly 50 plays. Most of his plays were successfully staged by theater and traditional opera troupes under the direction of many famous directors. Many of his works enlivened the Vietnamese stage at that time, such as: The Soul of Truong Ba in the Body of a Butcher, The Ninth Oath, The Arrogant Man, The Moment and the Infinite, He's Not My Father, Me and Us, Believing in Roses, and Lady Sita…

His debut play, "Forever 17," was awarded the Gold Medal at the National Theatre Festival. Luu Quang Vu was posthumously awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize (second round, 2000) for theatrical arts.

At the height of his talent, Luu Quang Vu died in a car accident on National Highway 5 in Hai Duong, along with his wife, the poet Xuan Quynh, and their son, Luu Quynh Tho.

Luu Quang Vu and his lyrical poems

Poetry is the starting point of a poet's greatest and most profoundly philosophical quest – a quest to discover the poet's self through the experiences of life's long journey, and also the greatest pilgrimage back – a return to one's own poetic essence. For Luu Quang Vu, poetry is the entirety of his soul's gratitude and affection for life.

In the creative essence of the talented young man Luu Quang Vu, poetry was the profound soul, not drama, journalism, prose, or painting—the fields in which he had experimented, sown, and reaped.

Luu Quang Vu's poetry is not only imaginative and brilliant but also rich in emotion, reflection, and yearning. Many of his poems are beloved by readers, such as: "And I Exist," "Vietnamese Language," "Garden in the City," "Swarm of Bees in the Deep Night," etc.

However, Luu Quang Vu's poetry possesses a unique quality, both unrestrained and profound. Because of this, his poetry is selective in its readership and not everyone can understand it; it lacks mass appeal. To truly appreciate his poetry, readers must possess a rather special inner world.

Married to two women, two love affairs passed through the young poet's life, leaving behind countless emotions and sorrows. The last poems of Luu Quang Vu were written for his second wife, Xuan Quynh.

In 2010, Nha Nam Culture Joint Stock Company published the poetry anthology "Wind and Love Blowing Across My Country" by the late playwright and poet Luu Quang Vu, containing over 100 poems. This is considered the most complete, elaborate, and meticulous anthology of poems by this talented but short-lived poet, writer, and playwright.

This poetry anthology offers readers a fairly comprehensive view of Luu Quang Vu's poetic journey, with each work bearing the author's thoughts and feelings about the historical and social changes in the last decades of the 20th century.

According to VOV