Poet Lâm Thị Mỹ Dạ has passed away in HCM City at the age of 75. Photo courtesy of Thừa Thiên - Huế Literature and Arts Association

The poet was born in 1949 in the central province of Quảng Bình. She became a member of the Vietnamese Writers' Association in 1978. Born and raised during a time of war and a period of national division, her works are deeply imbued with the pain of war.

Dạ started writing poetry when she was nine years old. By the time she was 10, she had written her first collection of about 40 poems.

In 1971, at the age of 20, she won first prize in the Văn Nghệ (Literature and Arts) newspaper contest with her poem Khoảng Trời Và Hố Bom (The Sky and the Bomb Crater), which cemented her name in Vietnamese literature.

After the national reunification in 1975, Dạ attended the Nguyễn Du Writing School and participated in training courses at the Gorky Institute in the former Soviet Union. She also became a member of the executive board of the Vietnamese Writers' Association in its third and fourth terms.

The poet won several awards including first prize in the Văn Nghệ newspaper poetry contest in 1971-1973; the Vietnamese Writers' Association Literature Award for her poetry collection Bài Thơ Không Năm Tháng (Poems Without Years) and the A Prize in Poetry from the National Union of Vietnamese Literature and Arts Associations in 1999.

In 2007, she was awarded the State Prize for Literature and Arts by the then President of Việt Nam for her three poetry collections - Trái Tim Sinh Nở (The Blossoming Heart), Bài Thơ Không Năm Tháng (Poems Without Years) and Đề Tặng Một Giấc Mơ (Dedicated to a Dream).

Some of her notable published works include Trái Tim Sinh Nở (The Blossoming Heart), Bài Thơ Không Năm Tháng (Poems Without Years), Danh Ca Của Đất (The Land's Singer) and Nai Con Và Dòng Suối (The Baby Deer and the Stream).

A collection of her 56 poems titled Cốm Non (Green Rice) was translated into English by Curbstone Publishers and released in the United States in 2005.

The poet passed away at the age of 75 at her home in HCM City on July 6, after a period of suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Source: VNS