Hồ Xuân Hương

Hồ Xuân Hương
Portrait of female poet Hồ Xuân Hương on the cover of the book Giai nhân dị mặc by scholar Nguyễn Hữu Tiến, 1916
Born(1772-07-10)July 10, 1772
Quỳnh Lưu district, Nghệ An province, Đàng Ngoài, Đại Việt
DiedFebruary 3, 1822(1822-02-03) (aged 49)
Thăng Long, Đàng Ngoài, Vietnam
OccupationPoet
LanguageVietnamese
NationalityVietnamese
PeriodClassical poetry
GenreNôm poetry
Thất ngôn bát cú (lit. 7 characters, 8 lines)
SpouseNguyễn Bình Kình
Phạm Viết Ngạn
RelativesHồ Phi Diễn (father)

Hồ Xuân Hương (胡春香; 1772–1822) was a Vietnamese poet born at the end of the Lê dynasty. She grew up in an era of political and social turmoil – the time of the Tây Sơn rebellion and a three-decade civil war that led to Nguyễn Ánh seizing power as Emperor Gia Long and starting the Nguyễn dynasty. She wrote poetry using chữ Nôm (Southern Script), which adapts Chinese characters for writing demotic Vietnamese. She is considered to be one of Vietnam's greatest classical poets. Xuân Diệu, a prominent modern poet, dubbed her "The Queen of Nôm poetry".