Poet puts spotlight on double entendres of Vietnamese writer

By Christy Jensen

November 8, 2007 | Poet John Balaban came to Utah State University to share his poetry and give a workshop on Vietnamese poetry art as part of the USU department of English Speakers Series.

Balaban, poet-in-residence and professor of English at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, shared works last week from a few of his books during his reading at the Haight Alumni Center. He Apologized after reciting his poem Locusts at the Edge of Summer because of his brief use of the "F" word, and said he forgot he was in Utah.

With his lighthearted humor and poetry, Balaban kept a captive audience throughout his reading and telling of stories about his experiences in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and afterward.

Balaban also gave a poetry master class on Vietnamese poetry, focusing particularly the works of Ho Xuang Huong, an 18th century female poet who was famous for her double entendres -- poems having a hidden sexual meaning behind them.

Balaban spoke on the form used in Huong's poetry, and what is lost in the translation from Vietnamese to English.

"You lose the tonal inflection," said Balaban, "which is most important in the form that Ho Xuang Huong writes in."

Balaban demonstrated the many tonal inflections that are used in Huong's poems, accenting the vital point that the tonal inflection on the words used in Huong's poems are what give them the double meaning.

Balaban has 12 published works including the translations of Vietnamese poetry. He is working on a book titled Romania, Romania, Romania.

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