Han Mac Tu

Who was Han Mac Tu?

Nguyễn Trọng Trí, penname Hàn Mặc Tử was a Vietnamese poet. He was the most celebrated Vietnamese Catholic literary figure during the colonial era.

He was born Nguyễn Trọng Trí, at Lệ Mỹ Village, Đồng Hới District, Quảng Bình Province. His pen names included: Minh Duệ, Phong Trần, Lệ Thanh, and finally Hàn Mặc Tử, by which name is known today. He grew up in a poor family, his father having died when he was young. He showed poetic talent at a young age. When he met Phan Bội Châu, he received encouragement and praise that made him well-known. He contracted leprosy in 1937, and was finally hospitalized at Quy Hòa Hospital in September 1940, where he died two months later.

His many poems addressed to real or fictive women - in the manner of Giacomo Leopardi in the West, for example - remain popular, and he is known as a love poet in Vietnam. His poems on folk subjects are also well-known.