The first national Ca Tru Festival will take place in Nghi Xuan District in Ha Tinh Province.

Nghi Xuan, possible site of the original Ca Tru, was the homeland of the great poet, Nguyen Du, author of Truyen Kieu (The tale of Kieu).

According to Van Su, an official of the Ministry of Culture and Information’s Performance Department, many of Nguyen Du’s poems were played in Ca Tru, including his Truyen Kieu.

Nguyen Du was born in 1765, the seventh child of a former Prime Minister under the Le dynasty. Several members of his family, including one of his brothers, were noted scholars and mandarins at the Court.

At 17, Nguyen Du passed the traditional Chinese-style triennial competitive examination and received the title of "tu-tai", with prospects of a bright mandarin career.

But Vietnam was going through one of the darkest periods of its history, a protracted civil war between the Trinh and Le families.

It was during a diplomatic mission that Nguyen Du first came across a Chinese novel of the 16th or the early 17th century, "The story of Kim Van Kieu", by an author with the pen name "Thanh Tam Tai Nhan". The poet adapted the novel into his own Truyen Kieu.

In the intervening two centuries, Truyen Kieu has become very popular with Vietnamese people, even those who can’t read or write.

The poem will be performed in the Ca Tru festival on March 26 – 27 in Nghi Xuan District, and in April at Hanoi’s Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature).

Hoang Huong