Vietnamese feminist poems from antiquity to the present : a bilingual anthology

This unique collection offers over one hundred poems from over one hundred poets in the only bilingual anthology of Vietnamese women’s poetry available anywhere in the world. The poems in The Defiant Muse: Vietnamese Poems from antiquity to the Present range from some of the earliest oral poetry, the first Buddhist spiritual poems written by women, and bold works by today's youth. Whether it is the historical expulsion of the Chinese or the cultivation of silk worms, this volume speaks to the exceptional moments and everyday realities of women's lifes, of love and war, work in the fields and cities, life in their homeland and far abroad. Native Vietnamese speakers, poets, and scholars worked with native English speakers and poets to compile, translate, and edit the texts to maintain the authenticity of each work. Far-reaching in scope, this volume includes groundbreaking new translations of several ancient poems and works by canonic Vietnamese poets translated into English for the first time.