The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of central Ha Tinh province on October 28 held a signing ceremony of a contract on financial support to the translation and publication of “Truyen Kieu” (The Tale of Kieu) into Russian language.

Under the contract, Chairman of the Vietnam – Russia Friendship Association in Russia’s Sverdlov province Hoang Van Vinh, whose hometown is Ha Tinh’s Nghi Xuan district, will provide 5,000 USD to the work.

The translation will be made by PhD Nguyen Huy Hoang, a collaborator of the Moscow State University, Russia.

Secretary of the Ha Tinh Party Committee Nguyen Thanh Binh thanked Vinh and deescribed his sponsorship as a valuable homage to the author of “Truyen Kieu” - Nguyen Du (1766 – 1820), a native of Nghi Xuan.

The work is a poem written in Nom (old Vietnamese ideographic script adapted from ancient Chinese). Originally entitled “Doan Truong Tan Thanh”, it recounts the life of Thuy Kieu, a beautiful and talented young woman who had to sacrifice herself to save her family.

“Truyen Kieu”, widely regarded as a masterpiece of the Vietnamese literature, has been translated into 31 languages, including 10 versions in French.-VNA