Huynh Sanh Thong (1926-2008)
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Subject: Huynh Sanh Thong
From: "Southeast Asian Studies" <seas@yale.edu>
Date: Tue, November 18, 2008 1:13 pm
To: "Southeast Asian Studies" <seas@yale.edu>
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We have just learned that Huynh Sanh Thong, former director of the Yale
Southeast Asian Refugee project and founder of the Council's Vietnam Forum
and Lac Viet publications series died yesterday of sudden heart failure. He
is survived by his wife, Van-Yen Huynh, who retired from her position at the
Yale University Library in March 2008.
Huynh Sanh Thong was widely regarded as the preeminent translator of the
poetry of Vietnam, and dedicated much of his life to bringing the
achievements of Vietnamese literature and culture to western audiences.
Thong was awarded the AAS Benda Prize in 1981, and was a 1987 recipient of
the MacArthur Fellowship.
Huynh Sanh Thong published two books with Yale Press, An Anthology of
Vietnamese Poetry and The Tale of Kieu. In 1984, a bilingual edition of
poems written by Nguyen Chi Thien and translated into English by Huynh Sanh
Thong was published under the title Flowers from Hell by the Yale Council on
Southeast Asia Studies. In 1985, this book won the International Poetry Prize in Rotterdam.
Services at Grove Street Cemetery later this week will be private.