The great epic poem Truyen Kieu (The Tale of Kieu) by poet Nguyen Du and the famous Nhat ky trong tu (Prison Diary) written by President Ho Chi Minh will soon be translated into Urdu, the national language of Pakistan.

This information was announced at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Vietnamese Writers' Association and the Pakistan Academy of Letters in Hanoi on October 15.

Accordingly, the two sides agreed to hold cultural exchanges and training courses for writers to introduce literary works and promote the culture and landscape of each country.

Nguyen Quang Thieu, Chairman of the Vietnamese Writers' Association (right) and Pakistan's Ambassador to Vietnam Kohdayar Marri signed a memorandum of understanding. Photo: Dinh Toan/The Hanoi Times

The Vietnamese side will translate and publish a selection of 100 Pakistani poetry in exchange, as per the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding.

According to poet Nguyen Quang Thieu, Chairman of the Vietnam Writers' Association, literature is the most important and reliable record of the beauty of conscience and the true aspirations of a nation.

"The signing ceremony of the cooperation between the Vietnamese Writers' Association and the Pakistan Academy of Letters aims to further understand the beauty of conscience and the great aspirations of each nation," Thieu said.

The two sides will organize exchanges, seminars and translations.

Pakistani Ambassador to Vietnam Kohdayar Marri said the MoU aims to bridge the distance between people, bring countries closer together, and create and strengthen emotional ties.

"This is just the beginning of our journey and a historic moment for me, which is a lifelong collaboration in literature, drama and poetry. I look forward to translating the works of our great poets and writers like Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Manto, Ather Shad from Balochistan and Allama Iqbal... into Vietnamese," said Ambassador Kohdayar Marri.

Two of many foreign language publications of The Tale of Kieu. Photo courtesy of the Vietnam Writers' Association.

At the signing ceremony, Chairman Nguyen Quang Thieu presented two works, Mountain and River on the Shoulders and A Desire for Peace, an anthology of poems by Vietnamese poets, in English to the Embassy of Pakistan and the Pakistan Academy of Letters.

Ambassador Kohdayar Marri, for his part, presented the Vietnam Writers' Association with two works, Poems of Iqbal and Culture and Identity, by the famous Pakistani writer Faiz.

The Tale of Kieu is an 18th century poetic masterpiece by Vietnamese poet Nguyen Du (1765-1820) and is widely regarded as the most important work of Vietnamese literature, with 3,524 verses written in six-eight verse form. It has been translated into more than 20 languages around the world.

The Prison Diary, written by President Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), is a collection of more than 100 poems written in Chinese characters during the 12 months between 1942 and 1943 when he was imprisoned in China's Guangxi Province.

Over the past 50 years, the work has been translated into many foreign languages and has become an inspiration for local and international artists.