an adult, he visited the senile poet at his apartment in Hanoi and noticed that Xuân Diệu had become occupied with thoughts of death and old age, yet devoted himself to writing poetry anyway. Death On December 18, 1985, Xuân Diệu died at his home from a sudden heart attack. His life-long friend Huy Cận was said to have demanded that the funeral be postponed until he could come back from Dakar, Senegal; to his dismay, the funeral was carried out soon after and was attended by a lot of Vietnamese artists at the time, including Xuân Diệu's ex-wife Bạch Diệp and composer Văn Cao, whom he had publicly insulted during the Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm affair. Xuân Diệu was laid to rest in Mai Dịch Cemetery on the outskirts of Hanoi. Works A prolific writer, Xuân Diệu left behind an abundance of poems, short stories, notes, and essays. His two major poetry collections are Thơ thơ (1938) and Gửi hương cho gió (Casting Fragrance to the Wind, 1945), and his only published short story collection is titled Phấn thông vàng (Gold Pine Pollens, 1939). Poetry The writing style of Xuân Diệu, along with the French influence on his poetry, is best exemplified in the collection Thơ thơ (1938). The title of the collection itself is hard to be translated, for the second word "thơ" can mean both "poetry" or "young", giving rise to two possible interpretations: either "young poetry" or "poetic poetry". Both interpretations fit with the general ideas of the collection, which praises youth and the glory of life through a combination of symbolic imagery and multiple poetic devices. An often-cited excerpt that reflects these ideas comes from the poem "Yêu" ("Love"): Love is just a little bit of death in the heart, For how often can one love in certainty that love will be returned? Giving so much love, and receiving so little of it; Because people are fickle, or indifferent? Who knows? (Neil Jamieson's translation) The opening line was inspired by its equivalent in Edmond Haraucourt's "Rondel de l'adieu": "Partir, c'est mourir un peu". At the same time, the overall sentiment of the four lines is shared by other poems in the collection, which express the speaker's pessimism with regards to love, along with his fear of disappointment. In the poem "Vội vàng" ("In Haste"), which is currently included in Vietnam's high school curriculum, Xuân Diệu also