Mr. Thien, a dissident writer who has been called the Solzhenitsyn of Vietnam for the sheaves of poems he wrote opposing the Communist government there - and for the prolonged imprisonment, including torture and solitary confinement, that his efforts earned him - died on Tuesday in Santa Ana, Calif. He was 73.
Mr. Thien was considered one of the foremost poets of contemporary Vietnam, often mentioned in world literary circles as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Of the 700 poems he wrote in prison, "70 to 100 would be considered masterpieces in our language," Nguyen Ngoc Bich, one of his translators, said in a telephone interview on Friday.
Mr. Thien was considered one of the foremost poets of contemporary Vietnam, often mentioned in world literary circles as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Of the 700 poems he wrote in prison, "70 to 100 would be considered masterpieces in our language," Nguyen Ngoc Bich, one of his translators, said in a telephone interview on Friday.