John Balaban, a literature professor at North Carolina State University, has translated many poems by Vietnam’s most famous poetess, Ho Xuan Huong (1722-1822). His friend John Dean is the honourary director of the centre for preserving and restoring documents at Cornell University, and one of the leading document restoration experts in the world.

The two men have worked since 2000 to preserve more than 4,000 pieces of Nom cultural heritage, including books, wood blocks, manuscripts and maps, printed on very thin do (poonah) paper.

Nom is Vietnam’s ancient language derived from the Han Chinese characters. After Vietnamese independence from China in 939, the characters became the national script. For 1,000 years, from the 10^th to the 20^th centuries, much of Vietnamese literature, philosophy, history, law, medicine, religion, and government policy were written in nom script.

Unfortunately, less than 100 scholars worldwide are still able to read the script, said Dao The Khang, director of the national library. He added that most of the more than 80 million Vietnamese people know nothing about it.

Mr. Khang said he hopes an online library of the language, a project the two Americans have been working on, will make it easier for the Vietnamese to learn about the writing.

Balaban is now the director of the 10-year-old Vietnamese Nom Preservation Foundation. His interest in ancient scriptures grew from his passion for the Nom poems written by Ho Xuan Huong.

He is currently working on translating Truyen Kieu (the Tale of Kieu) into English.

Balaban said it took him 10 years to complete his translation of Ho Xuan Huong poems but he hopes to finish Truyen Kieu in five years.