Six Armenian Poets

by Razmik Davoyan (Editor), Armine Tamrazian (Translator)

Overview

Three of the poets included in this volume established themselves as poets in the post-Stalin Soviet Armenia. Two are partly from the Soviet era, although they have become more visible since the independence. The youngest is a post soviet writer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781906570873
Publisher:	ARC Publications
Publication date:	01/29/2013
Series:	New Voices from Europe & Beyond
Pages:	130
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.31(d)
Language:	Armenian

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INTRODUCTION

We can see where Armenian poetry comes from simply by looking at the fragments of our pre-Christian epic stories recorded by the fifth-century historian Movses Khorenatsi in his History of the Armenians. The events depicted in those stories go back to primaeval times, long, long before this last civilization, perhaps even to the birth of mankind. Those stories reached Khorenatsi through oral tradition and, by recording them, he presented our nation with an invaluable gift.

The roots of the Armenian ancient epic stories reach back to the beginnings of mankind. "Tsovinar" (daughter of the seas), the mother of our nation and goddess of the waters, conceived her two sons "Sanasar" and "Baghdasar" from the waters. The most ancient memories of this nation relate them to "Sis" and "Masis" (the small and large peaks of Mount Ararat respectively). What processes were at work on our planet at the time when these two saintly brothers ("Sanasar" means Sacred Mountain) were born is for the oceanographers, astronomers and scientists to determine ... However, at a later period, life continued on earth thanks to Sanasar, who held Noah's Ark on his shoulders. Tsovinar existed when the Lord's eye (or spirit) roamed over the dark waters, earth, sky and land when the waters had not yet separated. The animals, even before Adam and Eve, had not yet been created. Tsovinar, herself illuminated as the very waters by the Lord's Spirit, gave birth to everything else. Water is the beginning of everything and Tsovinar, the goddess of the waters, has never disappeared from our memories. Furthermore, in an epic poem of the early middle ages called 'The Brave Men of Sassoon', it is Tsovinar who provides the warriors with their mythical flaming swords and flying horses to withstand the Arab invasions.

In short, our poetical memory goes far beyond our historical memory. In fact, our primary history is our poetry, which should be considered as being totally free from falsehoods, offering a sincere and impartial account because it was not commissioned by any ruler or princely house. In this poetical history, "Vahagn" (the god of war, courage and victory in Armenian mythology) is also born from the seas.

The sky was in labour,
The storytellers of the early middle ages would sing 'The Birth of Vahagn' to the accompaniment of a cithara (or lyre), telling of how he fought devils, lightning and evil forces and Khorenatsi wrote these stories down. During later periods, the characters in these epic stories have appeared and reappeared constantly in different folk tales, fables, and narratives.

The bed-rock of Armenian poetry is a strong and revered folklore tradition that has produced many outstanding poets from the middle ages to modern times, both in Eastern and Western Armenia.

During the Soviet era, most of these writers were banned authors. At the same time, for the writers of a nation deprived of its roots, everything beyond the Iron Curtain was shrouded in mystery; because ideas were being created in nations free from state control, they had an attractive and rather tempting lustre and assumed a dream-like desirability. Western modernism was "crushed" by Soviet critics in articles and literary criticism whose mission was to glorify social realism, but with the passing years it became more and more obvious for the artists and writers that this was only a result of ideological corruption and had no artistic or aesthetic value whatsoever. The "crushers" themselves, however, were also fully aware of this fact; therefore, especially during the post-Stalin years, quotations from authors representing bourgeois and modernist ideologies took up a substantial part of their works. Needless to say, these long quotations were intended for the benefit of those who were searching tirelessly to get a glimpse of the ongoing ideological processes in the outside world. In other words, there seemed to be a secret pact between the critics and the writers which sometimes resembled a game, as in the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible, where God brings the forbidden fruit to their attention by forbidding them to taste it. Naturally they eventually did taste it and their minds were opened.

After Stalin's death another, more touching, internal pact was formed between poets and readers. Although Khrushchev had denounced the worship of the individual, overall policy had remained unchanged as he himself notes in his Memoirs. Khrushchev admits that he and his administration blindly believed and trusted in Stalin's idea of creating one "Soviet Nation" from over seventy ethnic groups and nations living within the boundaries of the empire and it was this preposterous idea that led the Communist Party and its strong censorship to suppress even the weakest manifestation — in any form whatsoever — of national sentiment. The level of oppression varied in different republics. For instance, in the Ukraine in the city of Lvov, during a festival dedicated to Armenian literature in 1973, the present writer was forbidden to read a poem on national television, despite the fact that it had already been published in Russian translation in Moscow. At the same time, the persecutions and prosecutions of poets making public speeches were reduced considerably. Audiences applauded excitedly whenever a poet gave them a positive, or even a vague, idea of freedom or national sentiment from the stage. There was a covert pact between poet and audience which was a source of the most powerful vital energy both for the poet and the people. It was during this period that, having undergone the necessary censorships, writers of the past began to be re-published. Queues at bookshops for pre-Soviet literature and desirable books by contemporary writers were common, provoking envy and hatred from writers in the service of the Party, who now used their position to block the way — at all costs — for the truly talented writers. In spite of all this, those were comparatively heart-warming years as it seemed that our nation's book-worshipping tradition was being revived. However, Western modernism still continued to tempt young writers in Armenia, which unfortunately proved to be a very poor option, perhaps due to the fact that the so-called "modernists" followed the writers of the Soviet Baltic republics, considering them closer to the West. Illegal literature was passed from hand to hand, the style and substance of which ranged from trash to that worth emulating.

There was no "samizdat" in Armenia. This was either because of the small size of the Republic and tight state control, or perhaps because Armenian writers simply did not create such works. There was, however, dissidence. It is possible that the entire nation was defiant; everyone was passively seeking new political and social freedoms. Those few who questioned, however discreetly, the underlying structures immediately found themselves under surveillance by the security services.

It should be mentioned here that dissidence does not belong to literature. Dissidence belongs to politics and the highest literary values reject it. It is common knowledge that ruling powers always try to use the people's heroes or heroines for their own ends. Every state or regime has, to a differing degree, its share of crimes against humanity, human rights and freedom. It is also common knowledge that a true artist will always stand up for freedom, human rights and humanity, and is always with, and part of, the people. If a true poet is defiant, his defiance rises beyond the reach of politics on the wings of his poetry which thus remains relatively untouched.

In post-Khrushchev Soviet Armenia, it often happened that the henchmen of the Writers' Union and their serving critics denounced the works of brilliant writers as "anti-Soviet and nationalistic" in order to strengthen their position before their ruling lords on the one hand, and on the other, to provide satisfaction and a sense of victory over true talent for their obliging mediocrity. There were certainly pressures and persecutions but fortunately they did not result in death or exile as was common practice in earlier times.

In Soviet Armenia, irrespective of the substance, the classical form of poetry was most commonly used and although the writer familiar with our literary heritage would know that historically, perfect specimens of many different forms of poetry exist in Armenian literature. Speaking personally, I do not have a preference towards any particular form, because for me poetry, as with any other art form, is a means of conveying life energy from the creator to the "consumer". In the same way that electricity is conveyed from its source through the wire to the lamp at the other end which turns it into light, the life energy should be conveyed from the creator through their creation to the reader's (or listener's or viewer's) perfect heart and turned into light (of a poem, an image or a piece of music). The reader, then, is free to make a choice and whether the form is classical or free, or whether there is a sequence of varying forms, the requirement is always the same. The words should be linked together to perfection in order to be able to convey both life energy and what the poet has to say simultaneously. The rest, that is the amount of life energy which each creator has to give, is determined only by Providence.

Three of the poets included in this volume, Hrachya Saroukhan, Azniv Sahakyan and Khachik Manoukyan, established themselves as poets in the post-Stalin Soviet Armenia. Violet Grigorian and Anatoli Hovhannisyan are partly from the Soviet era, although they have become more visible since the independence. The youngest, Hasmik Simonian, is a post-Soviet writer.

There is a considerable amount of affection directed towards HRACHYA SAROUKHAN, perhaps because of the fact that, having studied in the capital city Yerevan, he established himself as a poet without moving from his home in the country, even though his talent did give him the right to demand his place in the city. From his small town, having gained the affection of the readers in his own environment, he managed to establish himself with the literary public as one of the finest representatives of his generation. By drawing his friends, relatives and his very loyal followers into his poems, Saroukhan creates an interpersonal poetic environment in which, using various tricks, he weaves pictures in micro-strokes of their confessions, memories, or sometimes their thorn-crowned losses, throwing a not-very-confident glance at the other world.

On the other hand, KHACHIK MANOUKYAN candidly announces his credo, "This Isn't The World", the title of his latest collection of poems. The starting point of his struggle against the inhuman nature of this world is the scriptures, the Old and New Testaments. He complains to Noah, arguing that perhaps he didn't choose the right people with which to start the new, faithful humankind, and that, as a result of his misjudgment, the world today is ruled by brutish regimes and laws. It is in this struggle that we find Manoukyan's true vitality both as a person and as a poet.

VIOLET GRIGORIAN and HASMIK SIMONIAN belong to different generations but, with a united philosophy, they have no fear of endangering the "poetry" in favour of the consolation of creating something from the ruins of their inner worlds caused by the cruelty of life. Their attempts to break free from interpersonal and domestic inconveniences prompt them to use certain linguistic tools with which they are able to "bring out the domestic trash" and indulge in an involuntary psychological distortion. Armenia's closed, traditional lifestyle has been opened up, and these two poets fearlessly intend to use their right to uncontrolled freedom of speech to the very end. In other words, preserving the "poetry" in their creations is not their prime concern. Whether this is right or wrong is for the reader to judge.

The other two poets represented in this volume also "dig up" their poems from the exploration of their inner feelings, but with one crucial difference. They try as much as they possibly can not to compromise the "poetry".

AZNIV SAHAKYAN has entitled her latest collection of poems Back Door, providing the reader with a hint as to the way into the treasury of her inner world, while at the same time making it clear that the social creature which people can see only represents the physical picture of her distorted existence. In this selection, the reader can become acquainted with Sahakyan's sombre existence. Her visual system of self-expression is truly attractive and in harmony with her psychological state.

ANATOLI HOVHANNISYAN'S collection of poems, Mirror, is not a smooth, single-surfaced mirror, but rather consists of many fragments, each of which reflects an invaluable relic of agonizing feelings which eventually form a uniform poetic world that cannot leave the sensitive reader untouched. This mirror is not meant to reflect the image of the author or the reader, and those who seek this will be disappointed. In the mirror of suffering, each reader can find a fragment of their own suffering and it is these fragments that come together to form the poet's own mirror. Anatoli Hovhannisyan does not aim to cause suffering to the reader by his own torment. Rather, he brings about a feeling of consolation, whether intentionally or not, which could be considered a mirror of solace.

Razmik Davoyan

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Six Armenian Poets"
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Table of Contents

Series Editor's Preface,
Introduction,
HRACHYA SARUKHAN,
Biography,
"A raindrop ...",
"Once ...",
Unfinished Autumnal Lines,
"There was nothing beyond my voice ...",
And Since ...,
Impression,
"A Call to Enter a Dream ...",
VIOLET GRIGORIAN,
Biography,
Elegy,
1993,
"Sparkling wine saved for a dark hour ...",
Death's Betrothed,
KHACHIK MANOUKYAN,
Biography,
"Cursed are ...",
Past,
Desert,
Nocturnal Sketch,
"A meagre lone candle ...",
"I searched for you in the waves ...",
A Wounded Cross,
AZNIV SAHAKYAN,
Biography,
"Spring is pulsating blue ...",
"The flowers are singing ...",
"I was chewing on my heart to soften it ...",
"The abyss in my room is growing deeper ...",
"The quiver of the water is red ...",
"Autumn was descending ...",
"Darkness is the shadow of my voice ...",
"Deaf is the leech of the night ...",
"Leaves, telling of delayed rains ...",
"The black birds of the lines ...",
"Perhaps I am stone ...",
"The words are seeking torches ...",
"Like a tree, which blossoms and thins nicely ...",
"In the snows of my heart ...",
"The moon hung over the street like a billboard ...",
ANATOLI HOVHANNISYAN,
Biography,
"I seek myself ...",
"A line of poetry ...",
"A lost day on the calendar ...",
"The wind has burnt its lips ...",
"You are asleep ...",
"I am lost in your fainting eyes ...",
"I'm a breathless river ...",
"The trees are alone ...",
"Emptiness is filled with screams of fear ...",
"I am all you have in life ...",
"I'm a fishing net ...",
"I keep repeating my name ...",
"I live in anticipation ...",
"I am alone ...",
"Torn pieces of a painting ...",
"Dust ...",
"The snow sleeps in the twilight ...",
When the Wound Turns into a Callus,
"Flattened on the motorway ...",
"I have woken ...",
HASMIK SIMONIAN,
Biography,
"In the solace of a white silence ...",
Hello,
"Days were smoking cigarettes ...",
To Mary,
"Among the autumns which stretched and squeezed,
like an accordion ...",
About the Editor & Translator,