I Love the Sun Sweet Taste of Armenia

YEGHISHE CHARENTS

1897-1937

Yeghishe Charents (Soghomonyan), a legendary poet of the Armenian literature, was born on March 13 in Kars, one of the former capitals of Armenia, in Western Armenia, into a family of tradesman. His parents came from Maku to Kars where he received his primary and secondary education. His first literary attempts were at school. The poems of this period were combined in the collection called “Garun” (Spring). His first book, “Three Songs to the Pallid Girl”, the reward of his first love, was published when he was seventeen. A year later the poem “Blue-Eyed Homeland” was published. Armenia did not stay away from The World War I. In 1914 Charents joined the Armenian volunteer troops against Turks and fought until they reached Van. His participation in the national struggle to defend his homeland inspired him to write “Dantean Legend”, published in 1916 in Tbilissi. Then he went to Moscow for literary studies at the Shaniavski Institute. Back from Moscow he became involved in teaching, literary and cultural work. May 28, 1918, The Republic of Armenia was formed, and Charents became the poet of its happy and sad days. In 1921 he married Arpenik Ter Astvatsatrian, who passed away less than seven years after they were married. A year after their marriage the poet published, in two volumes, a collection of his poems entitled “Collected Works”. In 1924 he traveled abroad to visit Armenian Diaspora in Turkey, France, Greece, Italy and Germany. After his return to Armenia he and a group of other Armenian writers founded a literary organization called the Association of Armenian Proletarian Writers. Later he became the director of Armenia’s State Publishing House. He published six volumes of poetry and a novel: “Lyrical Ballads” “Dantean Legend”. “The Frenzied Mobs” “Poems” “Land of Nairi”, a novel, “Epic Daybreak”, “Book of the Road”. Charents also has many translated works by famous Russian, German, American and other poets and unpublished poems. Charents is considered the founding father of modern Eastern Armenian poetry. His prolific creative activity lasted 25 years. His way of writing prompts to discover in him several creators – the poet of the tragedy of the motherland and the poet of the tragedy of man, the traveller of mysterious dreams, the messenger of the battled for change of life and the sacrifice of temptations to his people, the messenger of new art and the singer of new days, the annalist of the idealistic history of the time, the philosopher of history course, the fate of people and the true witness to tragic fight and valour. In the infinite world of human feelings, in the intricate bonds of searching love, longing, dreams and the meaning of life, the poet confirmed his undivided love towards his country. Seeing the real circumstances his country faced during the national struggle moved him to envelope his impressions in the “Dantean Legend”. The spirit of fighting grows into call to all leading the main character, the collective strength of crowds to victory (“Soma”, “The Demented Mobs”). Then the scene passes into a collection of time phases – the ever deepening past and the opening future come to a point that is the present and the most fatal moment of the history of the people. The present is the time of destruction and resurrection. The poet faces to the future and pronounces his speech on behalf of the land of Nairi to the whole world (“The Land of Nairi”). The difficult political situation in Armenia caused by the invasion of Turks in 1920 was reflected in the poem “The Vision of Death” shaped as compression of smashed hopes and the tragedy of the lost country, the unending tragedies Armenians suffered between 387 and 1920. Apart from the wave floating as the fate of the country, there is also that of the human being and the poet starting with love, the highest feeling adding meaning to life, and the loss of the symbol of love, the pallid girl (“Three Songs to the Pallid Girl”). This is followed by the recollection of departed love (“The Land of Fire”) and the vision of the departed sweetheart in the recollection (“Vision Time”). Yet the greatest feeling is transformed into a fabulous and mysterious experience (“Lyrical Ballads”). The collection of poems entitled “Rainbow” is the end of gloomy love. “Rainbow” introduces feelings and experiences in colours: through the blue, golden and violet the poet creates a colored world of dreams. Blue, the beginning of love, is a prayer to the illusion of love; blue is the hidden world of love, the mysterious night, followed by the dawn of love, the golden sun. The gold is the light of the real world. In search of mutual life the gold of the sun feathers yielding to the misty violet, the ash of burnt dreams. This is followed by the passage from the world of death to the ardent and passionate life (“Burnt-offering Fire”) giving birth to poems dedicated to free, intoxicating, lyrical, rejected love accompanied by medieval romantic colors (“Your Enamel Profile”, “To the Street Jilt”, “Tagharan” (Poems)). This set of poems is closed by the poem dedicated to the native country, I love the sun-backed taste of Armenian words... Love towards the country is the greatest love beyond all other mortal loves. This poem is the fusion of Armenia’s history and nature. By using visible qualities the poet makes it incarnate: it is the past, the present, the future and eternity. It is the universal portrait of Armenia, the living reflection of national biography. The prominent Armenian writer William Saroyan wrote of this poem: “Up to this day it is the most beautiful song, dedicated to our country, our land, our history, the praising prayer, a prayer like “Our Lord’s””. Yearning to put the life of his nation to a new direction, Charents wrote a novel, “The Land of Nairi” dedicated to the recent history of Kars, his native city. Its premise is the historical-political situation of Armenia, the dream of free, independent and united country. The collection entitled “Epic Daybreak” touches upon the question of bringing the psychology of the living, suffering, real man into literature. The author glorifies the abundant completeness of life, which one needs to live and love in all the strength of feelings. Many of his words and thoughts have become national slogans and emblems of Armenian unity. The poem entitled “Testament” contains a hidden message to the Armenian people - the second letters of each line, read from top to bottom, spell out “Oh Armenian people your only salvation is in your collective strength”. The last book he published, “Book of the Road” is the general summary of the poet’s life, containing reflections on Armenia’s past, the folk epic David of Sassoon, verses on art, and cultural, philosophical lyrics. With philosophical insight he reexamines the fighting journey of his people passed through cross-roads of history, emphasizes the role of the creative individual in the history of the people, shows the impact of political incidents of the time on the national fate. It includes ten poems, collections entitled “Poems and Advices”, “Various Poems and Translations”. Not long after the release of “Book of the Road” Yeghishe Charents was arrested and died at the age of 40 as a victim of the Stalinist regime.

I Love the Sun Sweet Taste of Armenia

I love the sun-backed taste of Armenian words,
the lilt of our ancient lutes in sweet laments,
our blood-red, fragrant roses bending
as in Nayirian dances, danced still by our girls.

I love the deep night sky, our lakes of light,
the winter winds that howl like dragons exhaling fire.
The meanest huts with blackened walls are dear to me;
each of the thousand year old city stones.

Wherever I go, I take our mournful music,
our steel forged letters turned to prayers.
However, sharp my wounds or drained of blood
or orphaned, my yearning heart turns there with love.

There is no brow, no mind, like Narek's, Koutchak's,
No mountain peak like Ararat's.
Search the world there is no crest so white, so holy.
So like an unreached road to glory, Masis mountain that I love.

Fatherland
Yeghishe Charents

Snow-wrapped mountains and blue lakes,
Skies like dreams of the soul,
Skies like children's eyes.
I was alone. You were with me.

When I heard the whispers of the lake,
And looked unceasingly into the distance,
There rose in me that old longing
For you, that dream, holy, star-filled, infinite.

In the clear evocative sunset
I called, called to the snow covered mountains;
Night fell, darkening the distance,
Mingling my soul with the starry dark.

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ʳéÝ»Éáí Ñá·Çë ³ëïÕ³ÛÇÝ ÙáõÃÇÝ…

Our Language

Our language is flexible and barbaric
masculine and rough. At the same
time keeps an inner light, a lighthouse
lit with an eternal flame.

Honorable, ingenious craftsmen
have carved its ancient stones
for centuries, so they shine
like crystal. Sometimes weather blown

mountain rock, always with its own
animus. Today, it is by design,
if we chip it, to stop rust
from settling on our minds.

Neither Narek's rustling parchment
nor Toumanian's bright Lori-grown
dialect can sheathe its modern spirit
--not even Derian's silken tone.

But wait. From the iron harvest
our new language will be honed
to hold the deep and homesick thoughts
that are ours, ours alone.

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ºõ ËáÑ»ñÇ ³Ûë Ëá¯ñ áõ »ñÏñ³Ï³Ù...

PARTING WORDS

I have put out so many fires in my eyes
And so many stars have I put out in my desperate soul.
Don't curse my life as you leave - it's just a memory now,
My life will pass and fade away, but my song will live on.

My life will pass and fade away like a fire in a swamp,
Inconsolable and dull, without hope, without aim.
In my songs no one recognizes me, you know,
As if it were another singing the blue longing of my soul.

Forever mute and estranged, I have wandered in silence.
No one, no one knows who I am, what my life is about.
All they know is in my life I have written a few songs,
As I know that you exist, as I know that you are loved.

I have sung to your soul, to your luminous smile,
To the sacred sadness of your eyes and your face.
My life abandoned in infinity, I have sung the profound love
And the longing of my arms that could never reach you.

Oh, sister, my foggy evening is coming closer,
How can I stop my longing soul from weeping?
How, how can I accept the drained cup of my fate,
So that my hands do not shake, so that my days forgive me?

And what if suddenly I start doubting myself,
And my sacred longing for you begins to feel like a lie?
Whatever happens, sister, don't curse, when we part,
The pitiable longing of my arms that could never reach you.

1917

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1917

GIRL LIKE A LAMPSHADE

Girl like a lampshade – with the Virgin Mary’s eyes,
Tubercular, transparent, a body in a dream,
Girl – blue, agate, milky, enchanting,
Girl like a lampshade …

What can I do, what can I do so that my soul doesn’t die,
So that my soul doesn’t burn out in your agate eyes?
What can I do to keep the rainbow tricolored,
To keep the depth of my soul from fading and burning?

Girl like a lampshade – with the Virgin Mary’s eyes,
Tubercular, transparent, a body in a dream,
Girl – blue, agate, milky, enchanting,
Girl like a lampshade …

1916-1917