Poetry
Մթնշաղի անուրջներ
Not translated into English
Vahan Terian · 1908
Opening lines
Սահուն քայլերով, աննշմար, որպես քնքուշ մութի թև,
Մի ըստվեր անցավ ծաղիկ ու կանաչ մեղմիվ շոյելով.
With gliding steps, unnoticed, like a wing of tender darkness,
A shadow passed, gently caressing flowers and greenery.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from hy.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Short lyric poems made of rain, mist, pale fields and formless shadows, through which autumn, spring and love pass. Sorrow and pain seek a calmer form in them, and the homeland and its destiny surface beneath the images, in a language of a purity that Eastern Armenian had not yet known.
Context
The collection appeared in Tiflis in 1908, shortly after its author's release; he had first submitted the poems to Hovhannes Toumanian and Avetik Issahakian, who saw in them, the former, an almost complete novelty in Armenian lyric poetry, the latter, true poetry of crystalline feelings. The success was such that the critic Stepan Zorian spoke of a Terian era, in which lovers gave each other the book. Many of his poems have become songs that are still performed.
Who it is for
A slim collection of short, musical poems. Nothing in it requires prior knowledge, except that it opens the twentieth century of Eastern Armenian poetry.
Prizes and reception
The book that established its author from the moment of its publication, and the starting point of a body of work regarded as a summit of Armenian poetic language.