Essay
Seven Songs about Armenia
Յոթ երգ Հայաստանի մասին
Gevorg Emin · 1974
Synopsis
A book of prose in seven parts, one for each age of the country, in which the author follows what each century has left behind, a wound, a ruin, a wrinkle, and looks for what has allowed the Armenian people to endure. History, traditions, landscapes and language alternate with philosophical reflections on the place of a small people in the modern world.
Context
The book extends a documentary of the same title, shot around 1967 by G. Melik-Avakian at the Yerevan studios from a screenplay by the author, devoted to the country's past, customs and landscapes. It is his first major prose book after some thirty years of poetry. It was reprinted in the third volume of his works, translated into English in Moscow in 1981 by Mkrtich Soghikian, then into Lithuanian in 1984.
Who it is for
Short prose pieces, not verse, despite what the title leads one to expect. It assumes some landmarks of Armenian history that the author does not always provide.
Prizes and reception
The book for which its author is best known outside Armenia, translated into several languages.