Poetry
Դավթար
Not translated into English
Sayat-Nova · 1852
Synopsis
The songbook that the poet kept in his own hand: love songs made for the voice and the kamancha, in which the beloved is spoken through flowers, stones and fabrics, and in which the singer laments that he loves above his station. The Armenian songs stand beside songs in Turkish by minstrels, and the poet forges his own language, mixing Eastern and Western forms, Persian and Turkish words.
Context
The notebook, preserved at the Charents Museum of Literature and Art in Yerevan, contains forty-six Armenian songs written in Georgian letters, one hundred and fourteen songs in Turkish written in Armenian letters and a few Georgian pieces; it sometimes gives the date on which a song was composed or sung. The physician Gevorg Akhverdian found it, deciphered the Armenian songs and published them for the first time in Tiflis in 1852. A son of the poet had gathered another collection in 1823, in Georgian letters.
Who it is for
Short songs, to be listened to rather than read. The Tiflis language of the time is difficult even in Armenia, and the tunes count as much as the words.
Prizes and reception
Songs still in the repertoire, which Paradjanov brought to the screen and whose Armenian odes were translated into Russian by Bryusov as early as 1916.