THE ARMENIANS' GRIEF
Hovhanness Toumanian (1869-1923)
(Translated by Aram Tolegian)
The Armenian grief is a boundless sea,
An immense, dark sea,
In pain, in that black water,
My soul swims aimlessly.
Now it rises up with fury
Toward the clear sky above,
And tired now, it plunges
To the endless depths.
Wine is not unendingly deep
Nor can it raise me as far as the sky...
In the vast sea of Armenian sorrow
My tired soul moves, always in grief.
Hovhanness Toumanian is considered to be the national poet of Armenia. He wrote poems, quatrains, ballads, novels, fables, critical and journalistic articles.In 1915, he and his daughter Nvard, moved from Tiflis to Echmiadzin, where orphaned Armenian Genocide survivors were sheltered. Here, with his direct supervision and control an orphanage was opened, where about 3000 children were sheltered. The heartaches he experienced during the two months that he spent with the orphans had their
affect on his health.
Source: Armenian Genocide Museum of Yerevan
100 Voices is a multimedia project dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. It's run in partnership with senior students and teachers at Toronto's ARS Armenian Private School and explores themes of memory, amnesia, survival, and justice. Videos, photographs, and transcripts coming out of the project will be made available online, along with lessons for teachers to use in their classrooms.
www.corningcentre.org/100-voices
Song by Djivan Gasparian- Call of a Herdsman
