Armenian Poems


Book Description

The rich and bountiful poetry of Armenia is presented in this collection, adeptly and sensitively translated to English to preserve the expressive beauty in the verses. Armenian poems are rich with passionate expression, sometimes voicing pride in the national culture, history and identity. Some of the poems are outright romantic; celebrating the beauty, aesthetics and emotive intensity of youthful courtship. Other verses celebrate Armenia's martial prowess; with differing cultures on multiple sides, the land often saw battle. The importance of the country's location at the border between the European and Asian continents finds allusion, as authors nod to past glories, and predict future prowess. Reference to the scenic lands of Armenia, its local dances and the way of life abound in the verse, the poetry often brimming with cultured allusions. Significantly, this anthology includes the most famed and celebrated works by the lauded national poets, together with older poetry and hymns dating back as far as the early-Medieval era. The reader thus acquires an acute impression of how Armenian poetic works evolved through the centuries.




An Armenian Sketchbook


Book Description

An NYRB Classics Original Few writers had to confront as many of the last century’s mass tragedies as Vasily Grossman, who wrote with terrifying clarity about the Shoah, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the Terror Famine in the Ukraine. An Armenian Sketchbook, however, shows us a very different Grossman, notable for his tenderness, warmth, and sense of fun. After the Soviet government confiscated—or, as Grossman always put it, “arrested”—Life and Fate, he took on the task of revising a literal Russian translation of a long Armenian novel. The novel was of little interest to him, but he needed money and was evidently glad of an excuse to travel to Armenia. An Armenian Sketchbook is his account of the two months he spent there. This is by far the most personal and intimate of Grossman’s works, endowed with an air of absolute spontaneity, as though he is simply chatting to the reader about his impressions of Armenia—its mountains, its ancient churches, its people—while also examining his own thoughts and moods. A wonderfully human account of travel to a faraway place, An Armenian Sketchbook also has the vivid appeal of a self-portrait.




The Key of Truth


Book Description

Excerpt from The Key of Truth: A Manual of the Paulician Church of Armenia Opinion. Its antiquity evidenced by John of Otzun, and by (lxxxvn) Lazar of Pharp (e. The organic unity of beliefs with rites seen in the Key is a proof of age and primitiveness. - (lxxxviii) Coherence of Paulician Christology with baptismal usages and with rite of election. - (lxxxix) The Key a monument of the Adoptionist Church, of which T fie Skep/zera' of Hermas is also a monument. - (xc) The Christology of latter book examined and shown to agree with that of Theodotus. - (xci) Traces of Adoptionism in Justin Martyr. - (xcii) Its identity with ebionitechristology. Hippolytus' account of Theodotus. - (xciii) Proba bility that Theodotus, like the Paulicians, accepted John's Gospel; though the Alogi, his predecessors, rejected ir. - (xciv) Adoptionism in Melito. Condemnation of Paul of Samosata. - (cxv) The latter's teaching - (xcvi) Traces of Adoptionism in Lactantius. Evolution of Christian dogmas in the great centres of culture. - (xcvii) The Disputa tion of Archelaus with Mani is an Adoptionist monument, for it teaches that Jesus was merely man before his baptism - (xcviii) and that he was not God incarnate. It excludes the ordinary interpretation of the miraculous birth. - (xcix) Jesus was filz'us fier profeetzem. Parallel descent of Holy Spirit on the faithful. - (c) Jesus became Christ and Son of God at his baptism. - (ci) Karkhar the see of Archelaus was near Arabion Castellum on the Stranga, or - (cii) upper Zab - (ciii) and was therefore an Armenian see. Antiquity of Christianity in south east Armenia. - (civ) The early Christianity of the Taurus range was Adoptionist, and - (cv) the name Paulician originally meant a follower of Paul of Samosata. - (cvi) The Paulicians, therefore, the same as the Pauliani of the Nicene fathers and of Ephrem. The Paulianist heresy reappeared in the empire in eighth century as a characteristically Armenian heresy. - (cvii) Early conflict in Armenia of the Adoptionist Christology with the Nicene, which came in from Cappadocia. (cviii) The Adoptionists under name of Messa'lians condemned in Armenian council of Shahapivan (a. D. Lazar of Pharp's descrip tion (a. D. 480) of Armenian heresy. - (cix) The heresy condemned at Shahapivan was the primitive Syriac Christianity of south-east Armenia, which - (cx) the grecizing Armenian fathers ignored, though it provided them with their earliest version of New Testament. (cxi) Gregory the Illuminator was probably an Adoptionist believer, but his 'teaching' has been falsified. - (cxii) Evidence of St. Basil's letters as to the conflict in Armenia in fourth century of the rival schools of Christology. St. Nerses (died a. Basil's lieutenant, de posed by King Pap, who - (cxiii) effected the final rupture with Caesarea. - (cxiv) Basil's description of the popular heresy of Armenia proves that it was Adoptionist. - (cxv) It affirmed, like Eunomius' creed, that Jesus Christ was a created being. - (cxvi) The orthodox Armenians shifted their ecclesiastical centre to Valarshapat from Taron, because of the prevalence of Adoptionists in latter region. Constantine V a Paulician. - (cxv11) The role of Smbat. He did not create the heresy of the Thonraki, but only organized the old believers of Taron. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com







Ravished Armenia


Book Description

In Ravished Armenia Aurora Mardiganian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide of 1915–1923, recalls sixteen young Armenian girls being "crucified" by their Ottoman tormentors. The story starts in 1915 when Arshaluys was 14 years old. She personally witnessed the murder of her father, mother, brothers and sisters. She was taken to the harem of a number of Turkish pashas, but had remained attached to her Christian Armenian faith despite being tortured repeatedly at the hands of her captors.




"They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else"


Book Description

A definitive history of the 20th century's first major genocide on its 100th anniversary Starting in early 1915, the Ottoman Turks began deporting and killing hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the first major genocide of the twentieth century. By the end of the First World War, the number of Armenians in what would become Turkey had been reduced by 90 percent—more than a million people. A century later, the Armenian Genocide remains controversial but relatively unknown, overshadowed by later slaughters and the chasm separating Turkish and Armenian interpretations of events. In this definitive narrative history, Ronald Suny cuts through nationalist myths, propaganda, and denial to provide an unmatched account of when, how, and why the atrocities of 1915–16 were committed. Drawing on archival documents and eyewitness accounts, this is an unforgettable chronicle of a cataclysm that set a tragic pattern for a century of genocide and crimes against humanity.




Armenian Golgotha


Book Description

On April 24, 1915, Grigoris Balakian was arrested along with some 250 other leaders of Constantinople’s Armenian community. It was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire’s systematic attempt to eliminate the Armenian people from Turkey—a campaign that continued through World War I and the fall of the empire. Over the next four years, Balakian would bear witness to a seemingly endless caravan of blood, surviving to recount his miraculous escape and expose the atrocities that led to over a million deaths. Armenian Golgotha is Balakian’s devastating eyewitness account—a haunting reminder of the first modern genocide and a controversial historical document that is destined to become a classic of survivor literature.




Armenian Food


Book Description

Food is a portal to Armenia's past and present-day culture. This culinary journey across the land called Hayastan presents the rich history, wondrous legends, and fact-filled stories of Armenian cuisine. Authors Irina Petrosian and David Underwood take readers on a memorable tour of Armenia by way of the kitchen. What ancient Armenian fable warned against genetically-altered food? What little-known Armenian fruit may have helped Noah on the ark? What was the diet of David of Sassoun, the legendary Armenian Hercules? What was the influence of the Soviet Union on the food ways of Armenia? What strange and exotic fruits and herbs are sold in Armenia's markets? Why do Armenians go to cemeteries to 'feed' the dead? What role did coffee play in Armenian marriage rituals? If you are curious about one of the world's most ancient cultures, or are contemplating a trip to Armenia, don't miss the chance to read this fascinating book.




The Hundred-year Walk


Book Description

A Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize A New York Post Must-Read "Part family heirloom, part history lesson, The Hundred-Year Walk is an emotionally poignant work, powerfully imagined and expertly crafted."--Aline Ohanesian, author of Orhan's Inheritance "This book reminds us that the way we treat strangers can ripple out in ways we will never know . . . MacKeen's excavation of the past reveals both uncomfortable and uplifting lessons about our present."--Ari Shapiro, NPR Growing up, Dawn MacKeen heard from her mother how her grandfather Stepan miraculously escaped from the Turks during the Armenian genocide of 1915, when more than one million people--half the Armenian population--were killed. In The Hundred-Year Walk MacKeen alternates between Stepan's courageous account, drawn from his long-lost journals, and her own story as she attempts to retrace his steps, setting out alone to Turkey and Syria, shadowing her resourceful, resilient grandfather across a landscape still rife with tension. Dawn uses his journals to guide her to the places he was imperiled and imprisoned and the desert he crossed with only half a bottle of water. Their shared story is a testament to family, to home, and to the power of the human spirit to transcend the barriers of religion, ethnicity, and even time itself. "I am in awe of what Dawn MacKeen has done here . . . Her sentences sing. Her research shines. Her readers will be rapt--and a lot smarter by the end."--Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion "Harrowing."--Us Weekly




A Summer Without Dawn


Book Description

"A Summer Without Dawn is an epic family saga that unfolds against the true story of the Armenians deported from the Ottoman Empire and massacred during the First World War. In the summer of 1915, days after the government orders the deportation of the Armenians, the charismatic Armenian journalist Vartan Balian is separated from his family and imprisoned by politicians hoping to silence him. After a daring escape, he becomes a fugitive and embarks on an odyssey across the vast empire. Not only is he running for his life; he is also searching for his wife, Maro, and their young son, Tomas. Forced into one of the deportee convoys headed for the Syrian desert, their numbers thinning every day, Maro and Tomas are saved from certain death when the Ottoman governor overseeing their deportation shelters them in the cloistered splendour of his palace, where Maro is reluctantly drawn into his harem's web of betrayals and alliances. In the four years that will pass before they are reunited, the Balians will each confront the calamities of war and the secrets of their own heart. With settings ranging from the exotic opulence of a Turkish harem and the cosmopolitan streets of Constantinople, to the blistering desolation of the Syrian desert, this sweeping novel immerses the reader in a time, a place, and a political moment that have rarely, if ever, been portrayed in the pages of a novel. "A Summer Without Dawn is a rich tapestry of lives, a compelling human drama about a family swept up in one of history's darkest moments, and a moving portrait of a people's unbreakable will to survive.