KHACHATUR ABOVYAN ARMENIAN STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

The collection of poems entitled “100 Poems” has been released through the combined efforts of the Diaspora Scientific-Educational Centre at the Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) and the Office of Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society in Yerevan.

The presentation of the book dedicated to the 100^th birth anniversary of Diaspora Armenian poet Zahrat was held at Avetik Isahakyan Central Library.

In her opening remarks, Director of Hamazkayin Armenia Ruzan Arakelyan emphasized the fact that marking the birth anniversaries of remarkable writers with the release of new books is already a tradition, under the principle of “100^th anniversary 100 Poems”. The book “100 Poems” of Zahrat is the third book following the volumes dedicated to the 100^th birth anniversaries of Vahagn Davtyan and Paruyr Sevak.

Ruzan Arakelyan touched upon the peculiarities of the works of Zahrat, including the clarity of language, the narrative nature and characters of the poems which are written in a universal language and tell about the experiences of all of us. “What is also unique is the lyricism through which Zahrat tells about love. For the writer, love seems like a fairy tale that does not need to be told about with eloquent or pompous words. One can see the features of the nation in his poems. With this book, the current and future generations will get to know the talented writer who left his trace in Armenian literature,” the speaker noted and also emphasized the difference between Constantinople-Armenian writers and writers from other Armenian communities of the Diaspora.

Head of the Chair of Armenian New and Modern Literature and its Teaching Methods after Vache Partizuni, Director of Diaspora Scientific-Educational Centre, the book’s compiler and author of the preface “Zahrat: 100 Years Old or the Zahrat that Continues Within Us” Suren Danielyan got emotional as he warmly recalled how he and Zahrat would go around the neighborhoods of Constantinople, as well as in Yerevan and New York.

Talking about the course of literature of Constantinople-Armenian writers. He noted that Zahrat and Zareh Khrakhuni gave the almost dying literature of the Armenians of Constantinople a ‘second life’. With the collection of poems entitled “Big City” and released in 1960, Zahrat heralded his imperious entrance, and with the book “Two Springs with One Stone”, he ‘conquered’ the ‘highway’ of Armenian literature and proved his powerful potential as a poet. “Zahrat, who ‘became friends with’ cats, made his way towards man, towards the adverse experiences of man, towards the Armenians. The collection of poems shows that all of us are the main characters of Zahrat — suffering and living with inherent inconsistency. Zahrat conveyed life and laughter to Armenian poetry, going ‘against time’, becoming in Armenian literature ‘the river flowing deeply into the valley’ that went against that time,” Professor Danielyan remarked.

Member of Hamazkayin’s Central Committee, editor of “Droshak” newspaper Artashes Shahbazyan extended thanks to Director of Diaspora Scientific-Educational Centre Suren Danielyan and literary critic Knarik Abrahamyan for the collaboration, as well as to those who contributed to the release of the book, including Arevik Gabrielyan, Berge and Anahid Turabians, Arto and Zabel Khrimians and Lena Ohannesian-Striter.

Knarik Abrahamyan, editor of the book “Zahrat: 100 Poems”, emphasized that it was hard to ‘go head-to-head with the poet’ and select the top 100 poems since Zahrat is a writer who achieved the heights in Armenian literature, and even though he had talent and succeeded in changing the flow of conventional Armenian poetry with his innovative approaches, in his poems one can notice the dialogues with great Armenians in folklore and literature such as Gh. Aghayan, V. Tekeyan, P. Sevak and others.

Knarik Abrahamyan expressed gratitude to all those who helped make the release of this book possible in every little way.

Associate Professor of the ASPU Chair of Armenian New and Modern Literature and its Teaching Methods Nona Davtyan also delivered a brief speech devoted to the poems of Zahrat and the author’s preferences in terms of choice of words. Renowned poet Khachik Manukyan highlighted the talent and unique thinking of Zahrat in terms of poetry, while singer-songwriter Berge Turabian (USA) presented his songs written based on the poems of Zahrat and recalled his interactions with the poet.

Stage director, actor of Gabriel Sundukyan National Academic Theater Aram Kostanyan, who worked in Constantinople for many years and had close ties with Zahrat, shared memories of Zahrat and recited some of his poems.