Literature Question

Preparation for our meeting on Wednesday

In class we observed significant diversity in the territorial bounds of the Armenian homeland in viewing a map highlighting the states continually changing contours.Similarly, we tracked a transformation from religion to nationalism from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries. Now, we are going to examine the parallel course plotted in the literary realm.

The assignment for Wednesday is to read the three poems below from different periods treating the issue of home and homeland from very contrasting perspectives and reflecting very differentbackgrounds to appreciate something of the complexity of nationalist goals and sentiments and the degree of diversity evoked in their cultural expression in various socio–political situations at different times.

a) YovhannesVanandecis poem To Armenia of the early 19th century

b) MusheghIshkhansThe Armenian Language is the Home of the Armenian (1936)

c) Ashugh Shiraks To the Red Homeland (c. 1944)

After reading over the three poems, select one and write around half a page on your analysis of a) the type of home or homeland described, and b) what this tells us about the background of the writing and the potential audience addressed.

Please email me your work by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday to so that I can coordinate your responses and factor them into our discussion of the poems in class on Wednesday.Please send your work in a Word File (not PDF) with your name and the title of the poem in the subject line.

1) YovhannesVanandetsi (1772-1841)

To Armenia

Armenia, land of paradise!

Land where mankinds first cradle lies.

My native land, my hearts dear prize,

Armenia, Armenia, Armenia.

At your great name, my heart is thrilled

With courage new, my fears are flown

With eagerness I long for you.

I hope in you, in you alone,

Armenia, Armenia, Armenia.

Armenia, name of grace!

There found Noahs Ark its resting place.

There Noah dwelt and reared his race,

Armenia, Armenia, Armenia.

Great rivers that in Eden rise

Water and fertilize your ground.

Oh, may I live and joy in you,

In you my only boast be found,

Armenia, Armenia, Armenia.

(trans. Alice Stone Blackwell)

N.B.In interpreting this poem Id like you to pause on the repeated emphasis on the name of Armenia (at your great name . . . name of grace) and the significance of the response of boasting (in you my only boast . . .).

2) MusheghIshkhan (1913-1990)

The Armenian Language is the Home of the Armenian

The Armenian language is the home

And haven where the wanderer can own

Roof and wall and nourishment.

He can enter to find love and pride,

Locking the hyena and the storm outside.

For centuries its architects have toiled

To give its ceilings height.

How many peasants working

Day and night have kept

Its cupboards full, lamps lit, ovens hot.

Always rejuvenated, always old, it lasts

Century to century on the path

Where every Armenian can find it when hes lost

In the wilderness of his future, or his past.

(1936)

3) Ashugh Shirak

To The Red Homeland

O Dearest, red Soviet Homeland,

You are a garden adorned with flowers,

You gained benefits under Stalins light,

You are the great defender of the working class.

Soviet world, you are pretty, lively,

Like an inextinguishable torch may you shine through the ages.

You bloom more from day to day; you are prosperous and radiant.

Magnificent, enchanting, you are incomparable.

Ashugh Shirak said you are well founded,

You are stable, stay steadfast forever.

Long live Stalin, noble, honorable,

Creator of a new life, you are honorable.

(c.1944)

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