45 replies to this topic

[Ani]

Aksel Bakunts

[Arpa]

Do we know this Nairi?

http://www.gomidas.org/
http://www.gomidas.o...Information.htm
ՄԹՆԱՁՈՐ
http://www.eanc.net/...ace_language=en

Edited by Arpa, 25 November 2009 - 03:36 PM.

[hetanos]

<!--quoteo(post=241862:date=Apr 24 2008, 03:37 PM:name=nairi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (nairi @ Apr 24 2008, 03:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=241862"><img src="http://hyeforum.com/...r/snapback.png" border="0" alt="" /></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->By the end of the story it becomes clear that he's not a Bolshevik, so I'm assuming that he is a Dashnak. The red armband still makes me wonder, however..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have not read that work by Bakunts, yet...
Yes, Nairi. That slogan-
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>"թե ով դաշնակցական չի, նա հայ չի:"</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->Is still recited by many even today.
As to the "red band" you know that the color red is the color of revolution that goes all the way back to the French Revoltion, hundreds of years before the Bolshevik one.
Hopefully one day we will learn how and why Abovian was murdered. How and why Bakunts was murderd, how and why Charents was condemned to an asylum for the criminally insane, and how and why Sevak was murdered, aka automobile accident. I have been there, beside all the dangerously winding hilly roads, that spot is the flattest of all with no reason for a road accident.
Speaking of "archives", regardless of what the furks may say, those "asrchives" are wide open. No argument. What I would ike to see is the "archives" why so many of our intellectuals were "silenced/murdered", and many more were exiled to Siberia! We may, before we accuse furkey of suppression of truth, tell the truth about our so called "archives".

I know, I'm digging 9 year old post...As far as I remember, there was a common knowledge that Paylak(criminal friend of Karen Demirchyan) organized Sevak's accident. Paylak even at later time has been heard to say that the only wrong thing he has done in his life was to kill Sevak.

[Arpa]

Do we know this Nairi?
.....

Yes, I am now pretty sure that she is our own friend Nairi. The book is widely advertised by bookstores, even Amazon.
Look;
http://www.azad-hye....ewsId=471aafd26
Is this why we have not seen her since Aug. 2009??

What is Nairi doing now?
"I'd like to finish Bakunts' body of work now, and then look at what has been translated, and what I think still needs to be done."
Nairi is currently in Armenia where she is enjoying life and working on more translations.

[Harut]

Yes, I am now pretty sure that she is our own friend Nairi. The book is widely advertised by bookstores, even Amazon.
Look;
http://www.azad-hye....ewsId=471aafd26
Is this why we have not seen her since Aug. 2009??

yes, that's her... and good for her...

[Nané]

Wow. This is wonderful. And she's in Armenia

[Arpa]

YEA!!
NAIRI IS BACK!!!

Drum roll or two


Տարոսը մեր բոլոր այլ մտաւորականներին:
Welcome back. How was your sojourn in Yerevan? You may wish to initiate a separate thread about it.
Also see this by Eddie
http://hyeforum.com/...=0

Edited by Arpa, 19 March 2010 - 12:44 PM.

[nairi]

Hm, seems like Eddie is not too happy with my flawful translation.

Anyway, hi Arpa!! How've you been? Loving every bit of Armenia so far, despite the water cuts, the blackouts, and the cockroaches. I'm still in my honeymoon phase, I suppose.. Hope I stay there for a long time to come.

[Louise Kiffer]

Yes, I am now pretty sure that she is our own friend Nairi. The book is widely advertised by bookstores, even Amazon.
Look;
http://www.azad-hye....ewsId=471aafd26
Is this why we have not seen her since Aug. 2009??

------------------------------------------------
The book "short stories " from Aksel Bagounts has been translated in French by M. Besnilian, published by Editor "Parentheses" in Marseille 1990.

[Arpa]

Hm, seems like Eddie is not too happy with my flawful translation.

Anyway, hi Arpa!! How've you been? Loving every bit of Armenia so far, despite the water cuts, the blackouts, and the cockroaches. I'm still in my honeymoon phase, I suppose.. Hope I stay there for a long time to come.

Do you mean "cockroaches" like in "communist comissars"?
Dear Nairi, good to see you again. We miss your highly balanced intellectual, thoughtful and thought provoking posts.
One of the above says you are in Yerevan, and you confirm it.
Please tell us. Are you there on business or pleasure? How long have you been there?
The last time we saw here was Aug. 2009. How long will you stay there, or is it permanent?
Have you seen the so called “archives” of the “dark” soviet era?
Have you learned more about the lives and fate of the likes of Bakunts, Charents,Mahari and Sevak?
Do they allow one to delve into those so called archives of the dark days*?
*Is the “valley of archives” in Yerevan even darker than Mtnadzor-Dark Valley?
Idoubt if there are any left alive to remember Bakunts' fate, but there must be some who remember about Sevak's so called "auto accident". I saw where that "accident" had happened. Of all the hills and valleyes, twisting roads itc was the most ezxpansively open and flat segment of the road.Why were Bakunts and Sevak murdered? What had they said? Was Charents murdered because of his poem Patkam?

Edited by Arpa, 22 March 2010 - 09:31 AM.

[nairi]

------------------------------------------------
The book "short stories " from Aksel Bagounts has been translated in French by M. Besnilian, published by Editor "Parentheses" in Marseille 1990.

Yes, I'm aware of that one. I was missing an English version, hence...

[nairi]

Do you mean "cockroaches" like in "communist comissars"?

I've been trying to avoid those, though having to deal with the people at OVIR comes very close, it seems.

Dear Nairi, good to see you again. We miss your highly balanced intellectual, thoughtful and thought provoking posts.

I'm flattered, as always, but no need to exaggerate.

One of the above says you are in Yerevan, and you confirm it.
Please tell us. Are you there on business or pleasure? How long have you been there?
The last time we saw here was Aug. 2009. How long will you stay there, or is it permanent?
Have you seen the so called “archives” of the “dark” soviet era?
Have you learned more about the lives and fate of the likes of Bakunts, Charents,Mahari and Sevak?
Do they allow one to delve into those so called archives of the dark days*?
*Is the “valley of archives” in Yerevan even darker than Mtnadzor-Dark Valley?
Idoubt if there are any left alive to remember Bakunts' fate, but there must be some who remember about Sevak's so called "auto accident". I saw where that "accident" had happened. Of all the hills and valleyes, twisting roads itc was the most ezxpansively open and flat segment of the road.Why were Bakunts and Sevak murdered? What had they said? Was Charents murdered because of his poem Patkam?

I'm here on business and pleasure. I've been here for almost five months now and I'm not planning on uprooting myself until I get in trouble with the authorities or someone wants to kick me out.

Am trying to stay out of trouble for now, so, no, I haven't been digging my nose into our classified archives yet, but I thought the fate of Bakunts was pretty much known: he was arrested on grounds of nationalism (I think his story "Ծիրանի Փողը" was used as evidence) and executed by firing squad days after his sentence. Pretty morbid, considering he wrote about a young man being executed in a similar fashion in his short story "Վանդունց Բադի." Or maybe you're asking for details, like court transcripts and such.

I actually went to Charents's house-museum just recently. The story one of the museum guides told was the same we've all heard: he was sentenced to Siberia and executed.

I also went to Abovian's house-museum (in Kanaker) a few weeks ago. The same story we already know was told there, too; that no one really knows what happened to him. But anyway, that was before the Stalinist era and might have had more to do with our church, which is now gradually colonizing Yerevan, than mental instability (which is another argument that is often used).

Edited by nairi, 22 March 2010 - 10:25 AM.

[Arpa]

[quote name='nairi' date='22 March 2010 - 05:24 PM' timestamp='1269275089' post='269045']
I've been trying to avoid those, though having to deal with the people at OVIR comes very close, it seems.
===
he was arrested on grounds of nationalism (I think his story "Ծիրանի Փողը" was used as evidence) and executed by firing squad days after his sentence. Pretty morbid, considering he wrote about a young man being executed in a similar fashion in his short story "Վանդունց Բադի." Or maybe you're asking for details, like court transcripts and such.
=====
I actually went to Charents's house-museum just recently. The story one of the museum guides told was the same we've all heard: he was sentenced to Siberia and executed.
====
than mental instability (which is another argument that is often used).
[/quote]
Yes we know, anyone who challenged the system was judged mentally unstable, just like Charents was condemned and jailed at the "criminally insane asylum", even if with some justification, as he at times went into alcoholic oblivion.
-----
Please elaborate how his Ծիրանի Փող used.
I can see where he ever so subtly, speaking to the little girl Azno mocks the Red Army, anti-theism, heaven etc.
[quote]– Կարմիր Բանակ լսե՞լ ես։
– Կարմիր Բանակ շուր է, քցեր են դրոշակի վրա։
– Ազնո, աստված կա՞։
– Հաբա, Աստված կանաչ ճնճղուկ է։
– Հապա երկի՞նքը։
– Երկինքը զինջիլով[6] կապուկ է եզան կոտոշին։
– Ազնո, որ մեծանաս ի՞նչ ես դառնալու։
– Կեղնիմ օրիորդ[/quote
And here he invokes Lenin.;
[quote]Ախ ու փախ, գիշեր ցերեկ չփլախ[8], սոված ռութ[9]։ Լենինի լույս մեզ ազատության տվեց։ Մենակ մըր սահման նեղ է, շնորհիվ սահմանի նեղության, ժողովուրդ կնեղվի։ Մըր հողերի սահման ղըռ քար է։**[/quote]
**Alluding to ceding territory and reducing Armenia to a virtual "heap of rock"?

[nairi]

Please elaborate how his Ծիրանի Փող used.

I'm not sure how it was used exactly, but here's a rough analysis.

First of all, the story is about two Ottoman Armenian villages that were displaced during World War I and find themselves on the same plot of land in Armenia. Although some of the members of the older generation still struggle to put aside their differences, the youth no longer consider themselves as peoples from two separate villages.

So where does nationalism come in? The whole story is arguably about nationalism and nation-building. The two villages in the story do what Armenians in Armenia were doing all along: building a new homeland from scratch by people who had lost their hostlands and parts of their historical homeland elsewhere. Moreover, instead of depriving his characters of their traditional ethnic backgrounds, Bakunts shone the floodlights on them. The duduk, as you know, is characteristically seen as a symbol of Armenian musical culture. By calling his short story “Tsirani Poghe” (undoubtedly in reference to the duduk) and by making the pogh player the central character in his story, Bakunts pushes to the forefront the concept of nationalities, which the Soviet Union was initially built on, and implicitly rejects the new Soviet order which dismissed it. The story also ends on a hopeful note: the new inhabitants of Armenia may have lost their homes elsewhere, but there is a bright future for them and their culture in this new land.

Both the themes of nationalism and nation-building would have provoked especially those who had an internationalist view of communism and the Soviet Union. I think Bakunts believed in the most ideal, if you will, form of communism, but he seems to have disagreed with the way the Soviets executed it. One example of Bakunts's almost utopian communist society is in "Ayu Sari Lanjin," but there are issues there as well, because although Peti seems to be a happy cowherd, his living standard is below the bare minimum.

Edited by nairi, 23 March 2010 - 09:26 AM.

[Arpa]

Nairi, how about give us a taste of your opus, not the whole thing but a teaser, your favorite passage.

Nairi;-I'm not sure how it was used exactly, but here's a rough analysis.
---
First of all, the story is about two Ottoman Armenian villages that were displaced during World War I and find themselves on the same plot of land in Armenia. Although some of the members of the older generation still struggle to put aside their differences, the youth no longer consider themselves as peoples from two separate villages.

Yes, I could see that the senior characters were expatriates from the lush orchards of Van, Mush and Sassun that “lenin papik” bartered away, were trying to eke a sustenance at the barren rocks and inaccessible slopes of Siunik all the while playing lamentatious nostalgic tunes on their “duduks”.
====

Nairi;-Both the themes of nationalism and nation-building would have provoked especially those who had an internationalist view of communism and the Soviet Union. I think Bakunts believed in the most ideal, if you will, form of communism, but he seems to have disagreed with the way the Soviets executed it.

He may have been alluding to the “punjunis’s , the likes of Shahumian* who was preaching communism in Baku. When did baku become part of Armenia? He met his demise in that very hellhole.
* We need new and improved Otians to ridicule the likes of (comissar) Shahumian “punjunis”, a Lenin clone, (see below). What business did he have in baku? Did he speak russky, gruzindky. turksky/azersky, or Aramazt forbid armiansky**? My wish is that the name “shahumian” be permanently removed from our national “pantheon”,. Fortunately the British did the dirty job for us.. How does the fact that his surname ended in “ian” make him any better Armenian than Johann “sebastIAN” Bach or “guderIAN“?
**It is not unlike the present when we are teaching the furks how to be behave "democratically" instead of MINDING our own business.
http://en.wikipedia....tepan_Shahumyan

Edited by Arpa, 24 March 2010 - 07:19 AM.

[nairi]

Nairi, how about give us a taste of your opus, not the whole thing but a teaser, your favorite passage.

I'll think of a passage in a few days.

He may have been alluding to the “punjunis’s , the likes of Shahumian* who was preaching communism in Baku.

**It is not unlike the present when we are teaching the furks how to be behave "democratically" instead of MINDING our own business.
http://en.wikipedia....tepan_Shahumyan

He's a very good-looking man, though... (Sorry, my corrupted mind got the better of me again.)

[Arpa]

===
He's a very good-looking man, though... (Sorry, my corrupted mind got the better of me again.)

Ah!! A woman's eye
I had never looked at it in that view. Now that you say it, yes, he is a good looking man. Too bad, he had to martyr himself for a bankrupt ideology.

[Arpa]

Please note Bakounts’ ARF life and the eventual disillusionment.
-----
By Eddie Arnavoudian
March 11, 2002
1
AKSEL BAKOONTZ'S `INHERITANCE'
Aksel Bakoontz (1899-1937), the most accomplished of the Soviet era
Armenian short story writers, made a huge impression on his
contemporaries. Some of the reasons can be gleaned from Tavit
Kasparian's introduction to 'Inheritance', a collection of Bakoontz's
unpublished political writings. Despite some questionable evaluations
Kasparian illuminates significant aspects of Bakoontz's life and work
and stimulates thought about the nature of the literary and aesthetic
conflicts of the early Soviet Armenian era.
Bakoontz was an archetypal representative of the late l9th and early
20th century Armenian national revival - a committed intellectual born
of the people and dedicated to the welfare of the people. From an
extremely poor family, the population of his home village Koris raised
the money to school him. In return, by 16, he commenced teaching and
writing as a conscious contribution to the project of national
enlightenment. Like many of his generation he joined the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation at a very young age and also enlisted as a
volunteer soldier.
Following the establishment of Bolshevik power in Armenia, Bakoontz's
transition from an ARF member to a social and literary activist in
Soviet Armenia was seamless and without major ideological turmoil. He
wasn't an ideologue and was not primarily concerned with the
realisation of any grand theoretical enterprise. For him the ARF was
fundamentally an organisational means for securing progressive change
in Armenia. Once it ceased to be effective Bakoontz saw no moral
reason to retain membership or to leave the country after the ARF's
prohibition.
Many of the writings collected here reflect on the movement away from
the ARF by Bakoontz and thousands of rank and file ARF activists.
Bakoontz explicitly rejects suggestions of a forced conversion. The
tone and style of his commentaries confirm explicit assertions that
his action was conscious and voluntary. He is also at pains to mark
himself off from ARF members who fled the country. He would remain to
serve the people in the new conditions that, from the material here
reproduced, he considered to be positive. So during the first years of
Soviet power Bakoontz headed the Armenian Relief society, worked
energetically as economist and agriculturist in remote mountainous
Armenian villages educating and enlightening, arbitrating in land
disputes and translating huge amounts of educational literature.
But Bakoontz's main ambition was to become a writer. So in 1924 he
moved to Yerevan where two years later he joined the Bolshevik
Party. Putting to use his immense knowledge of rural Armenia he
secured rapid literary recognition. But he was also immediately
embroiled in the bitter intellectual war that marked the revival of
Armenian life in the first years of Soviet power. From 1923 to the
great purges of 1937 that silenced more than a decade of creative
upsurge two literary trends had crystallised in Armenian cultural
life. Bakoontz was part of the grouping initially named 'November'
that included Yeghishe Charents, Mkrtich Armen, and Gourgen
Mahari. Nairi Zarian (not to be confused with Gostan Zarian) headed
the opposition.
Nairi Zarian's grouping endured, but not primarily on account of its
literary talent. Sponsored by an increasingly powerful, centralist and
anti-democratic faction of the Soviet political elite, Nairi Zarian's
allies were mobilised to counter literary expressions of an emergent
Armenian centrifugal, independent socialist political formation.
Within the terms of a progressive socialist outlook the November
writers attempted to focus their internationalist concerns through a
reflection of the national history and the contemporary culture,
traditions and mores of the society in which they lived. They argued
that genuine, progressive art could be produced only through grasping
and grappling with life as it expressed itself in Armenia. As a part
of the enterprise Bakoontz urged Armenian, and non-Armenian writers in
the Soviet Union as a whole, to 're-evaluate their huge (national)
cultural inheritance' and 'use it to map out new highways'. The result
is a body of outstanding work - Mkrtich Armen's 'Heghnar's Fountain',
Gourgen Mahari's 'My Life', Charent's vast poetic output and of course
Bakoontz's masterly short stories.
Against this vital artistic ambition, the party apparatus demanded the
impossible: a literature that presented as authentic life the lifeless
ideological mirage constructed by central party hacks to legitimise
their usurpation of power. Creative and talented artists could not of
course undertake the task without surrendering their integrity. So the
lesser writers or those happy to exchange talent for status grouped
themselves round Zarian. Setting about the persecution of Bakoontz and
his allies they displayed ruthlessness, an absence of any moral
decency and a total lack of aesthetic judgement. Nairi Zarian
commented that Bakoontz's stories 'contain neither living characters
nor a sparkle of genuine life'. He went on to denounce Bakoontz's work
as 'poisonous nationalist and Trotskyist meddling in Soviet literary
life'. Equally gross was Vagharshag Norentz's claim that Bakoontz was
'the most provincial and limited author in our literature'. The
killing, imprisonment and exile of Charents and his allies was not of
course a direct result of such vicious and fraudulent polemic. But for
whatever reason, in becoming instruments of a party elite many writers
contributed to the isolation and to the tragic fate of talented
colleagues.
The destiny of the lesser writers was also not free of its own
burdens. Many, however loyal to the party, fell victim to its constant
twists and turn and ended up on the gallows or in camps. Others,
talented or just honest aspirants must have felt the terrible shame
and humiliation of betraying artistic integrity for status. Nairi
Zarian himself is a case in point. Any reading of his novels and plays
reveals a talent disastrously vitiated by adherence to the worst
aspects of the artistically fatal theory of 'socialist realism' - in
effect a call to tailor art to the demands of a bureaucratic and
privileged party elite. As Soviet political life underwent its
innumerable zigzags many of these writers managed to release
themselves from total subservience to an ossified ideology and went on
to play a more positive role. Norentz for example made what was surely
an immense contribution in editing and publishing volumes of Western
Armenian poets and novelists.
Kasparian's introduction ends with a stimulating discussion of
Bakoontz's artistic achievement. He notes the close bond between human
beings and nature that marks Bakoontz's brilliant short stories. Human
life here in the backward Armenian provinces appears as an almost
elemental component of the world of nature. It is as if human beings
here lived by instinct in a world unchanged for centuries, albeit
marked by periods of harmony and a brutal conflict with nature. Yet at
its vibrant core Bakoontz's stories reveal a sharp contrast between
men and women's harsh social and natural lives and their dreams,
expectations and hopes for a more generous and gentle existence.
2.
HOVNATAN MARCH - THE ENGER PANCHOONIE OF THE DIASPORA
There is a category of literary work that has particular cultural-
national significance. To be appreciated, they require an audience
sharing a common cultural/historical tradition. Translate them into
another language and they run the risk of falling as flat as the
proverbial medieval earth. But read in the context of their historical
and traditional roots they can be evocative and illuminating. Aksel
Bakoontz's 'Hovnatan March' is this order of work.
Written in 1927 this is definitely a book with a relevance for the
Armenian Diaspora today. A satirical work, it destroys with a powerful
comic punch and a sharp sarcastic jab the glittering reputations
enjoyed by millionaire Diaspora benefactors and their agents. By
donning the cloak of a generous patriotic benefactor a millionaire's
ego is flattered. But more importantly it enables him to secure
business advantage in the homeland. It also enables him to recruit
starry-eyed patriots who believing they are carrying out a hallowed
national duty but then unwittingly do the millionaire's bidding. These
common and well known types are dissected by Bakoontz with a
perceptive intelligence combined with the sharpest of literary
talents.
Behind glowing facades Bakoontz reveals people driven either by greed
for profit or by a ridiculously empty and parochial nationalism. In
their actions such people are indifferent to or fail to see the real
trials and tribulations of the homeland and its population. Hovnatan
March is an agent for Buenos Aires based millionaire Antreas Balikian
whose only genuine interest is the price of carpet and the state of
commercial markets. To grease the wheels of his business ambitions he
willingly lends his name, but not his money, to an adventure planned
by March. March is a leading light in a bizarre venture to secure a
plot of land in Armenia on which he hopes to build a 'New Ethiopia'
township incorporating all the most advanced features of American
industry and life.
March is your quintessential Diaspora activist: conceited, vain,
bombastic, presumptuous and a bit of a buffoon. He is also
ridiculously unreal. His conceptions of Armenia, of Armenians and of
patriotic duty are fashioned by a manufactured and mythical history of
an ancient Armenia marked by an exaggerated military heroism, cultural
achievement and national glory. Armed with a grandiose fantasy of the
past and a grandiose fantasy for the future, March manages to overlook
the actual, immediate needs of the mass of the people, needs which
take into account actual poverty, backwardness and misery.
Besides March, Bakoontz parades and ridicules a host of other
characters - cultural philistines, empty headed priests, discredited
soldiers and their likes. Those lampooned by him fall victim to a
remarkably inventive wit and sarcasm. Bakoontz has a talent for
conjuring a place, a mood, a character, a situation with a few strokes
of the pen. The dirty insect ridden hotel, the stinking heat blasted
streets, the dilapidated and abandoned ancient churches, the dry, arid
and stony country, the philistine literary circle, the backward rural
villages - each is etched in language so precise, fresh and vivid that
he essentially constructs it around you as you read him. The result is
an excellent contrast between the real and the bizarre, between
necessity and fantasy.
If Yervant Odian's Enger Panchooni is the Don Quichote of the Armenian
political world, then Hovnatan March is the Panchooni of the Armenian
Diaspora: possessed of amazingly grand plans which are expounded with
much zeal and bombast but which actually amount to 'much ado about
nothing'. Yet it is worth noting that while Panchooni has no redeeming
features, March does. He is not essentially evil, and unlike the
millionaire is not self seeking. Like hundreds if not thousands of
individuals in the Diaspora he feels his rootlessness and is searching
for some anchor and foundation for his life. The great merit of
Bakoontz's work is to demonstrate that this search cannot be
accomplished by adopting a false, romanticised patriotism so
widespread in the Diaspora.
Real patriotism which actually helps people requires rather more
humble and modest ventures and does not of course guarantee shiny
reputations and national fame. In this context one is reminded of
those who funded the construction of the massive and un-needed
multi-million dollar Cathedral in the centre of Yerevan while the
population as a whole lacks schools, medical care and other services
and - while rural churches, often of some cultural value are left to
rack and ruin.
Bakoontz's short stories have international significance and are a
valuable addition to world literature (a taste in English has been
offered by Rouben Rostamian's excellent translations). Hovnatan March
on the contrary has, I suspect, a more national, Armenian, significance.
But this does not detract from its value. It is a skilled
accomplishment and will be read, with profit and pleasure both in its
original or in translation.

Edited by Arpa, 21 April 2010 - 08:39 AM.

[Arpa]

A very short poem/ode “To A” by Charents that I suspect is addressed to Aksel Bakounts, see the opening “Mtnadzoroum/(in the)Dark Valley”.
---
Ա- ԻՆ
Մթնաձորում
Մութն է ծորում
Օճոռքից, _
Նա չի՞ արդեոք
Տալիս մորմոք
Քո երգին. _
Այնտեղ դեռ կան
Մռայլ խութեր ու հերկեր, _
Բայց այնտեղից, որ դուրս եկար_
Պայծառ երգեր դու կերգես:_
1927
Բառարան;
Ծորել= հոսիլ flow
Օճորք=Roof,s ceilings
Մորմոք= կսկիծ ցաւ anguish, agony
Մռայլ= fog, darkness
Խութ= խոչնդոտ, ապարաժ, ժայր,obstacle, hurdle, boulder, rock, protrusion as in rocky protrusion in a sea. Sometime also - խայթ
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Let me se if I can translate it.
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In (the) Dark Valley
Darkness flows
From roofs.
Is it perhaps
Causing agony
To your songs.?
Out there, there are still
Dark obstacles (rocks) and furrows.
But, once you came out of there**
You are singing clear shiny songs.
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** Alluding to Aksel’s moving to “Sunshiny Valley-Yerevan”, as opposed to the “Dark Valleys” of Goris

[Arpa]

AH!!
Finally, after 6 months of wrangling I received my copy. A long and frustrating saga. I may get back to it at another time.
Hey Nairi! Is that hologram portrait on the cover background you or Aksel?
http://www.gomidas.o...Information.htm
We will eventually get back with some vignettes. In the meantime see what she says in her Introduction and Acknowledgements. First and most lovingly she thanks her father, for not only piquing her appetite with his bedtime stories, just as his support in this endeavor. She also pays tribute to two others whom we know as on and off participants here, who helped understand and interpret words and expressions in other languages and regional dialects.
Too bad, we don't hear from the likes and Nairi as this forum has fast become a "tabouleh and shish kebab" forum.

Edited by Arpa, 18 May 2010 - 02:26 PM.