Vaghtang Ananyan

[MosJan]

The Huntsman's Heart

 

Vaghtang Ananyan, Translated by Narine Khachatryan - Contributor

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The well-known Armenian writer Vaghtang Ananyan was born in 1905, in village Shamakhyan (region Dilijan, Armenia). He got his primary education in his native village. In 1915 he was sent to town Dilijan to continue his studies at the parish school. In 1917 because of hard and dangerous circumstances in the country the boy had to give up studies. Books became his teachers, helping him to recognize the world and the life. "Nature has been my mother, instructor and tutor. But things I was unable to take from nature, I took from books", - he wrote. The main theme of his writings is the description of the relationship between the Nature and the Man. Nature played a significant role in the life of V. Ananyan. From his early childhood he had discovered its marvelous and charming secrets, learning the wisdom and creative sense of vital instincts of the Nature. "The mountain, the forest, the babbling brook, the scent of flowers - here is my mother, in the bosom of which I was brought up since I've lost my own mother",- he wrote. The majority of his stories is devoted to the highest and greatest feeling existing in the Nature - the feeling of maternity. The Man, realizing the miracle of his/her very existence, must make "an agreement" with the Nature explaining the meaning of its regulations and standards, trying to conquer it with love, because Mother needs nothing but love and devotion and Nature is the greatest and loveliest Mother in the world. The writer considers that Love and Devotion are one of the most wonderful and amazing feelings of the Nature and he is well convinced that it is the Man, the Human Being, that is capable to purify the world and make it more humanistic. V. Ananyan died in 1980 in Yerevan, Armenia.

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

 

Narine Khachatryan

 

I was born on October 18, 1975 in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1982 - 1992 I have attended the Yerevan secondary school No. 84 after Khachatour Abovyan. In 1983 - 1990 I have also been the pupil of the Yerevan musical school No. 6 after Anoushavan Ter-Ghevondyan (the class of piano). After finishing school in 1992 I have entered the Yerevan State Institute of Foreign Languages. In 1997 I have graduated from the Institute getting my diploma in English as a foreign language and practical psychology. Since the third year of my study at the Institute I have been working at Biophysics Center (BC) of Armenian NAS as a translator/interpreter. In 1997 the BC has been reorganized into Life Sciences International Higher Educational School (LSIHES) which is functioning as UNESCO Chair in Life Sciences and now I am the translator/interpreter of LSIHES. During my work I have been specialized mainly in translating life sciences articles and manuscripts. I have translated and corrected more than 15 scientific manuscripts which have been published in different international journals.

 

In the autumn of 1996 the Biophysics Center has organized an International Symposium on the Application of the Theory of Metabolic Regulation to Pain (Stepanakert - Yerevan). I have been the Executive Secretary of Orgcommittee and the interpreter of this meeting. Materials of this Symposium have been recently published by IOS Press as a separate book "Pain Mechanisms and Management" (edited by S.N. Ayrapetyan & A.V. Apkarian). I have been the technical co-editor of this book. Since 1997 LSIHES has already organized 2 scientific seminars and I have also been the interpreter of these meetings.

 

Now I'd like to try myself in fiction translation. These are my first steps in this sphere and I'd like to ask the reader not to be very sever in judging my works. I would be very grateful if you'll help me with your suggestions and advice to improve my skills and methods in fiction translation. Thank you very much. I hope you'll enjoy your reading!

 

The Huntsman's Heart

 

(Vaghtang Ananyan, 1939)

 

In one of the slopes of Chatindagh my foot slipped and I fell down; the snow, dry and granulated like sugar, began to flow down rustling; at first it was like a white rill, then it gradually became thicker and thicker and a great snow bank was piled down in the abyss. My friend, the old huntsman Galo, was looking at the flowing snow lost in his thoughts and shaking his head.

 

- Recollect something again? - I asked.

I knew that he always had a story to tell about every bush and every stone of that place.

- Yes, I do,- he replied,- this snow, flowing down with a rustle, reminded me of a very sad story.

 

Once, when I was young, I came here together with well-known huntsmen. They lay in abush and sent me to pursue the hunt. When I was passing near this place the snow again flew down the dale. Upon its rustling a deer ran out of the bushes and when I whistled, it stood and looked behind. I shot it and saw that its chin hung down. It ran away and disappeared from my sight. Next summer I took my axe and gun and came here to make a trough from wood rafters. There was an old oak-tree fallen in this dale. When I bent on it and began to axe, a very thin deer ran out of the bushes with a hind following it. The chin of the deer was hung down. I recognized my victim. I looked at the hind and was moved with compassion. The hind was as lean as a rake. I understood that it was my fault. The poor mother had no chin to graze, make milk and feed its hind. And they both were becoming thinner and thinner day by day among these green flourishing places. As if to spite, to make me suffer, they both were standing there not even trying to escape. Mother-deer was looking at me with the eyes full of pity and sorrow and it seemed it recognized me. As if it was reproaching me with its charming eyes full of tears: "A heartless, a cruel man, what have I done to you that you have punished me and my hind in such a way?" I looked at them and that pitiful sight broke my heart. Not able to stand it any longer I began to shout at them throwing stones and trying to drive them away.

 

From that day on I have never shot a mother animal or its hind.

[Takoush]

As I was a young girl, I loved Vakhdank Ananyan's stories, one of them was about the boa snake being soooo good and actually better than a man. This Boa took good care of a man, who was not thankful for all the good deeds that the snake did to him. Then the snake took revenge of the man and spit at him. With the boa's spit the man thus became half faceless. Well, he paid the price of being unthankful and mean to the poor Boa snake by revealing his hideaway to men who took him away in a cage. Edited December 5, 2005 by Anahid Takouhi

[Nazarian]

I loved his 'Sutlik Vorskan' stories

[Takoush]

Dear Ms. Narine Khachatryan:

 

I am so grateful to you that you have undertaken to translate the beautiful works of Vaghtang Ananyan. I am very well versed in Armenian as many others also in here at the HyeForum; however there are numerous other people who aren't and this is a sure way to introduce it to them from the natural and the inspirational stories of the great writer V. Ananyan.

 

You are contributing a great deal to the wonderful Armenian culture to various parts of the world and to the people that are unaware of it.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Anahid

Edited December 5, 2005 by Anahid Takouhi