Raffi

[Rubo]

Perhaps no other person influenced my life more then Raffi. I more then ever understand his struggles against the corrupt and the ignorant and he elegantly expresses the Armenian psyche in profound depth. What he said hundred and thirty years earlier still stands for valid critical inquire.

Rubo

 

Armenian News Network / Groong

June 24, 2002

 

By Donald Abcarian

 

Raffi (1832-1888) was the preeminent Armenian novelist of the

mid-nineteenth century national revival. Through a rich body of

writing spanning numerous genres, his creative and analytic genius

ignited the Armenian literary scene with the imagery of national

self-recognition, cultural enlightenment, and political emancipation.

In so doing he layed a broad foundation for the subsequent development

of Armenian literature, intellectual life, and politics. His career

embraced many fields of activity: radical educator, pioneer in the use

of modern Armenian, historian, folklorist, cultural anthropologist,

social critic, moral philosopher, and political strategist. He remains

a literary figure of unparalleled stature in modern Armenian history.

 

No one in Raffi's day knew or understood Armenia better than he, for

he had traveled its length and breadth many times, acquainted himself

in minute detail with every dimension of its life, met with countless

country folk and listened closely to their stories, thus gathering a

rich store of material which he would later bring to life in vivid,

passionate depictions of the revolutionary struggle between the old

and the new. As a result, he encountered bitter opposition from the

conservative circles whose stranglehold on Armenian society he

represented with such merciless accuracy in his stories, and his

entire creative career was plagued by censorship. Yet among the masses

his stories were eagerly passed from hand to hand until they became

tattered, and those who couldn't read would gather around their

literate compatriots to hear them read aloud.

 

Raffi threw himself body and soul into the national ferment of his

time, a period marked by unbounded optimism and bitter disappointment.

Following on the lead established by his sacred idols, Khrimian

Hairig, Khachadur Abovian, and Mikayel Nalbandian, he resolutely set

out to accomplish his self-appointed mission in life: creating a true

popular literature for a people who had none. He contended with

serious personal risks in doing so, but persevered with increasing

mastery to reach the summit of his artistic abilities.

 

An overview of Raffi's fiction reveals one overarching purpose: to

hold up a well polished mirror to the totality of Armenian life,

representing it in each of its principal population centers and at

different historic moments, each novel serving as part of a grand

mosaic which completes the picture of Armenia. From his earliest

novels set in his native Persia, to his stories depicting the Armenian

merchant class in Tiflis, to his final novel Samvel, set in ancient

Armenia, all are directed to fulfilling this purpose. In this panorama

we see all the glory and misery of Armenian existence presented with

cinematic clarity. This picture includes the striving idealism of

Armenian revolutionaries, but also the festering ethnic resentments

and attendant stereotypes which Raffi presents with unvarnished candor.

These are particularly found in the novels "Jalaleddin," and "The

Fool," works associated with the last Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78, the

most devastating war in living memory and one which set in motion a

series of cataclysms for Armenia that ultimately led to the Genocide

of 1915. A complete reading of his works, however, will reveal the

overwhelming preponderance of humanist universalism in his thought,

and for every expression of cultural bias, one will find its opposite

and balancing formulation somewhere else in his work.

 

From "Gaidzer", volume II, Chapter 1, "VAN":

[Aslan is one of the central characters in "Gaidzer", Raffi's longest

novel, and he appears in various ethnic disguises in the course of the

story. Aslan is leading Farhad, the narrator of the story, on an

exploration of the principal sites of ancient Armenian history while

at the same time meeting secretly with subversive groups in far-flung

villages to lay the groundwork for revolution.]

 

Farhad says of Aslan:

 

"But there was one thing about Aslan that stood out clearly from

all the rest: From the first day we set out together, wherever we

went, whatever the circumstances, the people he met with were

always those who protested against the general anarchy of the

land. And it seemed some common thread ran through all of them,

binding all their hearts and wills together, these people of

different nationalities. But who was it that held the other end

of that thread? They were all the individual parts of some great,

complex mechanism. But what was the force that set it in motion

and gave it direction? Who was it that turned their many wills

toward one goal? To this day, that answer has eluded me. As it

seemed to me, this was the ruling spirit, existing in invisibility,

keeping itself unapproachable, governing the hearts and minds of

mankind with its powerful unseen hand, and giving them all

direction..."

 

In final analysis, all of Raffi's major works deserve to be translated

into English, the indisputed international language. Fresh exposure to

his revealing depictions of Armenian culture and history, his highly

developed, incisive treatment of man's inhumanity to man, and the

dark, mysterious drama of his fictional world will convince many a

modern reader that this is not a writer who deserves consignment to

historical oblivion. Such a translation project would require broad

institutional support and the collective effort of many individuals

whose linguistic knowledge is matched by a high degree of literary

sensibility.

 

There could be no better way of concluding this overview of Raffi than

by quoting what one of his contempories said to him on reading his

first published novel, "Harem: (1874):

 

Letter From R. Badganian, publisher and writer, to Raffi:

 

"The essential character of your prose, with a view both to its

inner and its outward composition, with a view both to the manner

of expression and the currentness of what is said -- in short,

from every point of view -- is a new phenomenon in our newborn

literature. Without the least intention of offending anyone's

pride, or removing one leaf from anyone's laurels, or diminishing

anyone else's value by one whit, I will tell you that neither

Abovian, nor Nazarian, nor Taghyatian, not one, not one of your

predecessors ever had the significance and the impact you have.

And it must be said that masterful works of literature will always

have contemporary interest, which yours will have if only you

never stray from the path you have taken, for it is the truest

path of all."

"You imperceptibly awaken in the nation those benumbed

feelings that your predecessors struggled in vain to awaken with

all their drums and trumpets, with all their crying and wailing...

They didn't awaken them, failing to gauge the true level of their

power and talent. All they did was to find fault with the people,

the nation, whereas he who would awaken them would have to have

the kind of power they were lacking and which you have."

"You are one of those poets in whom the godly spirit of the

ancient prophets lives, which is so astir within you that it will

show the nation the way to the right road... Why need I go on and

on like this? You are one of those messianic poets whom we sought

all along but were unable to find. Enough... Reading your Harem, a

thousand and one powerful feelings stirred within me, my eyes

brimmed with tears, and I was provoked by love and hate toward one

or another character. In a word, you took over my being, and

whichever way you wanted me to go you took my heart... Why?

Because you are a poet in the fullest sense of that word."

 

[The author is indebted for all biographical specifics, including the

letter from Badganian, to the work of Khachik Samvelian, distinguished

scholar who has devoted his career to studying Raffi. His notes on

Raffi's work appended to the 1983-84 edition of "Raffi's Collected

Works" published by Sovedagan Krogh (The Soviet Writer) and his 1987

literary biography entitled "Raffi -- Gyanki Steghdzakordzagan Oughin"

(Raffi -- The Creative Path of His Life) are the principal sources for

this article. Future articles will once more draw on his work, as well

as that of Sergei Sarinian who wrote the introduction to the

Collection mentioned above. -- DA ]

 

NEXT: RAFFI -- Early Life and Principal Works

 

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Donald Abcarian was born in Fresno, California. He graduated from the

University of California Berkeley with a degree in philosophy and has

pursued a lifelong interest in languages and world literature. He has

been translating from Raffi's works for the past seven years. In 2000

the Gomidas Institute published his translation of The Fool {Khent@].

Mr. Abcarian currently lives in Berkeley.

 

 

Where to find the English translated novel?

http://www.gomidas.org/books/raffi.htm