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We are few but we are called Armenians
We do not put ourselves above anyone
Simply we also admit that we, only we have Mount Ararat
And that it is right here on the clear Sevan
that the sky could make its exact duplicate
Simply David has indeed fought right here
Simply the Narek was written right here
Simply we know how to build from the rock, a monastery
How to make fish from stone, how to make man from clay
To learn to become the student of the beautiful,
the kind, the noble, and the good...

By Lilit Mkhitaryan

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Sweet to die is for you to die,
Feel that you are away and away.
To worship you without love,
Always dream of you - to be a stranger to you ...
Look for your shadow wherever you go crazy
The spirit can measure in flight;
They miss endlessly suffering
And to be separated from you forever ...
And in the grave under the black soil
And not to touch your heart with any memory,
Feel that you are gone and not calling you,
And not to be confused with your taste ...

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Into the moonlit waters of the sea of Van,
From the shores of a tiny hamlet,
Enters the water as thief in the night,
Each and every night a lad.

He enters the water without a boat,
With arms powerful and virile,
Parting the water he swims on,
Towards the island on the opposite shore.

From the dark island, clear and bright
A beaming light beckons him on,
A powerful beacon just for him,
To help guide him on his path.

The fair Tamar every night,
Prepares a fire on that isle,
And she awaits him impatiently,
In the dark bushes nearby.

The untame water crashes and roars,
And the lad's heart crashes along,
The water howls in frightful screams,
And fight it does menacingly.

Now Tamar, with her heart pounding,
Finally hears the sounds nearby,
The splashing of water and with all her being,
She's ablaze with love severe.

Silence, along the dark shore,
Stands a lone shadowy figure,
Alas! It's he, they find each other,
On this mysterious quiet night.

Only the waves of the sea of Van,
Now gently caress its shores,
Subsiding as they retreat,
Murmuring unintelligibly.

You may say they're whispering
And the stars arched above,
Glance down and slander away,
At impudent, shameless Tamar...

Their gaze disturbs the maiden's heart,
It's time to part...and once again,
One enters the turbulent sea,
Whilst the other prays on its shore...

Who might that daring young man be?
Intoxicated with his love,
His heart void of dread or fear,
He crosses the sea by night?

He swims from the opposite shore,
And our Tamar he does kiss,
Snatching a girl from our own hands,
What does he take us for?

Thus they spoke in bitter pain,
The young men of this island,
And Tamar's hand-lit light,
They extinguished this one night.

Bewildered in the darkened sea,
The swimmer lad, her beloved,
And the wind lifts and it carries,
His merciful sighs, "Ah! Tamar!"

His voice is near, in the deafening darkness,
Wedged between the jagged rocks,
Where the untamed water roars,
At times muffled and at times lost,
And at times feebly heard, "Ah! Tamar!"

At dawn the calm water floats in,
Upon the shore it leaves a corpse,
On his stiffened and frozen lips,
Perhaps you'd say at time of death,
Frozen were two words, "Ah! Tamar!"

For this reason since that day,
The island was named "AKHTAMAR."

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Why dost thou lie in hushed surprise,
Thou little lonely mere?
Did some fair woman wistfully
Gaze in thy mirror clear?

Or are thy waters calm and still,
Admiring the blue sky,
Where shining cloudlets, like thy foam,
Are drifting softly by?

Sad little lake, let us be friends!
I too am desolate;
I too would fain, beneath the sky,
In silence meditate.
http://www.littlearmenia.com/html/poetry/poem.asp?id=37

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Sun-flavored Speech              by  Yeghishe Charents

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Sun-flavored Speech              by  Yeghishe Charents

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I love my sweet Armenia's sun-flavored speech,
I love the plaintive musings of our ancient saz,
The crimson flowers, the burning fragrance of roses,
And the tender-bodies dance of the Nairean girls I love.

I love our evening dark sky, the transparent water, the flashing lake,
The summer sun, and the winter's dragon hissing a grand blizzard,
The forbidding black walls of huts, lost in the night,
And the stones of a thousand years and ancient towns.

Wherever I may be, I won't forget our songs of sorrow,
Nor forget our metal-graved books, now prayers to us,
However deeply our bloody suffering probes my heart,
I shall yet love my wounded, orphaned sweet Armenia.

My heart shall long to know no other tale:
Naregatsi, Kouchag - who now possesses their haloed brows?
Roam round the world, you'll not find a peak white as Ararat;
As the path of glory is endless, so is my love for the Massis mountain.

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In the evening, in the shadows, I sing to the sun
that has created the dark by absence.
Like the face of God, Sun, you are far
from touch, but near enough to feel.

I sing to you from the dark of night
that you make when you depart.
Like God who also creates evil
when he forgets us, you create the dark world.

But 1 sing to you the new sun,
from this deep night that engulfs
a world of souls,
as I wait for the strength and light
that will break when you crack
this harsh dark.

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Succession of Generations   by Paruyr Sevak

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Succession of Generations   by Paruyr Sevak

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Every generation
first of all thinks in silence
and then as soon as talking begins
angers the elders,
angers them but without intended malice,
for the young do not understand
and the elders always understand.

Elder God,
is it true that he who understands and
he who doubts
are synonymous
and every generation
dies by doubting?

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The Advice                               by Paruyr Sevak

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The Advice                               by Paruyr Sevak

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Welcome in
that knocker at your door.
His name is Doubt.
Welcome him in and don't be afraid.
I let him in years ago.
And even let him out.

Welcome him in with rituals
and ceremonies
new greetings and old-fashioned enthusiasm
that burns a bonfire in your breast
so that if suspicion cannot be entirely
extinguished, at least the darkness
in your soul is split.

Welcome him for now.
(I sent him away long ago.)

Welcome in Doubt. Welcome in Questioning.
But don't imagine that I am either his agent
or his prophet.
I am just an old convert, that's all.
But welcome him in.

It's Faith that's missing in this company
not doctrines. Welcome Doubt in.
It's Faith we wait for, not dogma.

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One of the best poets of Armenian Literature was Paruyr (Sevak) Ghazaryan. He was born in 1924, January 24, at the village of Vedi, Armenia. Paruyr Sevak's father was an educated farmer, his mother was an illiterate, village woman, who was very kind, hard working and religious housewife helping her husband with the fieldwork.
His significant contributions to Armenian culture and betterment of Armenian literature was unique in its own way, which shaped the hearts and minds of many Armenian generations who were there with him, as well of those who came later, after him.

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Never Love Black Eyes           by Avetik Isahakian

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Never Love Black Eyes           by Avetik Isahakian

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Never trust black eyes.
Be wary. Be warned.
Their darkness is a deep,
endless night.

Never love black eyes
where demons can hide.
Just look in I my heart
and see why.

It is a sea of pains
that proves
what turmoil
black eyes can start.

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In the Woods                      poem by Hamo Sahyan

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In the Woods                      poem by Hamo Sahyan

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There were small clouds in the woods,
Blue mist hung in the woods,
Autumn hummed softly in the woods,
But still the trees could not fall asleep.

There were whisperings in the woods,
And a richness of wet fragrance,
Shadows and lanes twined closely,
And traces, traces of men.

The dew silvered the mushroom caps,
The wild almond tree looked chill,
The wind came to rest in the glade,
Tilted to the sounds of thunder.

The deer calf, its muzzle moss-covered,
Leaps at its mother's cry,
And through the wet grass, the hunter
Seeks the lost trace of the deer.

The woodman sings his old song again
And oils the warming saw again,
The breadfruit tree doesn't hear
The hushed sigh of the fallen oak.

Before the forest warden's hut
A bonfire gives up peaceful smoke,
And the green fir near the fire
Talks heartily with the cypress.

There were mysteries deep in the woods,
Echoes abounded in the woods,
Though autumn hummed softly in the woods,
The trees still could not fall asleep.

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Hamo Sahyan was an Armenian poet and translator. A native of Sissian, Armenia, Sahyan completed his studies in Baku and served in the Soviet Navy during World War II. He is the author of numerous volumes of poetry.

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Silva Kaputikyan was an Armenian poet and political activist. One of the best-known Armenian writers of the twentieth century, she is recognized as "the leading poetess of Armenia" and "the grand lady of twentieth century Armenian poetry".Although a member of the Communist Party, she was a noted advocate of Armenian national causes.
Her first collection of poems were published in the mid-1940s. By the 1950s she had established herself as a significant literary figure in Soviet Armenia. Besides Armenian she also wrote in Russian and many of her works were translated to other languages. In the later Soviet period she frequently addressed political and other issues.

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Charents  was an Armenian poet, writer and public Yeghishe activist. Charents was an outstanding poet of the twentieth century, touching upon a multitude of topics that ranged from his experiences in the First World War, socialist revolution, and, more prominently, on Armenia and Armenians. He is recognized as "the main poet of the 20th century" in Armenia.
An early supporter of communism, Charents joined the Bolshevik party, but as the Stalinist terror began in the 1930s, he gradually grew disillusioned with Stalinism and died during the 1930s purges.

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Petros Dourian is important historically because he is the first poet to write purely subjective poetry in the vernacular. The famous satirist Hagop Paronian was his Armenian schoolteacher in his native Istanbul. He read the contemporary French literature of his time, Hugo, Lamartine, and de Musset. His own poetry is highly sentimental and lyrical and won a large audience of admirers after he died of tuberculosis at 21.
by Mary Ghazaryan

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On 9th of February (New Style) the 11th child Vahan was born in  big family of the village priest Sukias Ter-Grigoryan in Gandza, Akhalkalak district of Javakhk. The child was the future poet Vahan Teryan. He is mostly known for his poems dedicated to autumn and love. That's why Teryan is known as "Singer of Autumn" in Literature. He published his first book of poems, "Dreams at Dusk", in 1908, which made him an immediate sensation, Hovhannes Tumanian calling him the most original lyric poet of his age.  His poems are filled with images of rain, mist, pallid fields and shapeless shadows, symbols of sorrow, despair and, eventually, peace.

He died on January 7, 1920, at the age of 35.

By Narine

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Yeghishe Charents (1897 – 1937) was an Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents was one of the most outstanding poets of the twentieth century, touching upon a multitude of topics that ranged from his experiences in the First World War, socialism, and, more prominently, on Armenia and Armenians.
An early champion of communism, Charents joined the Bolshevik party, but as the stalinist terror began in the 1930s, he gradually grew disillusioned with Stalinism and was executed during the 1930s purges.
His works were translated by Valeri Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Arseny Tarkovsky, Louis Aragon and others. His home at 17 Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan was turned into a museum in 1975. The Armenian city Charentsavan was named after him.
Yes im anush Hayastani…’ (Ես իմ անուշ Հայաստանի), a well-known poem by the great Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents, will be translated into all languages.

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Avetik Issahakian was born in October of 1875 in a little village called 'Khazarabad,' in Armenia. He received his education at Eichmiadzin's Spiritual Academy, followed by studies at Leipzig and Zurich Universities in Europe, which included courses in history and literature.
Issahakian spent time in Paris, France and in 1934 returned to Armenia, where he played an active role in creating the Armenian Academy of Sciences.
Mr. Issahakian wrote numerous lyrics that dealt with themes of motherland and of motherly love.
Dozens of his poems were set to music. His works were translated and published in English, Russian and many other languages.
Issahakian died in 1957 and was buried in Yerevan's Artist's Pavilion.

by Mary Ghazaryan

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Tumanyan wrote poems, quatrains, ballads, novels, fables, critical and journalistic articles. His work was mostly written in realistic form, often centering on everyday life of his time. Born in the historical village of Dsegh in the Lory region, at a young age Tumanyan moved to Tiflis.
http://www.littlearmenia.com/html/poetry/poem.asp?id=1

by Irina Aloyan

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Tumanyan wrote poems, quatrains, ballads, novels, fables, critical and journalistic articles.His work was mostly written in realisticform, often centering on everyday life of his time.Born in the historical village of Dsegh in the Lori region, at a young age Tumanyan moved to Tiflis, which was the center of Armenian culture under the Russian Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He soon became known to the wide Armenian society for his simple but very poetic works.

Many films and animated films have been adapted from Tumanyan's works. Two operas: Anush (1912) by Armen Tigranian and Almast(1930) by Alexander Spendiaryan, were written based on his works.

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He was born Hovhannes (Onik) Tadevosi Karapetyan in the city of Alexandrapol, then part of the Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia). His mother, Astghik, was widowed by the Armenian Genocide shortly before his birth. Shiraz grew up in a considerable poverty. His first work called Beginning of Spring was published in 1935. Novelist Atrpet gave the talented poet the epithet "Shiraz", because "this youth's poems have the fragrance of roses, fresh and covered with dew, like the roses of Shiraz" (Shiraz being one of Iran's major cities, famous for its roses and poets). Another version of his pen name is "Shirak azn"—a child of Shirak, the region he was from.

Hovhannes Shiraz studied in Yerevan State University and Moscow Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. In 1958, he published the first volume of his anthology Knar Hayastani (Lyre of Armenia). The second and third volumes were published in 1965 and 1974. These collections include the best examples of Shiraz's poems.