Gevorg Emin (, September 30, 1919 – June 11, 1998) was an
Armenia
Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...
n
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
,
essayist
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
, and
translator
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
.
Biography
![Gevorg Emin 2019 stamp of Armenia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Gevorg_Emin_2019_stamp_of_Armenia.jpg)
Emin, the son of a school teacher, was born in the town of
Ashtarak
Ashtarak (Armenian language, Armenian: ), is a town and urban municipal community in the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia, located on the left bank of Kasagh River along the gorge, northwest of the capital Yerevan. It is the administrative centre of ...
. In 1927, his family moved to
Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...
, the capital of
Soviet Armenia
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...
. In 1936 he finished
secondary school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...
; in 1940 he graduated from the local
Polytechnical Institute
An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...
as a
hydraulic engineer
Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the mov ...
. After graduation he designed and supervised the building of a
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many p ...
which is still producing
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
. The power station remained his only engineering accomplishment.
In school, Emin met Armenia's leading poet
Yegishe Charents
Yeghishe Charents (; March 13, 1897 – November 27, 1937) was an Armenians, Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents' literary subject matter ranged from his experiences in the First World War, socialist revolution, and frequently ...
, who died in 1937 in a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
prison. Emin recalls in his preface to ''For You on New Year's Day'':
:''Today if I write instead of building canals and power plants it is due to two things: the impact of meeting Yeghishe Charents, and second, the touch of ancient manuscripts at the Matenadaran library where I worked as a student and could read and hold the magnificent old manuscripts from the fifth through the eighteenth centuries.''
Emin's roots as a poet are deeply embedded in the culture and the physical landscape of the country he grew up in. To this is added his extensive reading of modern poetry, especially
French symbolist poets, and his enduring faith in the power of poetry. From 1941 to 1945, Emin fought (and was wounded) in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. His poetry makes no specific references to his own war experiences but often refers to the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
.
Emin's poetry has been translated from
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
to many
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
s all over the world. Poet
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko ( rus, links=no, 1=Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, ...
read him in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and immediately hailed his work. Yevtushenko wrote the Introduction to the collection of Emin's verse translated into English as ''For You on New Year's Day''; here the Russian poet contrasted Emin to his fellow Armenian poets who emphasized emotion in their work:
:''Gevorg Emin has an entirely opposite conception of the craft. He takes pride in revealing the rational armature of poetry and the details of its construction. Some of his poems remind us of transparent watches where the movements and direction of each gear and lever are visible. But it is a watch that keeps perfect time.''
Perhaps as a result of Emin's training in science, he writes in a simple, straight forward language. Edmond Y. Azadian, in the Afterword to ''For You on New Year's Day'', suggests that Emin freed Armenian poetry "from the restrictions that followed Charents' time, the bleak
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
era," reinvigorating it after a long period during which experimentalism had been discouraged. Martin Robbins suggests, in ''Ararat Quarterly'', that his poetry reflects "the tough compression of an engineer's mathematically trained mind," and cites as a representative example his poem "Small" in which he acknowledges the defenselessness of the Armenian people but affirms their strength. In many of his poems
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat or , ''Ararat''; or is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in the extreme east of Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest peak in Turkey and th ...
itself serves as an emblem of the endurance of his people. In "Song of Songs" he writes: "I am an Armenian. ancient as this Biblical Ararat / my feet still wet from the waters of the flood."
For his poetry, Emin was awarded the
Stalin Prize Stalin Prize may refer to:
* The State Stalin Prize in science and engineering and in arts, awarded 1941 to 1954, later known as the USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, ...
in 1951 and the
USSR State Prize
The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...
in 1976. In 1972, he toured the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
with Yevtushenko giving poetry readings. His American experience reflected in some of his later poems, published in ''Land, Love, Century'', including ''Gravestone in a Negro Cemetery'', ''First Night in New York'', and ''In the Streets of Boston''.
Emin's first wife was the daughter of the distinguished Armenian poet
Vahan Terian
Vahan Terian (; February 9, 1885 – January 7, 1920) was an Armenian poet, lyrist and public activist. He is known for his sorrowful, romantic poems, the most famous of which are still read and sung in their musical versions.
Biography
...
. After her death, he married a writer, Armenouhi Hamparian. He had three sons. Emin was a translator of note in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
: he is especially admired for his translations of Polish poets ranging from
Adam Mickiewicz
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...
to the contemporary poet
Tadeusz Różewicz
Tadeusz Różewicz (9 October 1921 – 24 April 2014) was a Polish poet, playwright, writer, and translator. Różewicz was in the first generation of Polish writers born after Poland regained its independence in 1918, following the century of f ...
. In
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
's long struggle for independence and national identity, he identified some of his own feelings about Armenia and he has hailed "the proud spirit of the Polish people, their fanatical attachment to their land, language, literature, tradition." His brother was the
Armenian-American
Armenian Americans ( hy, ամերիկահայեր, ''amerikahayer'') are citizens or residents of the United States who have total or partial Armenian ancestry. They form the second largest community of the Armenian diaspora after Armenians in ...
composer
Vazgen Muradian.
External links
*
Gevork Emin at Armenica.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emin, Gevorg
1919 births
1998 deaths
20th-century Armenian poets
People from Ashtarak
Soviet engineers
Soviet military personnel of World War II
Soviet poets
Soviet male writers
20th-century male writers
Recipients of the USSR State Prize
National Polytechnic University of Armenia alumni
Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
Armenian male poets
Mount Ararat