Hovhannes Shiraz ( hy, Հովհաննես Շիրազ) (April 27, 1914 – March 14, 1984) was an
Armenian 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 w ...
.
Biography
Shiraz was born Onik Tadevosi Karapetyan in the city of
Alexandropol
Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...
, then part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
(now
Gyumri
Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...
,
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 ''O ...
). His mother, Astghik, was widowed by the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...
shortly before his birth.
Shiraz grew up in a considerable poverty. His first work called ''Beginning of Spring'' was published in 1935. Novelist
Atrpet
Sargis Mubayeajian ( hy, Սարգիս Մուբայաջյան; January 31, 1860 – May 27, 1937), better known by his pen name Atrpet (''Adrbed'' in Western Armenian, hy, Ատրպետ), was a prolific and multifarious Armenian writer.
Biogr ...
gave the talented poet the epithet "
Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
", 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
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
'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.
In 1937 Hovhannes Shiraz entered the Armenian Literature Department of
Yerevan's State University, where he studied until 1941. He also studied at the
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 poetry.
["МОЯ БИОГРАФИЯ – ЭТО МОИ СТИХИ", 2010]
Shiraz mostly wrote and published poetry. He is an author of very popular patriotic and love poems included "Ani", "My Mother", "May my love remain a secret", "Siamanto and Khjezare", "Expromptu", "Like the Pagan Love", "My Holy Homeland", "The Fate of Armenians", "To Andranik", etc. He wrote "The Armenian Dante-esque" about the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...
, a subject that was banned in
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. The first version of this masterpiece was written in 1941. Only short passages from this work were published in
Soviet Armenia
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...
during his lifetime, and some chapters were published in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
and
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
. The entire poem (over 8000 lines) was published in 1990 in
Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...
.
He was buried at
Komitas Pantheon, in
Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...
, along with other distinguished Armenians.
He first married famous Armenian poet
Silva Kaputikyan. His son with Kaputikyan,
Ara Shiraz, was a sculptor. Shiraz had seven children with his second wife, Shushanik Shiraz (''Aristakesyan'', 1937–2006), one of whom was
Sipan Shiraz, a poet.
Yerevan
Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...
school #169 and a street in
Julfa,
Isfahan
Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Region, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is lo ...
are named after him. The
Hovhannes Shiraz House-Museum is located in a nineteenth-century building in
Gyumri
Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...
.
Personality
Shiraz was known for his good
sense of humour. In 1963
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...
visited poet's apartment in Yerevan, and then wrote in a letter: "...men are closest together when they laugh together. And I remember that in Yerevan we laughed together a great deal."
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, ...
and
Alexander Gitovich dedicated poems to Shiraz.
Shiraz was an anti-establishment poet who was very popular with the people of Soviet Armenia but fought against its corrupt Soviet leadership all his life. When in 1974 the known critic
Suren Aghababyan brought to Shiraz the news about awarding of the
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...
, his answer followed: "And what they
he Soviet governmentwant in exchange? To buy my silence?"
Poetry
Shiraz is an author of about forty poetry books and translations. His rich vocabulary and sensitive style, enhanced by folk and colloquial elements, made his poetry one of the highest achievements of
Armenian literature. Critics consider many of his works masterpieces. According to
Paruyr Sevak, "The modern Armenian poetry has risen on the ridge of Shiraz".
"Shiraz is a great talent, we should be proud and consider as a great honor that we personally know him", wrote
William Saroyan
William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''T ...
. Shiraz built his poems with Armenian "
tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...
of emotions", added
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, ...
.
In my dreams my door was knocked at,
"Who is it?" I asked from inside.
Some elderly lady from the outside
Answered and said, "I'd sacrifice myself for you."
"I've come to ask for a piece of bread as charity
I'm a poor orphan woman with no one to support me."
At this point I opened my door immediately,
Only to find a miracle; it was my deceased mother indeed!
I was shocked but fell into her arms;
And my mother said, "It's me, it's me,
I've come to try you and to check on you.
I hope life hasn't changed your spirit and also you?!"
I came in the form of a beggar
So that the whole world can be a witness
To see if your conscience, my dear son,
If your conscience also died along with me?!"
(Translated from Armenian by Daniel Janoyan)
Poems of Shiraz are known throughout the former
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
(his works were translated by
Arseny Tarkovsky
Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky (russian: link=no, Арсений Александрович Тарковский; 27 May 1989) was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He was predeceased by his son, film director Andrei Tarkovsky.
Biograph ...
and
Nikolay Aseev
Nikolai Nikolayevich Aseyev ( rus, Никола́й Никола́евич Асе́ев, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ ɐˈsʲejɪf, a=Nikolay Nikolayevich Asyeyev.ru.vorb.oga; July 10, 1889 - July 16, 1963) was a Russian and Soviet Futu ...
) and abroad. As
Andrey Dementyev writes, Hovhannes Shiraz, like
Sergey Yesenin, uses many
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
s, so it's very hard to translate his poems.
During a meeting with Soviet writers, to demonstrate what kind of poetry he liked best,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
writer
Bhisham Sahni
Bhisham Sahni (8 August 1915 – 11 July 2003) was an Indian writer, playwright in Hindi and an actor, most famous for his novel and television screenplay '' Tamas'' ("Darkness, Ignorance"), a powerful and passionate account of the Partition of ...
, showed a journal containing poems by Hovhannes Shiraz.
Soviet literature, journal, 1987, p. 156
/ref>
House-Museum
The Hovhannes Shiraz House-Museum is located on Varpetats Street, Gyumri. The house was presented to Shiraz by Soviet Armenian officials in July 1983. The house was built in 1886 and belonged to a millionaire. During the Soviet Union it was used as a storehouse. Due to the 1988 Armenian earthquake
The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake ( hy, Սպիտակի երկրաշարժ, ), occurred on December 7 at with a surface wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (''Devastating''). The shock occurre ...
, the museum's refurbishment was interrupted, and 8 homeless families found shelter in the house. In 2003 it became a house-museum by the resolution of the Armenian government.
Selected bibliography
*''Beginning of Spring'', 1935
*''Song of Armenia'', 1940
*''The voice of poet'', 1942
*''A book of songs'', 1942
*''Biblian'', 1944
*''Lyre of Armenia'', three volumes, 1958, 1965 and 1974
*''A monument to my Mother'', 1968
*''Peace to everybody'', 1982
Filmography
* "Hovhannes Shiraz: A Documentary", 2005, director Levon Mkrtchyan
Levon Mkrtchyan ( hy, Լևոն Մկրտչյան; russian: Левон Гайкович Мкртчян; born February 25, 1953 in Leninakan (now Gyumri) is an Armenian director, known for his documentaries, "Davit Anhaght", "Charentz: Known and Unk ...
* "On the Path to Eternity", Armenfilm
Armenfilm (russian: Арменфильм; hy, Արմենֆիլմ), also known as Hayfilm ( hy, Հայֆիլմ), is an Armenian film studio located in Yerevan. The studio was founded on 16 April 1923 as a production unit of the Soviet State Cinem ...
, 1983, 35mm, director Levon Mkrtchyan
Levon Mkrtchyan ( hy, Լևոն Մկրտչյան; russian: Левон Гайкович Мкртчян; born February 25, 1953 in Leninakan (now Gyumri) is an Armenian director, known for his documentaries, "Davit Anhaght", "Charentz: Known and Unk ...
, composer Sarkis Aladjadjyan
References
External links
Hovhannes Shiraz Museum's Official Website
* https://web.archive.org/web/20120314204432/http://armshop.in.ua/product/hovhannes-shiraz/
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiraz, Hovhannes
1915 births
1984 deaths
People from Gyumri
Shirak State University alumni
20th-century male writers
Armenian male poets
20th-century Armenian poets
Burials at the Komitas Pantheon
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni
Soviet poets