Razmik Davoyan ( hy, Ռազմիկ Դավոյան; 3 July 1940 – 11 January 2022) was an Armenian poet.

Life and career

Davoyan was born in Mets Parni,

Spitak Spitak ( hy, Սպիտակ), is a town and urban municipal community in the northern Lori Province of Armenia. It is north of the capital, Yerevan, and west of the provincial center, Vanadzor. Spitak was entirely destroyed during the devastatin ...

rayon,

Armenian SSR The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

on 3 July 1940. He studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

and history at

Armenian State Pedagogical University Khachatur Abovian Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU) ( hy, Խաչատուր Աբովյանի անվան հայկական պետական մանկավարժական համալսարան, ՀՊՄՀ), is a state university and higher educa ...

. He published a number of poetry collections (''My world'', 1963; ''Massacre of the Crosses'', 1972; ''The sad elephant'', 1978). His poem "Requiem" (1969) is dedicated to the darkest pages of the history of the Armenian people. Davoyan's famous poems include "Unwrap your skin", "The spider", and "After Narekatsi". Davoyan's works were subject to censorship by Soviet authorities. ''Requiem'', ''Massacre of the Crosses'', and ''Toros Rosslin'' were blocked from publication for a number of years, the latter two eventually being published outside of Armenia. Much of his work has been translated into English, Russian, and Czech. In 1971 he received the Prize of Armenian

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...

. In 1986 he received Armenia's State Prize for Literature. From 1994 to 1996 he was the head of the

Writers Union of Armenia The Writers' Union of Armenia was founded in August 1934, simultaneously with the USSR Union of Writers and as a component part of the USSR Union. 1930s The Constituent Assembly was held during 1 August - 5 August, after which the Armenian delegat ...

. A year later, he was the recipient of the Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots from the President of Armenia. In 2003, ''The Little Bird at the Exhibition'', a children's book written by Davoyan, was awarded the President's Prize for Literature. Davoyan resided in Yerevan, Armenia. He died on 11 January 2022, at the age of 81.Armenian poet Razmik Davoyan dies aged 81
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Books

* ''Selected Poems'', Macmillan UK, Oxford, 2002. * ''Whispers and Breath of the Meadows'', Arc Publications UK, 2010.

References

External links

Razmik Davoyan's biographyOfficial siteRazmik Davoyan and Arminé Tamrazian in Conversation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davoyan, Razmik 1940 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Armenian poets 20th-century male writers 21st-century Armenian poets Armenian male poets People from Lori Province 21st-century male writers Armenian State Pedagogical University alumni