''Wounds of Armenia'' ( hy, Վերք Հայաստանի ''Verk Hayastani'') is an 1841 historical novel by Khachatur Abovian. Written in the Araratian (Yerevan) dialect, ''Wounds of Armenia'' is considered Abovian's ''

chef d'œuvre A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

''. It is Abovian's

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

, the first Armenian novel and the first modern

Eastern Armenian Eastern Armenian ( ''arevelahayeren'') is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language. Eastern Armenian is spoken in Armenia, Artsakh, Russia, as ...

literary work. Thanks to ''Wounds of Armenia'', Khachatur Abovian is acknowledged as the founder of the modern

language. It was first published in 1858 in

Tiflis Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

, which was the cultural center of Russian Armenians before the

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

, ten years after Abovian disappeared.

Name

The book is commonly known as ''Wounds of Armenia'' (''Verk Hayastani''), although it was originally titled ''Wounds of Armenia: Lamentation of a Patriot'' (Վերք Հայաստանի. ողբ հայրենասերի) by Abovian.

Background

Khachatur Abovian was born in

Kanaker Kanaker ( hy, Քանաքեռ; also Romanized as K’anak’err, Kenaker, Kanaker, and Qanaqer) was a town in Armenia to the north-east of the capital Yerevan. With the urban development, the village was gradually absorbed by the capital Yerevan t ...

, a small village near

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 ...

in 1809 which was part of the

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

at the time. In 1827, Yerevan was captured by the Russians. From 1830 to 1836, Abovian studied at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

. Abovian wrote the book in 1841.

Plot

The story which Abovian named ''Wounds of Armenia'' is based on an incident which happened in his hometown Kanaker during the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828. A young Armenian girl named Takhuni is kidnapped by soldiers of

Hossein Khan Sardar Hossein Qoli Khan Sardar Qajar ( fa, حسین قلی خان سردار قاجار), better simply known as Hossein Khan Sardar () (born ca. 1742 – died 1831) was an Iranian statesman in Qajar Iran, who was the last governor of the Erivan Khanate ...

, the head of the Erivan Khanate. Aghasi, who is the main hero, kills the Sardar's men and saves her. The Persian governor's brother Hassan decides to punish Aghasi and thus destroys a number of Armenian towns. The 2005 book ''The Heritage of Armenian Literature'' by Agop Jack Hacikyan ''et al'' argues that "though symbolic, the incident, was sufficiently potent to arouse sentiments of patriotism, national pride, and dignity". The authors then note that "the book, reads like a poem, in which the author, like a son, is having an honest, forthright talk with the people, in their own Kanaker dialect". They claim "its message is direct and strong: an appeal from the bottom of the heart".

Publications and translations

The novel was first published in 1858 in Tiflis, 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 called

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million pe ...

as the capital of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. It was later published during the Soviet era (1948
19591975
and in independent Armenia
20052009
. Since now the novel had 16 publications in Armenian in separate books. The first language to be translated into was Russian (by Sergey Shervinsky). In 1948, the Russian translated edition was published in both in

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and later republished in 1955, 1971 an
1977
in Yerevan. In 1978 and 2005 it was published in Moscow. In 2005, Vahé Baladouni translated the preface of Abovian's novel into English. It was published in Yerevan by the Museum of Literature and Art. (, ) The novel was also published in Latvian (1960), Lithuanian (1980) and Romanian (2015).

References

External links