Contemporary World Literature: Poetry from Armenia

Eduard Harents graduated from Yerevan State University, the faculty of Oriental Studies, and Cairo University’s Centre of Arabic Language and Culture. He is an author of 10 poetry collections, and has been published in a large number of both Armenian and foreign periodicals and anthologies.

Eduard is the most translated Armenian writer of all time, with his work being translated into more than 50 languages. In 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, he was awarded in the Best Poetical Series and Best Translation nominations, and 2013, the young poets first prize for the book “Lethargic Vigilance”. Awards also include: the International literary prize for poetry 2015 and 2019, and the Panorama International Literature Award 2020 (India-Italy). In 2016, his book “The life lives me” was published in Belgium, and in 2017, his book “Lethargic Vigilance” was published in Spain. In 2014 he participated in the Festivalul de Internaţionale “Nopţile de Poezie de la Curtea de Argeş” (Romania) and in the Festival Internazionale di Poesia di Genova (Italy).

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Plucking Eyelashes of Silence

I am plucking now

The eyelashes of silence one by one

To mend my prayer

Which has been torn by nuances of word ….

Now the nuance is more than the voice…

And now I enter

The church of Hope barefooted,

So that my steps will not paint voices on my fortune

How many footprints have been split apart by whispers…

While my footprint

Is my prayer of love

Which never ends

As it never colors itself in words…

And now

The main color is the truth,

That love is the poem of the feeling…

That muses don’t turn into women…

(Translated from Armenian by Herminée Arshakyan)

Love

Through the 30 dawns of my life,

From flower to flower,

Leaving all my sins aside,

By the time I arrived,

She had already left,

Leaving the Supper table behind…

 

And I

Laughed the words

Inwards until yesterday

Like

Psychotropic fish…

 

It turned out 33 was too many…

(Translated from Armenian by Anna Talalyan)

***

I know, I will wake up someday

From the mystical dinner,

Will wear my father’s

Damaged footsteps

As little pockets

Filled with immeasurable love…

Can my days – I wonder –

Scale that much unbearable

Lightness!

Yearning

The shadow of color

Is scaling

The scars of day;

Walking the serenity

Of an encountered dream…

 

The flower is the secret

Of pain;

An introspective smile

The scion names the sin.

 

Beyond personal bandages

Of prayer,

The self-denial of a tree

Is as much bright

As warm are the hands

Of night!

 

I am freezing… your name.

(Translated from Armenian by Harout Vartanian)

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