Hovhannes Shiraz
Encyclopedia
Hovhannes Shiraz (April 27, 1915, Alexandropol - March 14, 1984, Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan 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 industrial center of the country...

) was a notable Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

.

Biography

He was born Hovhannes (Onik) Karapetyan in the city of Alexandropol, then part of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 (now Gyumri
Gyumri
Gyumri is the capital and largest city of the Shirak Province in northwest Armenia. It is located about 120 km from the capital Yerevan, and, with a population of 168,918 , is the second-largest city in Armenia.The name of the city has been changed many times in history...

, Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

). His first work called Beginning of Spring was published in 1935. Novelist Atrpet
Atrpet
Sargis Mubayeajian , better known by his pen name Atrpet , was a prolific and multifarious Armenian writer....

 gave the talented poet the epithet "Shiraz
Shiraz, Iran
Shiraz is the sixth most populous city in Iran and is the capital of Fars Province, the city's 2009 population was 1,455,073. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river...

", 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
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

'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.

Hovhannes Shiraz studied in Yerevan State University
Yerevan State University
Yerevan State University is a university in Yerevan, Armenia. Founded on May 16 1919, it is the largest university in the country with 110 departments. Of its 3,150 employees, 1,190 comprise the teaching staff which includes 25 academicians, 130 professors, 700 docents , and 360 assistant lecturers...

 and Moscow Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute
The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute is a higher education institute in Moscow. It is located at 25 Tver Bulvar in Central Moscow.It was founded in 1933 on the initiative of Maxim Gorky, and received its current name at Gorky's death in 1936....

. In 1958 Shiraz published the first volume of his 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.

Most of Shiraz's publications were 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", "Expromt", "Like the pagan love", "My holy Homeland", "The fate of Armenians", "To Andranik", etc. He wrote "The Armenian Dante-esque" about the Armenian genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

, a subject that was banned in Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. The first version of this masterpiece was written in 1941. Only short passages from this work were published during his life in Soviet Armenia, and some chapters were published in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 and Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

. The entire poem (over 8000 lines) was published in 1990 in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan 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 industrial center of the country...

.

He married famous Armenian poetess Silva Kaputikyan
Silva Kaputikyan
Sirvard Barunaki "Silva" Kaputikyan was a 20th century prominent Armenian poet, writer, academian and public activist....

. His son with Kaputikyan, Ara Shiraz
Ara Shiraz
Ara Shiraz is an Armenian sculptor, Hovhannes Shiraz's and Silva Kaputikyan's son.- Biography :Ara Shiraz was born in Yerevan in 1941. He has graduated the Yerevan Theatre and Fine Arts Institute in 1966. He has participated in numerous young artists exhibitions in Armenia and the Soviet Union....

, is a sculptor. Shiraz had seven children with his second wife, Hasmik. Their son Sipan Shiraz
Sipan Shiraz
Sipan Shiraz was an Armenian poet.He was the son of Armenian poet Hovhannes Shiraz. He studied at Yerevan Art Institute. Shiraz was an author of poetry books and memoirs about his father. A member of the Writers Union of Armenia, he also worked at Yerevan radio...

 was a poet.

Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan 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 industrial center of the country...

 school #169 and a street in Julfa
New Julfa
New Julfa is the Armenian quarter of Isfahan, Iran, located along the south bank of the river Zayandeh River....

 of Isfahan are named after him. Hovhannes Shiraz’s House-Museum is opened in a 19th Century building in Gyumri
Gyumri
Gyumri is the capital and largest city of the Shirak Province in northwest Armenia. It is located about 120 km from the capital Yerevan, and, with a population of 168,918 , is the second-largest city in Armenia.The name of the city has been changed many times in history...

.

Personality

Shiraz was known for his good sense of humour. In early 1960's John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...

 visited poet's appartment 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'.

When in 1974 the known critic Suren Aghababyan
Suren Aghababyan
Suren Bardughi Aghababyan was a Soviet Armenian literary critic and Doctor of Philology.He was an author of many works including biographies of Yeghishe Charents and Axel Bakunts, and the History of Soviet Armenian Literature .-External links:*...

 has brought to Shiraz the news about awarding of Lenin order, the answer has followed: " And what they [the Soviet governmant] want in exchange? To buy my silence?"

Poetry

Shiraz is an author of about forty poetry books and translations. Critics consider many of his works masterpieces. According to Paruyr Sevak
Paruyr Sevak
Paruyr Rafaeli Ghazaryan was an Armenian poet. He is considered one of the greatest Armenian poets of the twentieth century. -Biography:...

, "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
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...

.


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)

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". In 2005 Director Levon Mkrtchyan
    Levon Mkrtchyan
    Movie director Levon Mkrtchyan , is an Armenian director known for his documentaries, "Davit Anhaght," "Charentz: Known and Unknown Sides", "Jean Garzu", "Mesrop Mashtots", "My Komitas", "And There Was Light", "The Manuscript of Independence" which was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of...

     released a documentary film titled "Hovhannes Shiraz ". Հովհաննես Շիրազ / Hovhannes Shiraz /
  • "On the Path to Eternity", Armenfilm
    Armenfilm
    Armenfilm is an Armenian film studio in Yerevan. The film studio was founded on 16 April 1923 as the State Cinema Organisation with Daniel Dznuni as the first director....

    , 1983, 35mm, director Levon Mkrtchyan
    Levon Mkrtchyan
    Movie director Levon Mkrtchyan , is an Armenian director known for his documentaries, "Davit Anhaght," "Charentz: Known and Unknown Sides", "Jean Garzu", "Mesrop Mashtots", "My Komitas", "And There Was Light", "The Manuscript of Independence" which was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of...

    , composer Sarkis Aladjadjyan

External links

  • Hovhannes Shiraz
  • http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Hovhannes+Shiraz&btnG=Search&aq=o&aqi=g3g-v7&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
  • http://armshop.in.ua/product/hovhannes-shiraz/
  • Hovhannes Shiraz at YouTube
  • http://torrent.arut.ru/viewtopic.php?t=618&sid=92577c011a38048391b856b96631b060
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