Hovhannes Shiraz:
One of the most famous Armenian writer, poet, translator, publicist.
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, a subject that was banned in Soviet Union. The first version of this masterpiece was written in 1941. Only short passages from this work were published in Soviet Armenia during his lifetime, and some chapters were published in Beirut and Tehran. The entire poem (over 8000 lines) was published in 1990 in Yerevan.
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Shiraz was known for his good sense of humour. In 1963 John Steinbeck 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."
SHIRAZ: LYRICS
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Poems of Shiraz are known throughout the former USSR (his works were translated by Arseny Tarkovsky and Nikolay Aseev) and abroad. Anyway, as Andrey Dementyev writes, Hovhannes Shiraz, like Sergey Yesenin, uses many metaphors...
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SHIRAZ: "Siamanto & Khejezareh"
POEM
SHIRAZ: "A monument to my Mother"
poetry: Lyrics
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.
Shiraz built his poems with Armenian "tuff of emotions", added Yevgeny Yevtushenko
The great poet was buried in the Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan along with other prominent Armenians.
