YURI SAHAKYAN

YURI SAHAKYAN

I AM THE FRIEND OF YOUR FRIEND

To My Bulgarian friend,

Krassin Himmirsky

The Bulgarian friend of mine

Has a friend in Greece.

This friend of Greece

Has a friend in Poland.

This friend of Poland

Has a friend in Russia.

This friend of Russia

Has a friend in Persia.

I am standing by the map

And looking with admiration.

And I can not take my eye

Off the Planet named Earth.

If one day I stretch out my hand

And hold the hand of my friend,

And he stretches out his hand

And hold the hand of his friend,

This whole beautiful world

Will appear in our hands...

And mentally I violate

All the borders, near and far,

I cross the seas, I cross the lands

And travel in villages and towns.

Whomever I see on my way

I greet them warmly as a friend.

"Here’s my hand, my dear friend,

I am the friend of your friend.”

THE LEGEND OF A DEAD CITY

The enemy came and knew well:

To capture this proud city,

We must demolish the bell tower ...

The enemy came and knew well:

So that people do not rallied to repel,

We must demolish the bell tower ...

The enemy came and knew well:

To stop the brave souls to be born,

We must demolish the bell tower ...

The enemy came and knew well:

To pacify rebellious blood,

We must demolish the bell tower ...

Once the builders were tired - to build ...

Once robbers were tired - to destroy ...

There were no more builders.

There were no destroyers.

And there is no city either ...

BELIEVE

As long as

People despise and condemn

greed,

betrayal,

negligence,

cowardice,

obsequiousness

injustice,

meanness

covetousness

deceit

Here and everywhere ...

As long as

People greet and respect

generosity,

generosity,

truthfulness

goodwill

courage,

curiosity

devotion,

honesty

and justice

Here and everywhere ...

As long as everything is so, and not vice versa,

I will still believe in people

I will believe in the coming day

Of my land and all mankind -

Here and everywhere,

Here and everywhere ...

TRANSLATED FROM ARMENIAN: ARTSVI BAKHCHINYAN

YURI SAHAKYAN

YURI SAHAKYAN: Republic of Armenia (Armenia). Armenian poet and translator Yuri Sahakyan was born in 1937 in Nagorni Karabakh. In 1975 he became the chief editor of the "Booklovers" organization.  Yuri Sahakyan worked at publishing houses as a senior editor of children literature department. He also translates from Russian, mainly for children. He is a member of Writers’ Union of Armenia, winner of the State award of 1999 for the book “Alphabet Guide”. Author of dozen of poetical books both for children and grownups. Many of his poems have been translated and published in Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Polish, Romanian, English, French, Swedish, Lithuanian, Abkhazian, etc.