Monday, July 1, 2019

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.


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