writers

Sunday, February 20, 2011
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WRITERS: A LAMENTATION
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What is a writer deprived of free speech?
Worst than a gagged and hogtied Mideast Arab
at the mercy of corrupt potentates
so fearful of being exposed for what they really are
that they are willing to slaughter their own people.
*
As an Armenian writer – that is to say,
as an unemployed and unemployable misfit –
I respect everyone except those
who make no effort to earn my respect
not so much as a writer but as a human being;
and when I speak as an Armenian writer,
I do not speak of myself alone
but of all those who came before me
and were misunderstood, rejected,
betrayed to the authorities and
murdered in cold blood.
Armenian writers have been perennial scapegoats
of our Ottomanized and Sovietized leaders
and their brainwashed dupes.
*
In his efforts to explain and justify this state of affairs,
one of our elder statesmen once said to me:
“You speak as though you were the only writer
who has been unfairly treated.”
To which I had no choice but to reply:
“That is why I speak with the strength of many.
My question to you is: On whose side are you?”
I never heard from him again.
Shortly thereafter he died.
May God have mercy on his soul, if he had one.
#
Monday, February 21, 2011
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NUTS
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“He is nuts!”
I once overheard one of our elder statesmen
say of another – both members of the same political party.
Which may suggest we are not just divided but also subdivided.
Even our divisions have divisions.
*
Armenian politics:
I can't imagine a more depressing subject.
Does anyone know or remember
when was the last time we had a single king
or head of state who was not the puppet
of an alien power structure?
*
If our elder statesmen have a low opinion of one another,
what is their opinion of the people?
“Sh*ts” and “assh*les” according to two friends
quoting two of our “statesmen.”
*
The Armenian equivalent of “cherchez la femme”
is “cherchez le Panchoonie” -- that is,
the bureaucrat who makes a comfortable living
by parroting someone else's propaganda line.
Which reminds me of Zarian's celebrated line:
“Even our garbage has not been picked up
from our own streets!”
#
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
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ON UNDERSTANDING
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We all agree that as Turks they behaved like Turks,
and as Armenians we behaved like Armenians.
Turks behaving like Turks we understand.
But what do we really mean when we say
Armenians behaving like Armenians?
Did we believe in our own propaganda?
Did we underestimate
the ruthless determination of the opposition
and God's indifference?
Did we confuse our wishful thinking or illusions with reality?
By emphasizing Turkish motives and responsibility
and ignoring or covering up our own,
we condemn ourselves to understand nothing.
*
Can we understand ourselves
without understanding others
and the world in which we live?
*
Whenever I speak with a member of a political party
I assume at least a fraction of what he says
is recycled propaganda, that is to say, a shameless lie.
*
No matter how deep runs my contempt
for some of my fellow Armenians,
it will never be as deep and venomous
as their contempt for all selfless intellectual labor.
#
THREE POEMS
TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH
BY GEORGES FESTA
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The Human Condition
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We walk like apes
Eat like cannibals
Talk like parrots
Fight like dragons
And call ourselves
Civilized human beings.
==============================
La condition humaine
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Comme les singes nous marchons
Comme les cannibales nous mangeons
Comme les perroquets nous parlons
Comme les dragons nous nous battons
Et nous osons nous dire
Des êtres humains civilisés.
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Haiku
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Little toadstools
On the lawn:
Reminders of Hiroshima.
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Haïku
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De petits champignons vénéneux
Sur la pelouse :
Rappels d’Hiroshima.
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Dreams/Nightmares
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When dreams
Come true/They turn
Into nightmares.
============================
Rêves/Cauchemars
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Lorsque les rêves
Se réalisent/Ils se transforment
En cauchemars.
=========================================

Textes extraits de :
Armenian-American Poets: A Bilingual Anthology,
éd. et trad. Garig Basmadjian
(Détroit, Michigan: Alex Manoogian Cultural Fund of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, 1976).
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Source : http://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com/search/label/Ara%20Baliozian
Traductions : © Georges Festa – 02.2011