Selected Poems

Armenia, you call for colours –

And with his paw a lion

Seizes half a dozen crayons from a pencil-box.

Here the women pass,

Stark as children’s drawings.

They bestow their splendour,

Their lionesque beauty,

And do not terrorize the blood.

I’ve drooled over my dishevelled life, like a mullah over his Koran;

I’ve frozen time and haven’t spilt hot blood…

Majesty of clamorous boulders –

Armenia! Armenia!

Summoning raucous hills to war –

Armenia! Armenia!

Unendingly journeying towards the silver trumpets of Asia –

Armenia! Armenia!

Lavishly scattering the Persian coins of the sun –

Armenia! Armenia!

Earthenware, azure… azure, clay…

What more is needed? Squint quickly,

Like a myopic shah, over a turquoise ring,

Over earth’s mould, whose script and lexicon are ringing,

A festering text, a costly clay,

By which we are tormented, stirred,

As by music and the word.

Palaver of the waves…

Harmony of tears…

The bell of brotherhood…

Mumbling, you bring us

The grape flesh, poetry,

To refresh the palate.

Pour your eternal dreams, samples of blood,

From one glass to another.