Isahakyan Avetik
Avetik Isahakyan (b. October 31, 1875, Alexandropol (now Gyumri) – d. October 17, 1957, Yerevan), Armenian poet, full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia (1943).
In 1889–1892, he studied at the Etchmiadzin Theological Seminary, from which he was expelled for participating in a strike against the strict regime. He moved to Tbilisi and became close to the circle of Armenian writers there (H. Tumanyan, G. Aghayan and others). In 1892–1893, he published poems in the Armenian magazine in Tbilisi — “Taraz” (Fashion); his first collection of poems Songs and Wounds (1898, Alexandropol) brought the poet recognition.
Isahakyan's poems contained the motifs of the struggle against national and social oppression, for which he was repressed many times. In 1908, he was imprisoned in Metekhi Prison. From 1911, he lived abroad for a long time. In 1936, he finally returned to Armenia. In 1909, he published the poem Abu Lala Mahari, in the magazine “Geghard” (Art) (it was published as a separate book in Constantinople in 1911; Georgian translation 1929, 1963, 1968). The poem, in its spirit (human striving for happiness and a bright future), is similar to N. Baratashvili's Merani, A. Mickiewicz's Farys and other works.
Isahakyan is the author of the collection of poems and stories A Pipe of Patience (1928), the cycle of poems: Our Historians and Our Minstrels (1939), To my Motherland (1940), etc; The poem Sasna Mher (1919, Georgian translation in 1939) is noteworthy. In the poem The Bell of Freedom (1905), he symbolically presented the friendship of the Georgian and Armenian peoples in the form of Mount Kazbek and Masis.
The story Shakro Valishvili (1906), the prose work The Song of the Georgian Poet (1937), the poem The Song of Tamar (1943) and others were written on Georgian themes. His works have been translated into many languages of the world, including Georgian (translated by T. Tabidze, R. Tvaradze, G. Shahnazar, I. Abashidze, etc). Isahakyan was awarded the USSR State Prize (1946) for patriotic poems published during World War II.
Literary works: ԵիկեҐ, ჰ. 1–4, Ե., 1958–59; რჩეული, თბ., 1955; რჩეული ლირიკა, თბ., 1975; საადის უკანასკნელი გაზაფხული, თბ., 1971.
Literature: არველაძე ბ., მეგობრობის ნათელი ფურცლები, თბ., 1975; ნაჰაპეტიანი მ., არველაძე ბ., ავეტიქ ისააკიანი, თბ., 1975; Ганаланян О. Т., Очерки армянской поэзии XIX–XX веков, 2 изд., Ер., 1964.
B. Arveladze
