Wounds of Armenia

Wounds of Armenia (Armenian: Վերք Հայաստանի, romanized: Verk’ Hayastani)^[a] is an 1841 historical novel by Khachatur Abovian. Written in the Araratian (Yerevan) dialect,^[4] Wounds of Armenia is considered Abovian's masterpiece.^[2][5] It is Abovian's debut novel, the first Armenian novel^[6][b] and the first modern Eastern Armenian literary work.^[8][9] Thanks to Wounds of Armenia, Abovian is acknowledged as the founder of the modern Eastern Armenian language.^[2][5]

Wounds of Armenia

Cover of the 1959 edition
Author	Khachatur Abovian
Language	Eastern Armenian
Genre	Historical novel[1][2][3]
Publication date	1858

It was first published in 1858 in Tiflis, which was the cultural center of Russian Armenians before the Russian Civil War,^[10] ten years after Abovian's disappearance.^[9]

Name

The book's full title is Wounds of Armenia: Lamentation of a Patriot (Վերք Հայաստանի. ողբ հայրենասիրի).^[11][12]

Background

A page from Abovian's manuscript of the novel

Khachatur Abovian was born in Kanaker, a small village near Yerevan in 1809 which was part of Qajar Iran at the time. In 1827, Yerevan was captured by the Russians. From 1830 to 1836, Abovian studied at the University of Dorpat in modern-day Tartu, Estonia.^[13] Abovian wrote the book in 1841.^{[4][6][8][9][14]}

Plot

The story which Abovian named Wounds of Armenia is based on an incident which happened in his hometown Kanaker during the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828.

A young Armenian girl named Taguhi is kidnapped by soldiers of Hossein Khan Sardar, the head of the Erivan Khanate. Aghasi, who is the main hero, kills the Sardar's men and saves her. The Persian governor's brother Hassan decides to punish Aghasi and thus destroys a number of Armenian towns.^[3][6]

Evaluation

The 2005 book The Heritage of Armenian Literature by Agop Jack Hacikyan et al. argues that "though symbolic, the incident [central to the plot], was sufficiently potent to arouse sentiments of patriotism, national pride, and dignity". The authors then note that "the book, reads like a poem, in which the author, like a son, is having an honest, forthright talk with the people, in their own Kanaker dialect". They claim "its message is direct and strong: an appeal from the bottom of the heart".^[6]

Publications and translations

The novel was first published in 1858 in Tiflis (modern-day Tbilisi, Georgia).^[1][2] It was later published during the Soviet era (1948, 1959, 1975) and in independent Armenia (2005, 2009). Since now the novel had 16 publications in Armenian in separate books.^{[citation needed]}

The novel was translated for the first time into Russian (by Sergey Shervinsky). In 1948, the Russian translated edition was published in both in Yerevan and Moscow and later republished in 1955, 1971 and 1977 in Yerevan.^[15] In 1978 and 2005 it was published in Moscow.

In 2005, Vahé Baladouni translated the preface of Abovian's novel into English. It was published in Yerevan by the Museum of Literature and Art. (ISBN 9993060607, OCLC 76872486)

The novel has also been published in Latvian (1960), Lithuanian (1980) and Romanian (2015).^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Modern Armenian
• Classical Armenian
• Yerevan dialect

Notes

1. Traditional orthography: Վէրք Հայաստանի
2. Mesrop Taghiadian published the novels Vep Vardgisi (1846) and Vep Varsenkan (1847) in Classical Armenian prior to the publication of Wounds of Armenia,^[7] although Abovian wrote the novel earlier, in 1841.

References

1. Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009). Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 9789027238146.
2. Baladouni, Vahé; Gery, John (2010). Hmayeak Shēms: A Poet of Pure Spirit. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. p. 91. ISBN 9780761850540.
3. Kurkjian, Vahan M. (2008). A History of Armenia. Los Angeles: Indo-European Publishing. p. 338. ISBN 9781604440126.
4. Panossian, Razmik (2006). The Armenians from kings and priests to merchants and commissars. London: Columbia University Press. p. 143. ISBN 9780231511339.
5. Bardakjian, Kevork B. (2000). Wayne State University Press. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press. p. 135. ISBN 9780814327470.
6. Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2005). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the eighteenth century to modern times. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 213. ISBN 9780814332214.
7. Hacikyan et al. (2005) p. 204
8. Nichanian, Marc (2002). Writers of Disaster: Arm. Literature in the Twentieth Century. Princeton, NJ: Gomidas Inst. p. 87. ISBN 9781903656099.
9. Kazanjian, David (2003). Loss: The Politics of Mourning. Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 144. ISBN 9780520232365.
10. Petrosian, Irina; Underwood, David (2006). Armenian Food: Fact, Fiction & Folklore. Bloomington, Indiana: Yerkir Publ. p. 8. ISBN 9781411698659. Money, jobs, and success were attainable in Tiflis, which became virtually the center of Eastern Armenian life. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tiflis had a population of 350,000, while Yerevan had only 35,000.
11. Baladouni (2005) p. 4
12. Hacikyan (2005) p. 89 "Khachatur Abovian (1809-48) is regarded as one of the founders of Eastern Armenian ashkharhabar, with his milestone work Verk Hayastani kam Voghb hayrenasiri (Wounds of Armenia, or lamentation of the patriot)."
13. Khachaturian, Lisa (2009). Cultivating Nationhood in Imperial Russia: The Periodical Press and the Formation of a Modern Armenian Identity. Transaction Publishers. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-4128-0848-4.
14. Hovanesian, Zareh (2000). The philatelic History of Armenia. Z. Hovanesian. p. 146. ISBN 9780615119984.
15. Акопян, П. О. Хачатур Абовян и его "Раны Армении" (in Russian). ArmenianHouse.org. Retrieved 22 March 2013.

External links

• The full text at the Armenian WikiSource
• The full text at the Eastern Armenian National Corpus