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Land of Fire: Selected Poems
English, Armenian (translation)
- GenresPoetry
271 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1916
1 person is currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Yeghishe Charents
32 books32 followersYeghishe Charents (Armenian: Եղիշե Աբգարի Չարենց; March 13, 1897 – November 29, 1937) was an Armenian poet and public activist. Charents was one of the most outstanding poets of the twentieth century, touching upon a multitude of topics that ranged from his experiences in the First World War, socialism, and, more prominently, on Armenia and Armenians.
An early champion of communism, Charents joined the Bolshevik party, but as the Soviet state clamped down on nationalism in the 1930s, he gradually grew disillusioned with Stalinism and was later executed during the 1930s purges.
Yeghishe Charents was born Yeghishe Soghomonyan in Kars, then a part of the Russian Empire, in 1897 to a family involved in the rug trade. He first attended an Armenian, but later transferred to a Russian, technical secondary school in Kars from 1908 to 1912.[1] In 1912, he had his first poem published in the Armenian periodical Patani.[2] Amid the upheavals of the First World War and the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, he volunteered to fight in a detachment in 1915 for the Caucasian Front. Sent to Van in 1915, Charents was witness to the destruction that the Turkish garrison had laid upon the Armenian population, leaving indelible memories that would later be read in his poems.[1] He left the front one year later, attending school at the Shanyavski People's University in Moscow. The horrors of the war and genocide had scarred Charents and he became a fervent supporter of the Bolsheviks, seeing them as the one true hope to saving Armenia.
Charents joined the Red Army and fought during the Russian Civil War as a rank and file soldier in Russia and the Caucasus. In 1919, he returned to Armenia and took part in revolutionary activities there. A year later, he began work at the Ministry of Education as the director of the Art Department. Charents would also once again take up arms, this time against his fellow Armenians, as a rebellion took place against Soviet rule in February 1921.
A victim of Stalinism, he died in prison. He was rehabilitated in 1954 after Stalin's death.
His works were translated by Valeri Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Louis Aragon and others.
His famous poems are:
Three songs to the sad and pale girl...", poems (1914)
"Blue-eyed Homeland", poem (1915)
"Soma", poem (1918)
"Charents-Name", poem (1922)
"Country of Nairi" (Yerkir Nairi) (1926)
"Epical Sunrise", poems (1930)
"Book of the Way", poems (1933-34
An early champion of communism, Charents joined the Bolshevik party, but as the Soviet state clamped down on nationalism in the 1930s, he gradually grew disillusioned with Stalinism and was later executed during the 1930s purges.
Yeghishe Charents was born Yeghishe Soghomonyan in Kars, then a part of the Russian Empire, in 1897 to a family involved in the rug trade. He first attended an Armenian, but later transferred to a Russian, technical secondary school in Kars from 1908 to 1912.[1] In 1912, he had his first poem published in the Armenian periodical Patani.[2] Amid the upheavals of the First World War and the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, he volunteered to fight in a detachment in 1915 for the Caucasian Front. Sent to Van in 1915, Charents was witness to the destruction that the Turkish garrison had laid upon the Armenian population, leaving indelible memories that would later be read in his poems.[1] He left the front one year later, attending school at the Shanyavski People's University in Moscow. The horrors of the war and genocide had scarred Charents and he became a fervent supporter of the Bolsheviks, seeing them as the one true hope to saving Armenia.
Charents joined the Red Army and fought during the Russian Civil War as a rank and file soldier in Russia and the Caucasus. In 1919, he returned to Armenia and took part in revolutionary activities there. A year later, he began work at the Ministry of Education as the director of the Art Department. Charents would also once again take up arms, this time against his fellow Armenians, as a rebellion took place against Soviet rule in February 1921.
A victim of Stalinism, he died in prison. He was rehabilitated in 1954 after Stalin's death.
His works were translated by Valeri Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Louis Aragon and others.
His famous poems are:
Three songs to the sad and pale girl...", poems (1914)
"Blue-eyed Homeland", poem (1915)
"Soma", poem (1918)
"Charents-Name", poem (1922)
"Country of Nairi" (Yerkir Nairi) (1926)
"Epical Sunrise", poems (1930)
"Book of the Way", poems (1933-34
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 12, 2021
I was honored to use this book of Yeghishe Charentz, called land of fire, in my final exams at the Academy of Willem De Kooning in Rotterdam The Netherlands, I can not say enough about this book.
I wish everybody will have the opportunity to read this book.
Ava Abrahamian
I wish everybody will have the opportunity to read this book.
Ava Abrahamian
March 8, 2009
A collection of poems that spans the lifetime of Charents, who was one of Armenia's greatest poets. Charents' life is interesting - he fought in the Turkish-Armenian War, was a great supporter of the Communist party and its rise, but then became disillusioned with Stalin and was imprisoned for nationalism, and died in prison - and it greatly informs his work, which is largely autobiographical.
The poems are arranged by their style and period of the authors' life in which they were written - his early lyrics, his revolutionary poems, a series of epigrams and satires about his peers, and his later lyrics and the more nationalistic works which got him into trouble. The translation is clear, though most of the works are not inspiring (I don't know how much of this is the source and how much is the translation - translated poetry is a particularly tricky business), but many of his satires are funny.
Also, "Dantesque Legend," a long poem about Charents' experience during the Turkish-Armenian War, and the Armenian massacres, is jaw-droppingly good. It's powerful, emotional, it's arranged perfectly and it just moves. By all rights it should be anthologized more and studied widely.
The poems are arranged by their style and period of the authors' life in which they were written - his early lyrics, his revolutionary poems, a series of epigrams and satires about his peers, and his later lyrics and the more nationalistic works which got him into trouble. The translation is clear, though most of the works are not inspiring (I don't know how much of this is the source and how much is the translation - translated poetry is a particularly tricky business), but many of his satires are funny.
Also, "Dantesque Legend," a long poem about Charents' experience during the Turkish-Armenian War, and the Armenian massacres, is jaw-droppingly good. It's powerful, emotional, it's arranged perfectly and it just moves. By all rights it should be anthologized more and studied widely.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews