Real name: Aram Andonian.
Iranian-Armenian poet.
Was born in 1925 in Teheran, Iran, and died in March 2008 in Boston.
He has authored more than a dozen volumes of poetry.
FOR DANIEL VAROUJAN
By Armand (Aram Andonian).
Translated by Diana Der-Hovanessian
Homesick for your own land
you left the university and splendor
of Europe and traveled singing songs of home.
You left singing “I go to the provinces of
the sun, the fountain of light.”
All the time it was you who was the light,
the light you called “Blodstream of nature,
the gown of day.”
It was April, an ironic April of flowers
reeking of death, not perfume, an April
with the hyena panting in wait while you
started out for “the founfain of light.”
They say your eyes were dug,
your laborer's heart
torn out. They say the light
was eaten by
the beast that day, but
light cannot be consumed, Daniel.
The news of your martyrdom plunged the living
into anguish and drove the
sane Gomidas
into eternal mad silence.
But over and over again mothers
christen sons
with your name, Varoujan, for the sake
of your work dipped in light and for the sake
of the dawn you foresaw.
Daniel, Daniel, it is crimson
in the east.
Daniel, your light is here.
(Source: The Literary Groong. Moderated by Grish Davtian)
