VAHAN TEKEYAN: Selected Poems

Translated by Gerald Papasian and John Papasian / Edited by Edmond Y. Azadian and Gerald Papasian

Vahan Tekeyan was one of the most celebrated Western Armenian poets-a pioneer of the belletrist movement in the early Twentieth Century. The hallmark of his poetry is the control of the mind over the emotions. Vahan Tekeyan's life was intimately tied with the destiny of his Armenian nation, which went through a series of trials and tribulations, facing destruction, Genocide, struggle for survival, always clinging to the basic values of its history; the Armenian Church, the Armenian language, symbolic heroes of history, had their reflection in Tekeyan's poetry. Translators John and Gerald Papasian selected twenty-three representative poems from Tekeyan's entire collection; poems of a very personal nature; those about his nation's sufferings; others of universal appeal; and on conversations with his Creator.

The Press at California State University, Fresno (2014)