Yeghishe Charents

Yeghishe Charents
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Birth name	Եղիշե Աբգարի Սողոմոնյան
Birthplace	Kars
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Birth date	13 March 1897
Resides in	Yerevan
Death place	Yerevan
Death date	1937/11/27
Death year	1937
Positions	Writer
Languages	Armenian, Russian
Ethnicities	Armenian
Dialects	Eastern Armenian
Ancestral villages	Kars
Spouses	Arpenik Charents, Izabella Maluntsyan
Children	Arpenik, Anahit

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Armenian Post issued this 150 Dram stamp on October 19, 1997, depicting Eghishe Charents' image.

Yeghishe Charents (born Yeghishe Soghomonian, Armenian: Եղիշե Չարենց) (13 March 1897, Kars - 29 November 1937, Yerevan) was an Armenian poet executed in Stalin's purges.

The following two paragraphs summarize a story from Robert Fisk's Aug 4, 2007 article in The Independent.

Yeghishe Charents, one of the nation's favourite poets - a famous philanderer who apparently sought the Kremlin's favours - produced a now famous poem called "The Message". Its praise of Uncle Joe might grind the average set of teeth down to the gum; it included the following: "A new light shone on the world./Who brought this sun?/... It is only this sunlight/Which for centuries will stay alive." And more of the same.

Undiscovered by the Kremlin's censors for many months, however, Charents had used the first letter of each line to frame a quite different "message", which read: "O Armenian people, your only salvation is in the power of your unity." Whoops! Like the distant Mount Ararat, it was a brave, hopeless symbol, as doomed as it was impressive. Charents was "disappeared" by the NKVD in 1937 after being denounced by the architect Tamanian - now hard at work building Yerevan's new Stalinist opera house - the moment Charents' schoolboy prank was spotted. Then Tamanian fell from the roof of his still unfinished opera house, and even today Armenians - with their Arab-like desire to believe in "the plot" - ask the obvious questions. Did the architect throw himself to his death in remorse? Or was he pushed?

His home at No. 17, Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan was turned into a museum in 1975.

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Երևում էր երկաթուղու կայարանը հսկայական.

Լսվում էր մեկ շոգեկառքի սուլոցը սուր հեռու մուժում-

Մորթում էին կարծես այնտեղ խելագարված մի անասուն...

Ճչում է սուր, հուսակտուր, ու հուսահատ ձայնը նրա,

Որպես անդարձ մահի մի լուր տարածվում էր դաշտի վրա:

Ցրված էր նա, կայարանի, դաշտովը մեկ լայնատարած՝

Դեպի հյուսիս, դեպի հարավ, ու արևմուտք, ու արևելք-

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Հեռու~, հեռու~ ձգվել էին ուղիները երկաթագիծ:

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