ARMENIAN POEMS

Contents | Table of contents [as in the book] | Preface | Introduction

APPENDIX: The Armenian Women | The Armenian Church
Bibliography | Comments on the first edition of "Armenian Poems"

AVEDIK ISSAHAKIAN was born in Alexandropol in 1875. He received part of his education in Germany. He began to write in 1891. His collected poems, “Songs and Wounds,” appeared in 1903.

FATHERLAND.

HÉ, my fatherland, how lovely thou art;
Thy mountain peaks are lost in the mists of heaven.
Thy waters are sweet, thy breezes are sweet;
Only thy children are in seas of blood.
May I die for thy soil, thou priceless fatherland!
Oh, it is little if I die with one life!
Would that I had a thousand and one lives
To offer thee, all from my heart,
To die for thy sorrow with a thousand lives!
Let me offer myself for thy children, for love of thee!
Let me keep for myself only one life,
That I may sing the praise of thy glory,
That I may soar high like the skylark
On the rising of thy new day, noble fatherland,
And sing sweetly, praise loudly
Thy bright sun, thou free fatherland!