«“The Wild Rose Embodies My Land”
or
“Spring Will Arrive in Armenian, Your Centuries Will Arrive in Armenian”…»
On this day, April 14, 1914, the Armenian poet Hamo Sahyan was born—a poet who glorified his homeland, his birthplace with its “dewy lips,” and sang the “Song of the Cliffs.”
Deeply rooted in the culture of our ancestors, with an unshaken and pure spirit, this great Armenian poet has left us verses we often recall…
The singer who fought for the “Nairian Green Poplar,” the symbol of our historical homeland—the Land of Nairi—wrote:
You sway with grace in your emerald robes,
Shading the path of my childhood’s green fields.
Your call rings clear and loud
In the deep gorges of my heart,
O my far, far Nairian green poplar!
Ah, you burn like a bonfire,
A blaze of green flame!
From afar, I embrace you
With the longing fire of my heart.
You fill the fields with your familiar rustling,
O my far, far Nairian green poplar!
My skylark-child plays in your shade,
Singing your praise
With lips like a budding rose.
Bless his life, cradle him like a sleepless father,
O my far, far Nairian green poplar!
I am a singer of fire and steel;
I desire nothing but your love.
With a life as green as yours,
I have fought for you.
I shall die, so long as you may whisper free through the ages,
O my far, far Nairian green poplar…
“The wild rose is the symbol of my country.
…It asks for nothing. Even in drought, it bears good fruit.
It blooms multiple times—greens, whitens, yellows, reddens…
Humble, giving, yet covered in thorns.
A foreigner should recognize me by the wild rose bush, clinging to the rock.
It has the richest scent, the most vibrant color, the sweetest fruit.
Its roots run deep, strong, and firm—just try to uproot it…
The wild rose does not know how healing it is, how beautiful, how essential.
It does not know—and could never know—that it is Armenian,
That it carries the spirit of our people, so deeply characteristic of our nation.
It is we who must know this and show it to the world.
The wild rose holds the same worth as Tumanyan’s rock…
Through the essence of the wild rose, we must come to understand ourselves.”
These are the words of Hamo Sahyan (from Susanna Babajanyan’s Facebook page)…
“I am the eyes and ears of Mother Nature,
The consciousness of her embodied form.”
Thus, Sahyan described himself…
In one of his letters, Paruyr Sevak called Sahyan “one of the finest versifiers of our poetry.”
Here stands the proof…
«Our language»
Our language is our conscience,
The sacred bread on our table,
The righteous voice of our soul,
The very taste upon our lips.
Our language is the smoke of our home,
The weight that holds balance in this world,
The salt of our identity,
The essence of who we are.
Our language is our blood,
More precious than blood itself,
Our fragrance, our color,
Our language is us—it is our existence.
It must be our first
And our last love,
For what else in this world
Belongs to us so completely?
“Spring Arrives in Armenian”
Spring arrives in Armenian,
Your snows cry in Armenian,
Your waters surge in Armenian.
Your birds sing in Armenian,
Your plows carve the earth in Armenian,
Your letters endure in Armenian.
Your sun rises in Armenian,
Your trees blossom in Armenian,
Your words burst forth in Armenian.
Your seeds sprout in Armenian,
Your hands mold and forge in Armenian,
Your stones keep their silence in Armenian.
Your valleys breathe in Armenian,
Your martyrs rest in Armenian,
Your sorrows ache in Armenian.
No matter how much has been taken,
You have remained Armenian,
Your mountains still rise in Armenian.
May God protect what still stands,
And no matter what the future holds,
Your snows will cry in Armenian,
Your spring will arrive in Armenian,
Your centuries will return in Armenian.