Gostan Zarian
Encyclopedia
Gostan or Kostan Zarian was an Armenian
writer.
, "a strong man, profoundly Christian
and Armenian", who spent most of his life fighting in the mountains of the Caucasus
. He died when Zarian was four years old.
After attending the Russia
n Gymnasium
of Baku
, in 1895, when he was ten, he was sent to the College
of Saint Germain
in Asnières
, near Paris
. He continued his studies in Belgium
, and, after obtaining a doctorate in literature
and philosophy
from the University of Brussels, he spent about a year writing and publishing verse in both French
and Russian
, delivering lectures on Russian literature
and drama
, and living a more or less bohemian
life among writers and artists. Speaking of this period in his life, Zarian wrote: "We used to have cheap food with Lenin in a small restaurant in Geneva
, and today, a syphilitic boozer with his feet on a chair and hand on revolver is telling me: 'You counter-revolutionary fanatic nationalist Armenian intellectuals are in no position to understand Lenin.' " In addition to Lenin, Zarian also met and befriended such poets, artists, and political thinkers as Guillaume Apollinaire
, Pablo Picasso
, Georgi Plekhanov
, Giuseppe Ungaretti
, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
, Paul Éluard
, Fernand Léger
, and the renowned Belgian poet and literary critic Emile Verhaeren
. It was Verhaeren who advised him to study his own mother tongue and write in the language of his ancestors if he wanted to reveal his true self. Heeding his advice, Zarian studied grabar
(classical) and ashkharhapar (vernacular) Armenian with the Mekhitarists on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni
in Venice
(1910-1913), where he also published Three Songs (1916), a book of poems in Italian
(originally written in French
), one of which, titled "La Primavera" (Spring), was set to music by Ottorino Respighi
and first performed in 1923.
Next we find him in Istanbul
, which was then the most important cultural center of the Armenian diaspora
, where in 1914, together with Daniel Varoujan, Hagop Oshagan, Kegham Parseghian
, Hrand Nazariantz
and a number of others, he founded the literary periodical Mehian. This constellation of young firebrands became known as the Mehian writers, and like their contemporaries in Europe
—the French
surrealists
, Italian futurists
, and German
expressionists
—they defied the establishment fighting against ossified traditions a preparing the way for the new. "In distant cities people argued and fought around our ideas," wrote Zarian. "Ignorant school principals had banned our periodical. Well-known scholars looked upon us with suspicion. They hated us but did not dare to say anything openly. We were close to victory...." At which point, the proto-fascist Young Turk government decided to exterminate
the entire Armenian population
of Turkey
. The holocaust that followed claimed 1,500,000 victims, among them 200 of the ablest Armenian poets and authors, including most of the Mehian writers. Zarian was one of the very few who survived by escaping to Bulgaria
, and thence to Italy
, establishing himself in Rome
.
In 1919, as a special correspondent to an Italian
newspaper, he was sent to the Middle East
and Armenia
. He returned to Istanbul
in 1920 and there, together with Vahan Tekeyan
, Hagop Oshagan, and a number of other survivors of the holocaust, he founded another literary periodical, Partsravank (Monastery-on-a-Hill). At this time he also published a second book of poems, The Crown of Days (Istanbul, 1922).
Following the establishment of Soviet rule in Armenia
, Zarian returned there and for the next three years taught comparative literature at the yerevan State University
. Thoroughly disappointed with the regime, in 1925 he again went abroad where he conducted a nomadic existence, living in Paris
, (where he founded the French-language periodical Le tour de Babel), Rome
, Florence
, the Greek
island of Corfu
, the Italian island of Ischia
, and New York
. In New York he taught Armenian culture at Columbia University
(1944-46), founded the English-language periodical The Armenian Quarterly (1946) which, though it lasted only two issues, published such writers as Sirarpie Der Nersessian, Henri Grégoire
, and Marietta Shaginyan
. From 1952-54 he taught history of art at the American University of Beirut
(Lebanon
). Following an interlude in Los Angeles
, he once more returned to Soviet Armenia in 1961, where he worked at the Charents Museum of Art and Literature in Yerevan
. A bowdlerized edition of his novel The Ship on the Mountain (originally published in Boston in 1943) appeared in Yerevan
in 1963, and shortly thereafter in a Russian translation in Moscow
(1969, reprinted in 1974).
He died in Yerevan
on December 11, 1969.
Zarian was a prolific and many-sided writer who produced with equal ease short lyric poems, long narrative poems of an epic cast, manifestoes, essays, travel impressions, criticism, and fiction. The genre in which he excelled, however, was the diary form with long autobiographical divagations, reminiscences and impressions of people and places, interspersed with literary, philosophical and historical meditations and polemics. To this category belong THE TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD (1926-28), WEST (1928-290, CITIES (1930), BANCOOP AND THE BONES OF THE MAMMOTH (1931-34), COUNTRIES AND GODS (1935-38), and THE ISLAND AND A MAN (1955), all of which were published in serial form in the now vanished emigre monthly HAIRENIK of Boston. So far only three of the works (The Traveller and His Road, West, Cities) have been published in book form in a single volume titled WORKS (Antelias, 1975), with a laconic introductory note by Boghos Snabian.
In Armenia
, Zarian's fame rests on the narrative poem THE BRIDE OF TETRACHOMA (Yerevan
, 1965; originally published in Boston, 1930), and the already mentioned censored edition of THE SHIP ON THE MOUNTAIN. The entry on Zarian in the Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia, volume 3 (Yerevan, 1977), doesn't even mention his THE TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD, which is generally regarded, together with BANCOOP AND THE BONES OF THE MAMMOTH, as one of his greatest achievements.
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
writer.
Biography
Kostan Zaryan (Zarian) was born in Shamakhy, on February 2, 1885. His father, Christopher Yeghiazarov, was a prosperous general in the Russian ArmyImperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
, "a strong man, profoundly Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and Armenian", who spent most of his life fighting in the mountains of the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. He died when Zarian was four years old.
After attending the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
of Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, in 1895, when he was ten, he was sent to the College
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
of Saint Germain
Germain of Paris
Saint Germain was a bishop of Paris, who was canonized in 754. He is known in his early vita as pater et pastor populi, rendered in modern times as the "Father of the Poor".-Biography:...
in Asnières
Asnières
Asnières is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* Asnières, Eure, in the Eure département* Asnières-en-Bessin, in the Calvados département* Asnières-en-Montagne, in the Côte-d'Or département...
, near Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. He continued his studies in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and, after obtaining a doctorate in literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
from the University of Brussels, he spent about a year writing and publishing verse in both French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, delivering lectures on Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, and living a more or less bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
life among writers and artists. Speaking of this period in his life, Zarian wrote: "We used to have cheap food with Lenin in a small restaurant in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, and today, a syphilitic boozer with his feet on a chair and hand on revolver is telling me: 'You counter-revolutionary fanatic nationalist Armenian intellectuals are in no position to understand Lenin.' " In addition to Lenin, Zarian also met and befriended such poets, artists, and political thinkers as Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire
Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, known as Guillaume Apollinaire was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic born in Italy to a Polish mother....
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Plekhanov
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and was one of the first Russians to identify himself as "Marxist." Facing political persecution, Plekhanov emigrated to Switzerland in 1880, where...
, Giuseppe Ungaretti
Giuseppe Ungaretti
Giuseppe Ungaretti was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic and academic. A leading representative of the experimental trend known as Ermetismo , he was one of the most prominent contributors to 20th century Italian literature. Influenced by symbolism, he was briefly aligned...
, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was the pen name of French writer and physician Louis-Ferdinand Destouches . Céline was chosen after his grandmother's first name. He is considered one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, developing a new style of writing that modernized both French and...
, Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
, Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, and the renowned Belgian poet and literary critic Emile Verhaeren
Emile Verhaeren
Emile Verhaeren was a Belgian poet who wrote in the French language, and one of the chief founders of the school of Symbolism....
. It was Verhaeren who advised him to study his own mother tongue and write in the language of his ancestors if he wanted to reveal his true self. Heeding his advice, Zarian studied grabar
Grabar
Classical Armenian is the oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and all Armenian literature from then through the 18th century is in the Grabar Armenian language. Many ancient Greek, Persian, Hebrew, Syriac, and Latin...
(classical) and ashkharhapar (vernacular) Armenian with the Mekhitarists on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni
San Lazzaro degli Armeni
San Lazzaro degli Armeni is a small island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy, lying immediately west of the Lido; completely occupied by a monastery that is the mother-house of the Mekhitarist Order, the island is one of the world's foremost centers of Armenian culture.- Background :The...
in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
(1910-1913), where he also published Three Songs (1916), a book of poems in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
(originally written in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
), one of which, titled "La Primavera" (Spring), was set to music by Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and conductor. He is best known for his orchestral "Roman trilogy": Fountains of Rome ; Pines of Rome ; and Roman Festivals...
and first performed in 1923.
Next we find him in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, which was then the most important cultural center of the Armenian diaspora
Armenian diaspora
The Armenian diaspora refers to the Armenian communities outside the Republic of Armenia and self proclaimed de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic...
, where in 1914, together with Daniel Varoujan, Hagop Oshagan, Kegham Parseghian
Kegham Parseghian
Kegham Parseghian , was a famed Armenian writer, columnist, publicist, teacher, editor, and journalist. - Biography :...
, Hrand Nazariantz
Hrand Nazariantz
Hrand Nazariantz was an Armenian/Ottoman journalist and supporter of Armenian independence.-Biography:He was born in the Üsküdar district of Constantinople January 8, 1886, son of Diran Nazariantz, "green-eyed orator and patriot" Armenian businessman and member of the National Assembly in the...
and a number of others, he founded the literary periodical Mehian. This constellation of young firebrands became known as the Mehian writers, and like their contemporaries in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
—the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
surrealists
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, Italian futurists
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
, and German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
expressionists
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
—they defied the establishment fighting against ossified traditions a preparing the way for the new. "In distant cities people argued and fought around our ideas," wrote Zarian. "Ignorant school principals had banned our periodical. Well-known scholars looked upon us with suspicion. They hated us but did not dare to say anything openly. We were close to victory...." At which point, the proto-fascist Young Turk government decided to exterminate
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
the entire Armenian population
Armenians in Turkey
Armenians in Turkey have an estimated population of 40,000 to 70,000 . Most are concentrated around Istanbul. The Armenians support their own newspapers and schools...
of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. The holocaust that followed claimed 1,500,000 victims, among them 200 of the ablest Armenian poets and authors, including most of the Mehian writers. Zarian was one of the very few who survived by escaping to Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, and thence to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, establishing himself in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
In 1919, as a special correspondent to an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
newspaper, he was sent to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
. He returned to Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
in 1920 and there, together with Vahan Tekeyan
Vahan Tekeyan
Vahan Tekeyan was an Armenian poet and public activist.-Biography:Tekeyan has worked as a newspaper editor in Beirut and Cairo, a teacher, and a social worker....
, Hagop Oshagan, and a number of other survivors of the holocaust, he founded another literary periodical, Partsravank (Monastery-on-a-Hill). At this time he also published a second book of poems, The Crown of Days (Istanbul, 1922).
Following the establishment of Soviet rule in Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, Zarian returned there and for the next three years taught comparative literature at the yerevan State University
Yerevan State University
Yerevan State University is a university in Yerevan, Armenia. Founded on May 16 1919, it is the largest university in the country with 110 departments. Of its 3,150 employees, 1,190 comprise the teaching staff which includes 25 academicians, 130 professors, 700 docents , and 360 assistant lecturers...
. Thoroughly disappointed with the regime, in 1925 he again went abroad where he conducted a nomadic existence, living in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, (where he founded the French-language periodical Le tour de Babel), Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
island of Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
, the Italian island of Ischia
Ischia
Ischia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples, about 30 km from the city of Naples. It is the largest of the Phlegrean Islands. Roughly trapezoidal in shape, it measures around 10 km east to west and 7 km north to south and has...
, and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In New York he taught Armenian culture at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(1944-46), founded the English-language periodical The Armenian Quarterly (1946) which, though it lasted only two issues, published such writers as Sirarpie Der Nersessian, Henri Grégoire
Henri Grégoire (historian)
Henri Grégoire was an eminent scholar of the Byzantine Empire, virtually the founder of Byzantine studies in Belgium.Grégoire spent most of his teaching career at the Université libre de Bruxelles...
, and Marietta Shaginyan
Marietta Shaginyan
Marietta Sergeevna Shaginian was a Soviet writer and public activist. She was one of the outstanding communist female-authors with broad philosophical and social views....
. From 1952-54 he taught history of art at the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...
(Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
). Following an interlude in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, he once more returned to Soviet Armenia in 1961, where he worked at the Charents Museum of Art and Literature in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
. A bowdlerized edition of his novel The Ship on the Mountain (originally published in Boston in 1943) appeared in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
in 1963, and shortly thereafter in a Russian translation in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
(1969, reprinted in 1974).
He died in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
on December 11, 1969.
Zarian was a prolific and many-sided writer who produced with equal ease short lyric poems, long narrative poems of an epic cast, manifestoes, essays, travel impressions, criticism, and fiction. The genre in which he excelled, however, was the diary form with long autobiographical divagations, reminiscences and impressions of people and places, interspersed with literary, philosophical and historical meditations and polemics. To this category belong THE TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD (1926-28), WEST (1928-290, CITIES (1930), BANCOOP AND THE BONES OF THE MAMMOTH (1931-34), COUNTRIES AND GODS (1935-38), and THE ISLAND AND A MAN (1955), all of which were published in serial form in the now vanished emigre monthly HAIRENIK of Boston. So far only three of the works (The Traveller and His Road, West, Cities) have been published in book form in a single volume titled WORKS (Antelias, 1975), with a laconic introductory note by Boghos Snabian.
In Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, Zarian's fame rests on the narrative poem THE BRIDE OF TETRACHOMA (Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
, 1965; originally published in Boston, 1930), and the already mentioned censored edition of THE SHIP ON THE MOUNTAIN. The entry on Zarian in the Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia, volume 3 (Yerevan, 1977), doesn't even mention his THE TRAVELLER AND HIS ROAD, which is generally regarded, together with BANCOOP AND THE BONES OF THE MAMMOTH, as one of his greatest achievements.