Literature
Little is known about pre-Christian Armenian literature. Many literature pieces known to us were saved and then presented to us by Moses of Chorene. This is a pagan Armenian song, telling about the birth of Vahagn.
| “ | In travail were heaven and earth,
In travail, too, the purple sea! The travail held in the sea the small red reed. Through the hollow of the stalk came forth smoke, Through the hollow of the stalk came forth flame, And out of the flame a youth ran! Fiery hair had he, Ay, too, he had flaming beard, And his eyes, they were as suns! Վահագնի ծննդյան երգի հին հայերեն բնագիրը. Armenian version Երկնէր երկին, երկնէր երկիր, Երկնէր եւ ծովն ծիրանի՜. Երկն ի ծովուն ունէր եւ զկարմրիկն եղեգնկ. Ընդ եղեգան փող ծուխ ելանէր, Ընդ եղեգան փող բոց ելանէր. Եվ ի բացոյն վազէր խարտեաշ պատանեկիկ. Նա հուր հեր ուներ, Բոց ունէր մօրուս, Եվ աչկունքն էին արեգակունք. |
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Read more about this topic: Kingdom Of Armenia (antiquity)
Famous quotes containing the word literature:
“It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)
“But it is fit that the Past should be dark; though the darkness is not so much a quality of the past as of tradition. It is not a distance of time, but a distance of relation, which makes thus dusky its memorials. What is near to the heart of this generation is fair and bright still. Greece lies outspread fair and sunshiny in floods of light, for there is the sun and daylight in her literature and art. Homer does not allow us to forget that the sun shone,—nor Phidias, nor the Parthenon.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)