Comments on: Nazani http://larison.org/2006/11/17/nazani/ n. the principle of good order "Observe the strange inversion of all order and sense! Dignity debased; how vilely is the function of a consul prostituted!" ~The Craftsman Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:26:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Daniel Larison http://larison.org/2006/11/17/nazani/#comment-5093 Tue, 21 Nov 2006 20:21:05 +0000 http://larison.org/2006/11/17/nazani/#comment-5093 Thanks very much for your comments, Mr. Krikorian, and welcome to Eunomia. His language can be very difficult because of the borrowings and dialectual forms. Amusingly, my very limited dabbling in Hindi by way of Bollywood helped me recognise some of the Persian loan-words that both Hindi and Sayat Nova's poetry seem to share (hamasha in this poem, for instance, is virtually identical to the Hindi word hamesha, meaning always). I had some considerable help with the Sayat Nova volume I was working with (and from my Armenian instructor), as it had a glossary translating the dialectual and borrowed words into modern Eastern Armenian. While it is true that he had Georgian and Azeri poems as well, and obviously he dwelt in Tiflis at the Georgian court for many of his most productive years, he was clearly first an Armenian, Armenian was his first language and he was a master of the medieval Armenian ashogh tradition. Naturally, in the Soviet period any emphasis on his Armenian identity would have been most unwelcome. As multilingual and versatile as he was, there is simply no comparison in Georgia and Azerbaijan with how Sayat Nova's work is remembered and reproduced today in Armenia. Thanks very much for your comments, Mr. Krikorian, and welcome to Eunomia. His language can be very difficult because of the borrowings and dialectual forms. Amusingly, my very limited dabbling in Hindi by way of Bollywood helped me recognise some of the Persian loan-words that both Hindi and Sayat Nova’s poetry seem to share (hamasha in this poem, for instance, is virtually identical to the Hindi word hamesha, meaning always). I had some considerable help with the Sayat Nova volume I was working with (and from my Armenian instructor), as it had a glossary translating the dialectual and borrowed words into modern Eastern Armenian.

While it is true that he had Georgian and Azeri poems as well, and obviously he dwelt in Tiflis at the Georgian court for many of his most productive years, he was clearly first an Armenian, Armenian was his first language and he was a master of the medieval Armenian ashogh tradition. Naturally, in the Soviet period any emphasis on his Armenian identity would have been most unwelcome. As multilingual and versatile as he was, there is simply no comparison in Georgia and Azerbaijan with how Sayat Nova’s work is remembered and reproduced today in Armenia.

]]> by: Mark Krikorian http://larison.org/2006/11/17/nazani/#comment-5092 Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:08:09 +0000 http://larison.org/2006/11/17/nazani/#comment-5092 Bravo for the Sayat Nova translation. His Armenian is so full of dialect and Turkish or Persian words that an ordinary (actually, not very good) Armenian speaker like myself can't tell what he means half the time. Anyway, during the Soviet period I visited his grave in Tiflis during some commemoration, and they tried to present him as a pan-Caucasus figure, belonging equally to the Georgians and the Azeri Turks. Bravo for the Sayat Nova translation. His Armenian is so full of dialect and Turkish or Persian words that an ordinary (actually, not very good) Armenian speaker like myself can’t tell what he means half the time. Anyway, during the Soviet period I visited his grave in Tiflis during some commemoration, and they tried to present him as a pan-Caucasus figure, belonging equally to the Georgians and the Azeri Turks.

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