Hovhannes Tumanian: Rest in Peace

Translation of Hovhannes Tumanian poem
1915

And I stood up, so that

In keeping with our ancestral laws,

I may read a last prayer

On the hapless victims of my nation,

Who in city and mart

On hill and plain,

From sea to sea,

Extinguished are,

Dead, strewn, scattered

In their thousands.

And I borrowed fire

From the red flames

Of the great conflagration,

That consumed Armenia;

There in the bosom

Of the cold serene skies,

Ignited our mountains

The Massis and the Ara,

The Sipan and the Sermantz

The Nemruth and the Tandurck.

One by one I relit

The great candles

Of the Land of Armenia.

I relit the lamp

Of the Holy Arakadz too.

Like the distant sun;

Endless and infinite.

Always refulgent and bright

Over my head.

I stood there sullen and alone,

Solid like Mount Massis;

I called upon those miserable spirits,

Strewn forever as far as Mesopotamia,

As far as Assyria, the Sea of Armenia,

As far as the Hellespont,

As far as the stormy shores of Pontus.

“Rest in peace, my orphans.

In vain are the bitter tears,

In vain and useless.

Man the man-eating beast

Shall remain thus

For a long, long time.”

To my right the Euphrates,

To my left the Tigris,

With mighty torrential roars,

Singing psalmodies

Meandered through

Their deep, deep valleys.

The clouds, too,

Rose from the plain of Tsirac,

The giant censer.

They set out from the verdant hills.

From the Armenian Range.

Clumps fragrant,

Moved on and on

Sprinkling the jewels of rain,

The scent of flowers,

The scent of incense.

As far as Mesopotamia.

As far as the Hellespont.

As far as the stormy shores of Pontus.

“Rest in peace, O my orphans.

In vain are the bitter tears,

In vain and useless.

Man the man-eating beast

Shall remain thus,

For a long time to come.