Some poems are not aesthetic, they are testimonies.
Hovhannes Tumanyan's Akhtamar is exactly such a poem.
It reads like a love story, but it is actually a social cause.
Lake Van is not a romantic setting here; it is a memory that keeps secrets, suffocates secrets, carries secrets.
Swimming from the shore to the island, the young man defies not only Tamar but also prohibitions, fears and gossip.
Tamar's fire is innocent.
But in this geography, innocence is often criminalized.
And someone always comes along,
“morality” in his name.
This is where Tumanyan's real courage lies:
He doesn't look for the culprit in the sea.
He blames neither the waves, nor the storm, nor the darkness.
It points to the human being.
The jealous, the spying, the one who thinks gossip is a virtue...
Young man drowns in the sea,
society breathes a sigh of relief on the shore.
Because the order is intact.
Love is dead, norms are alive.
In the morning, Lake Van brings a dead body.
The one that stays on the lips “Ah! Tamar!”
not a whisper of love,
is an overdue objection.
And the island is known as Akdamar Island today.
In other words, even the stone, the water, the island has a name in this land;
but there is no accounting for drowned loves.
In this geography, even if love knows how to swim, society knows how to drown.
Armenian poet and writer Hovhannes Tumanyan's poem “Ahtamar”
Of the happy and smiling Lake Van
From the small coastal village
He enters the water
Every night, a nephew enters the water without a boat,
He relies on his biceps,
Swim through the water
Across the island. From the dimly lit island, it's quiet.
There is a light calling,
I'm the one who shines for him
A sign that never stops. Beautiful Tamar nights
That's how he makes fire,
And waiting impatiently
There, quietly, secretly. The sea doesn't stop, it churns,
The young man's heart flutters,
Its waves roar with enthusiasm
And Tamar swims without fear.
He waits for her on the shore,
The sound of water in every stroke
His body trembles. He's silent on the dark shore.
Here's a dark shadow,
Yes, that's him...They met
In the night full of doubt. The waves of Lake Van
The only caressing shore,
Leaving the island
Whispering and mysteriously...While they make love
Under the firmament,
Gossip is on the waves,
To Tamar, the vile, depraved Tamar, and in the young girl's heart
The fluttering of love,
When the young man fights,
With the raging, angry sea.
They learned their secrets,
And on a dark night
They extinguished the torch. It disappeared into the endless waters.
Confused, brave young lover,
There is only one sound in the winds:
Moans: ”Ah! Tamar! ... ”Voices on the wild rocks
It echoes and echoes,
The sea roars and foams,
Kah whistles a deep whistle
Sometimes she moans: ”Ah! Tamar! ... ”In the morning, the sea is tired
He brought a corpse,
On your lip, quivering, dull,
Two words:
As if at the time of death
She murmured: ”Ah! Tamar! ... ”That day, today
This island has a name:
“Ahtamar”