Paruyr Sevak gave Armenian literature new spirit, says contemporary

Paruyr Sevak's genre brought an absolutely new spirit to the Armenian literature, one of his contemporaries, Hovhannes Grigoryan, remembers.

“His new figurative-expressive means and European schemes imparted novelty and a fresh spirit to the Armenian literature. I used to be under his influence too, trying to gain a maximum advantage of that freshness,” he told Tert.am, characterizing Sevak as very important personality for himself.

Yesterday marked the 41^st anniversary of the great poet’s death. On June 17, 1971 Paruyr Sevak was killed in a car crash together with his wife, Nelly Menagharishvili. He was aged 47.


Speaking of Sevak’s literary heritage, Grigoryan dwelled on his collection, Man in a Palm, considering all the poems in the book unique and interrelated.

“When the book was first published, it created a lightning effect as it was so fresh and new. It remains my most favorite collection to date,” he said.

Grigoryan recalled a very sorrowful fact about Sevak – his trembling hands in the final years of his life.
 

“When the news on his death came a couple of days later, I wasn’t surprised, because he couldn’t drive long with those hands. He shouldn’t have been allowed to sit behind the wheel. Besides, he used to drink a lot. I do not believe in the hypothesis that what happened was a pre-arranged crime stemming from [Sevak’s] negative attitude to the Soviet authorities,” he said, adding that the poet was not on very good terms with the Soviet Government before the publication of his book, God’s Secretary. But Grigoryan added, that the writer continued facing pressure in later period.
 

Paruyrs Sevak was born on January 24, 1924 in the village of Chanakhchi, Ararat region. He began reading and writing from age five. After leaving school with excellent grades, he enteried the Yerevan State University’s Armenian Philology Department. Upon completing his post-graduate studies (1948), he began working for the local newspapers Avanguard and Grakan Tert (literary newspaper). In 1955, Sevak Graduated from the Gorky Literature Institute of Moscow.
 

His most prominent books are Immortals Command (1948), Irreconcilable Intimacy (1953), Path to Love (1954), The Unsilenceable Belfry (1959), Man in a Palm (1964), Sayat Nova (1969), Yeghitsi Luys (Let There Be Light; 1969), Your Acquaintances (1971).