The Armenian Weekly On-Line
80 Bigelow Avenue
Watertown MA 02472 USA
(617) 926-3974
armenianweekly@hairenik.com
menianweekly.com

The Armenian Weekly; Volume 73, No. 45; Nov. 10, 2007

Arts and Literature:

Maiden of Legend
By Seta Krikorian
Translated by Tatul Sonentz

***

MAIDEN OF LEGEND
Oh, wow!
My demented dream my libidinous Love
my startling yearning in bright pink.

How beautiful we are when we learn to care
and learn to burn on our road to love.

My nameless yet ever familiar companion of Love
my very own delight and life
my Aramazd-prince of dreams.
For endless eons as maiden of legend I sought you from my nook
to the very edge of our cosmos
I walked in cold darkness above the snow drifts of Ararat
my feet-weak-weary-frozen- took me all the way to the heavens.

Dry grounds were foreign-alien
Frigid cradles for me
my books served as pillows in my moments of solitude.

I pursued my search for you companion soul of my soul
your voice lingered in my ears like an ethereal desire.

Someone summoned from afar
to locate you my Love
fantasy gave my love-starved soul
wings and I knew you were out there somewhere existing just for me.

But finding you was an uphill climb
beyond mind’s mountain my quest would entail eons of wandering
to reach you I would have to proceed
to a thorn-bush-lined lane.

It would have to be an enticement
worthy of an entire life
I would have to cling to an Ideal
before reaching your shores.

My love would have to set me on fire
way before I bloomed in your bosom.

Even the ecstasy of loving you was to be born of suffering
like Eve’s labor pains
like the revelations of Mashtots
like the on-rushing fervor of a Komitas horovel.

Oh, my!
I finally found you
along my flickering hopes
within the last drop of my oil.

My soul weary of waiting
my snow-gelled digits
In their unassuming fall
found you like a miracle.

You smile now like a spotless dream
my thoughts and spirit
are now bursting with you
now my life is worth a lot more I want to transpire in your love today
incessantly
With no interruptions
All the way to the sun
Beyond the moon
Beyond the end of time.

Seta Krikorian
Translated by Tatul Sonentz