Bedros Tourian-Repentance

My Aunt gave me a calendar made in Aleppo in which every month corresponds to a different Armenian poet. The month of February has Bedros Tourian on it, and I have never heard of him before and he didn't come up in Dr. Bardakjian's reference book. I asked my dad and he told me he was a precocious youth, a poet who never reached the age of 21 yet was able to create such beautiful works.

Again, Groong is an invaluable source with an article on Tourian

http://www.groong.com/tcc/tcc-20060911.html

He contracted tuberculosis at a young age and was fated to die a young man and he knew this. A quote from the Groong article:

“Tourian’s love is the beginning and the end of his desire to live and the dark fate of being predestined to die… The motive of (his) poetry is always the battle between the desire to live and the fate of not being able to live… the clash between being and not being, striving and not reaching…”

This poem is entitled Զղջում, or repentance, and it epitomizes his state of mind that was wrought with grief. He shares the pain he feels at the sight of his mother crying over him because he is doomed to die a young man. At the end he poignantly asks God to forgive him for causing such grief.

Զղջում

Անշուշտ ճակատիս վրայ մահու
Դալկութիւն մը կը պլպլար,
Եւ մահու թռիչ մ՝ունէի,
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