Silva Kaputikian

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Armenian Poetess Silva Kaputikian Passess Away

Yerevan, August 25, Armenpress: Armenian poetess, orator, academician Silva Kaputikian passed away today at the age of 87. She was born in Yerevan, January 20, 1919. She graduated from the YSU's Philological Department and then from Moscow's Gorki Literature Institute.
The first collection of her poems was published in 1945. Overall, she published 60 collections in Armenian, Russian and other languages.
Silva Kaputikian was laureate of a number of literary awards. In 1998 Cambridge International Geographic Institute awarded her the title of "Woman of the Year".

http://www.armeniadiaspora.com/ADC/news.asp?id=1376

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Re: Silva Kaputikian

Silva Kaputikian (1919 - 2006)

Author of the famous poem “Khosk im vordun” (Lines to my child), Kaputikian, at 84, still moves her public with activist speeches and readings of her undying poetry.

Silva Kaputikian (Sylva Gaboudikian), still a major figure in contemporary Armenian literature, in her didactic poem, "Lines to My Child," implores her child to forget his mother before he forgets his mother tongue.

Social activist, oppositionist and writer Silva Kaputikian was born in Yerevan to the refugee family of Barunak Kaputikian, a Dashnak party member and a teacher, who escaped with his family from the genocide in Van. Having lost her father four months before her birth, Kaputikian was raised by her accountant mother and grandmother. She was nurtured by the violent turn of the century wars and revolution. At thirteen, her first poem appeared in “Pioner Kanch” youth journal, while she was attending Krupskaya school in Yerevan. She then went on to study and graduate from the Yerevan State University’s Humanities department in 1941 and took upper level classes at the Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow during 1949-50.

A member of the Writers’ Union since 1941 and a party member since 1945, Kaputikian was highly involved in social and national activism. She was very vocal during the post-glasnost’ era, pairing up and appealing to Russian and foreign human rights’ activists on behalf of the refugees from Nagorno Karabakh during the Sumgait massacres in Azerbejan. A tireless spokesperson for Nagorno Karabakh, Zori Balayan’s comrade in solidarity, and an impassioned advocate of the oppressed citizens of her motherland, Kaputikian symbolizes the Armenian struggle and the legacy of survival.

The first Russian translation of Kaputikian’s collected poems appeared in 1947; since then her poetry has been translated into many other languages. Some of her famous prose works include travel essays, written of her visits to the Armenian communities in various foreign countries during and after the Soviet era. Kaputikian was an honorary member of the Yerevan National Academy of Sciences, and effectively used her literary name and prestige for raising such issues as nature conservation, corruption in the leadership, silencing of the press, and abuses of human rights in Armenia. She died on August 25th, 2006.

Her son is the celebrated sculptur Ara Shiraz, from her former marriage to poet Hovaness Shiraz.

http://www.aiwa-net.org/AIWAwriters/kaputikian.html

Ou des vortis our el lines
Ays luysni dak our el gnas
Te mort angam mtkit hanes
Qo mayr lezoun chmorans

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Re: Silva Kaputikian

"Ou des vortis our el lines
Ays luysni dak our el gnas
Te mort angam mtkit hanes
Qo mayr lezoun chmoranas"