DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Hmayeak Shems

A Poet of Pure Spirit

John Gery author Vahé Baladouni author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University Press of America

Published:2nd Apr '10

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Hmayeak Shems cover

Hmayeak Shems: A Poet of Pure Spirit presents the life and writings of Armenian poet Hmayeak Shems (1896-1952). The Armenian Genocide of 1915 devastated Shems, who lost his family and home. For eight years he wandered in exile, his voice extinguished by anguish. Yet from debilitating isolation, Shems found a lyrical mastery of Armenian identity and modern spirit. Incontrovertibly shaped by his people's tragic history, Shems speaks simply yet profoundly. Illuminated by his poetry, this biography chronicles his travels, encounters, and thought to reveal a more compelling and complete portrait of Shems than previously known. Cover portrait of Hmayeak Shems by Ashot Zorian.

Intense music rises from the very heart of his poetry, expanding the allure of compressed beauties. -- Vardan Gevorgian
Shems's language…unites Eastern and Western Armenian both in terms of its form and of its usage. His pan-Armenian mode of thought is a phenomenon rather rare in our times. -- Gevorg K'rist'inian
Shems's writing is the poetry of pure spirit, the murmur of a restless soul. It is a cry of protest and rebellion, a quest for beauty and a dream, expressed in a powerful voice…. The best way to portray Shems is to think of the magnificent ruins of Armenian churches. He was an expatriate, a lone émigré in search of Mt. Ararat and its shade, a man seeking the heart in others, a dreamer who longed to create the song of the heart…. a dervish aspiring to be an artist, an artist living the life of a dervish. -- Gurgen Mkhit'arian

ISBN: 9780761850540

Dimensions: 233mm x 155mm x 7mm

Weight: 209g

134 pages