Yerevan will be holding several literary and artistic events to celebrate the 117^th birthday of poet, prose writer Yeghishe Charents, who left a trace in Armenian literature.

According to “ArmenPress”, the exhibition called “Komitas and Charents” will open at the Yeghishe Charents Home-Museum on Mar. 13, showcasing Komitas’s handkerchief (1913) and other relics for the first time ever. The exhibition will be followed by a concert featuring performances of Komitas’s works. The presentation of the Italian version of Charents’ novel “Yerkir Nayiri” will be held on Mar. 13 as well.

Great Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents (real name Yeghishe Soghomonyan of Abraham) was born on March 25, 1897 in Kars city to a multi-member family. In 1908, Charents got accepted to the school in Kars where he published his first poems in the school’s “Garun” almanac. After receiving a five-year education, the developing poet enriched his knowledge by reading. In 1914, he released the collection of poems entitled “Three Songs of the Sad and Pale Girl” in Kars with the pseudonym “Charents”. Charents has translated the works of Giote, Haine, Hugo, Whitman, Verharn, Rilke, Pushkin, Nekrasov, Lermontov, Gorky, Mayakovsky, Yesenin and others, has developed textbooks for public schools, has edited and published Armenian philological works, as well as the books by classic and modern Armenian writers. The political persecutions against Charents began in 1935. In July 1937, he was sentenced, and he died at the hospital of the prison in Yerevan on November 27^th. The location of his tomb remains unknown. He was acquitted post-moratorium, and the Union of Writers of Armenia has set the Charents Award. The picture of Charents is on the 1,000-dram bill of the Republic of Armenia, and there is a home-museum after Charents in Yerevan. There are streets, schools and libraries named after Charents in Yerevan, as well as cities of the Republic of Armenia, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Javakhk. There is a city named Charentsavan, and the art and literature museum of Yerevan is named after Charents. A monument to Charents was built in Yerevan, and the bust of the poet is placed in front of a school named after him. The series of events was organized by the Home-Museum of Yeghishe Charents, the Union of Writers of Armenia and the Department of General Education at Yerevan Municipality.

Charents’ birthday also united Facebook users who praised the legacy that the poet left in Armenian literature.

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