Translated by Knarik O. Meneshian
To live, one must give completely– Strength, joy, fervor, and youth, Have no fear of pain, hold back tears, Forget smiles, love, and compassion.
To live, one must defy death. What joy not to grow old! Time plays a joke in vain, And defeated, it passes you by unnoticed.
Instead of walking, take flight–falling matters not, For he who falls from up high does not stay down. Let your soul grow strong on the anvil of pain, Unhindered–in order to live.
– Shushanik Kurghinian (1876-1927) lived in Armenia and Russia, and is famous for her proletarian and feminist poetry. Her first volume of poems got published in 1907, in Nor Nakhichevan. She has been widely censored by the Czarist and Marxist editors, and a large portion of her writings has never been published. An archive of her works is kept at the Museum of Art and Literature in Yerevan. Bibliography: Kurghinian, Shushanik. Poems. Ed. J. Mirzabekian. Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing, 1971.