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Whispers and Breath of the Meadows

Whispers and Breath of the Meadows

by Razmik Davoyan

Bilingual English / Armenian edition

Translated by Arminé Tamrazian, introduced by W. N. Herbert

Part of our Visible Poets series edited by Jean Boase-Beier

Armenia's most significant contemporary poet, Razmik Davoyan is one of a handful of names in Armenian literature which define not only an era, but go much further to embody an entire history. Davoyan's work reflects the experiences of an old nation, yet it is fresh and very personal at the same time. It is impossible not to feel the struggles, hopes and aspirations of his native land in his work.

Whispers and Breath of the Meadows is a book charged with energy — indeed, W. N. Herbert, in his introduction, describes it as being 'saturated with joy'. Davoyan displays an equal empathy for the suffering and the exultant, finding for both a voice that implies such oppositions are finally resolved in the poem. This is accessible, readable poetry from a world, a way of life and a culture unfamiliar to most English-language readers and, as such, it fascinates and enthrals.

Razmik was selected to represent Armenia in the Cultural Olympiad Poetry Parnassus in London 2012. Hear him read from Whispers and Breath of the Meadows.

Watch Razmik Davoyan read at the book's launch in Armenia's Cafesjian Center for the Arts:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlZyesJQsxU

Razmik Davoyan is undoubtedly the most significant Armenian poet alive today and is one of a handful of names in Armenian literature which define not only an era, but go much further to embody an entire history. Davoyan's work reflects the experiences of an old nation, yet it is fresh and very personal at the same time. It is impossible not to feel the struggles, hopes and aspirations of his native land in his works, which have shaped him both as a person and as a writer, and with which every reader can identify.

Arminé Tamrazian, Preface to Whispers & Breath of the Meadows

The most astonishing element of [Davoyan's] work is that it is saturated with joy: a constantly-renewed delight in the interaction between a creation experienced with rare spiritual intensity, and the smaller act of creation which poetry represents for him... The unique, tense melancholy which flavours his poetry is always offset by an understanding of the miracle that transforms it from an emotion into a created thing.

W. N. Herbert, Introduction

ISBN: 978-1-904614-47-0 (pbk), 978-1-9046140-96-8 (hbk)
Dimensions: 138 x 216 mm
Pages: 172
Published January 2010

» About Razmik Davoyan