Grigor Narekatsi (redirected from Gregory of Narek)

Grigor Narekatsi 

Born 951; died 1003. Armenian poet. Son of the scholar and church writer Khosrov Andzevatsi.

Grigor studied in the district of Rshtuni in the Narek Monastery. A monk and a scholar, he taught there for the rest of his life. He wrote gandzas (hymns to god and saints). tagas (songs), and megeds. Many of his tagas are brilliant models of Armenian medieval poetry. Grigor Narekatsi was the first Armenian poet to overcome the narrow framework of church themes. His lyrical-mystical narrative poem A Book of Mournful Chants, or Narek (Marseilles, 1673). has been published more than 30 times in Armenian and translated into French; some of the songs have been translated into English, Italian, Turkish. Arabic, and Russian. The poem expresses a protest against the prevailing order, when “poverty reigns everywhere” and the world is ruled by “un-needed tsars and murdering emperors.” It is the first instance in Armenian literature of man with his joys and sorrows as the central theme of poetry.

WORKS

Sreoy horn meroy Grigori Narekay vanits’ vanakani matenagrut’iwnk’. Venice, 1840.
Matyan oghbergut’yan. Yerevan, 1960.
Grégoire de Narek, le Livre de prières. Introduction, translation, and notes by Isaac Kechichian. Paris. 1961.
Armenian Legends and Poems. Illustrated and compiled by Z. C. Boyajian. London-New York [1958].
In Russian translation:
In Poeziia Armenii s drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei. Edited by V. Briusov. Moscow, 1916. Pages 159–63.

REFERENCES

Abegian, M. Istoriia drevnearmianskoi literatury, vol. I. Yerevan, 1948.
Nayean. H. Meknut’iwn aghot’its’ S. Grigori Narekats’woy, vols. 1–2. Constantinople, 1745.
Abeghyan, M. “Grigor Narekats’i.” Azgagrakan handes, 1916, dirk’26 [hrt. 1917-in].
Mkryan, M. Grigor Narekats’i. Yerevan, 1955.