About a book, but not a review

Vaհe H Apelian

The book is Tenny Arlen’s only book of poetry, “To say with passion, why am I here?”. Recently I purchased a copy of the newly published bilingual version of the book from NAASR bookstore. Sometime back I had purchased the Armenian copy from Abril Bookstore in Glendale, CA, “կիրքով ըսելու՝Ինչո՞ւ հոս եմ”. Little I knew then its bilingual version is upcoming.

Much has been written about the book for me to add anything of substance. But I have a thought or two, I would like to share. I recommend gifting this book. Although there is no season for gifting, but it is the end of year when we present to each other more gifts than during any other time of the year. 

 Books, especially personalized copies, make lasting gifts. I recommend preferably gifting the recently bilingual version because it is a reproduction of the earlier Armenian original, with a few additional poems that were recently discovered. Each poem in the Armenian original is reproduced, immediately followed by its translation by her brother Jesse Siragan Arlen, in a facing page bilingual format. This bilingual version is published by Tarkmaneal Press, New York, NY, which a joint venture by Jesse S. Arlen, who is the director of  the Krikor Zohrab and Clara Zohrab Information Center, and Mathew J. Sarkissian, who has done the layout of the book.

The bilingual book “Կիրքով Ըսելու՝Ինչո՞ւ հոս եմ - To say with passion, why am I here?”, is 216 pages long. Its content is comprised of a foreword, the poems in bilingual, followed by two appendices about the few newly discovered poems, the afterword of the first edition, and an essay about Tenny Arlen and her contribution to contemporary Armenian poetry. They are presented in the same facing page bilingual format.

As for the prospective reader of the book, I recommend, before starting to read the poems, reading the appendices first. Especially the afterword to the first edition written by professor Hagop Gulludjian, Tenny Arlen’s teacher and mentor.

William Saroyan stated, "I do not write in Armenian, but I look at the world in Armenian.” His statement is probably true for most Armenian American writers, given the fact that there are those who wrote in Armenian, such as Hamasdegh and Aram Haigaz. Both of whom wrote in Western Armenian. Hamasdegh was born and raised in an Armenian village in Kharpert in Western Armenia and wrote masterfully about Armenian village life. Aram Haigaz was born and raised in Shabin Karahisar. He wrote in Armenian not only about his experiences during genocide, but also about his American life, about his Irish neighbor, about his son's college graduation. 

Hamasdegh and Aram Haigaz were naturalized American citizens, but they are regarded as Armenian-American (amerigahay) writers. What distinguishes them from William Saroyan, and say Peter Balakian, in legal terminology is the following. The former are Naturalized American citizens and the latter are Birthright citizens. 

Tenny Arlen is the FIRST Birthright Armenian-American writer who wrote in Western Armenian. Tenny wrote her poems in about 15 to 20 months after she began learning Armenian. Her book, regrettably, her only literary legacy, can be truly understood and appreciated knowing her first. That is why I recommend the prospective readers to read the appendices first and then resort to reading the poems she wrote, to truly understand and appreciate why she stated: “Կիրքով Ըսելու՝Ինչո՞ւ հոս եմ - To say with passion, why am I here?”

Happy reading.