Hyortik: a reflection

Vaհe H. Apelian

Written by Boghos Shahmelikian, translated by Vahe H Apelian

 I owe the lyrics of Hyortik, maybe the signature song of the Five Fingers Band, to Vahig Vartabedian, a musician who was active on the Armenian pop music scene.

The Five Fingers band was made of a group of talented Armenian musicians. I hold Stepan Frounjian as the good will ambassador of the Five Fingers Band who continues to share his talent on the Facebook from Racine, Wisconsin while also serving the Armenian Apostolic Church there as its arch deacon.

I got to know more of the Five Fingers band because I translated Boghos Shahmelikian’s memoir of the band and of the Armenian pop music that suddenly burst onto the Armenian scene in late 1960’s. Those interested to know about the band and the era may read  the book I translated with the help of my cousin Jack Chelebian MD.  The book is titled "Dawn of Armenian Pop Music"

Hyortik is a complex word made of “hie” (Հայ) and “Vorti”, which according to the Nairi dictionary means son, child. We know that the Armenian language does not have different pronouns for males and females. By extension Hyortik may be translated as “Children of Armenians” or “Sons of Armenians.”  in my translation, I used the word son, instead of children. 

The first sentence of the lyrics addresses to “Հայորդիք որ կ՚ապրիք դուք հեռուն” (Sons of Armenians who live far away). 

The lyrics of Hyortic

Who were the children of the Armenians who lived far away? The song urged them not to forget the language, not to assimilate, to learn the Armenian history, to love one another and to uphold each other. 

It is hard to fathom now that that message was for the Armenian youth growing in the west, in the Armenian sense of the designation of the West (Europe, Americas,....). I may even say that they meant to Armenians of their age who lived far from the Armenian community of Lebanon,  Syria in the Middle East, the cradle of the Diaspora Armenian culture. They ended the song by repeating the following two sentences of the lyrics over and over again: "Let's not assimilate, let's love each other. Let's keep our holy honor high." 

The members of the Five Fingers were born and raised in a veritable Armenia outside Armenia, that was the Armenian community of Lebanon. Secure in their Diaspora Armenian homeland of sort, the state of the Armenianness of their brothers and sisters in those faraway lands in Europe, Americas, preoccupied and concerned them, and fired their youthful imagination. It is for them they composed HYORTIK.

But, little did they knew that in a few short years they too will cross oceans and continents and settle on the very same far away real estate that dreaded them once. And, in another twist of fate, I would end up dedicating my translation and publication of Boghos Shahmelikian’s memoir, both of which were a labor of love, to the children of those popular Armenian pop music musicians who changed the landscape of the Armenian pop music, so that their children now may be able to read about their parents in the language they, unlike their parents, are brought up and understand, English.

After some vacillating I decided to add the following concluding paragraph to end my reflection on the one-time popular song by the Five Fingers band. Those in Diaspora, who have something to say as to how best the elected government of Republic of Armenia should govern Armenia, or whether the citizens of Armenia are patriotic enough or not, have their priorities upended.  

A few decades after the release of the Hyortic extolling the Armenian youth in the west,  our own communities in Lebanon and Syria, are now culturally if not existentially threatened.

It is now whether the Diaspora as a whole is upholding the lyrics of that song and and needs to reflect whether:

Are we not forgetting our sweet mother tongue?

Are we singing and always talking (Armenian)?

Are we seeing how sweet it is?

We’re few. But are we remaining Armenian?

Are we not forgetting our mother tongue?

Are we endlessly supporting each other?

Are we always holding our nation high?

Are we always high? And are we remaining lofty?

Are we not assimilating? And are we loving each other?

Are we keeping our holy honor high?

As Armenians we live far away (from Armenia)

Are we not forgetting our Armenian history?

Are we telling our children?

Do we and our children know the value of the Armenians?