Vahe H. Apelian
Google-ի Հայերէն Թարգմանութիւնը կցուած է ներքեւը։
“Zartir Vortyag” is
an Armenian patriotic song that is better known by the first two words of its
lyrics, zartir vortyag, than the title of the song, which is “The Soldier’s
Mother’s Song” (Զինուորին Մօր Երգը). The heart of the song is a mother
extolling her son to ready himself to sacrifice his life in defense of the
fatherland. Zartir Vortyag means arise son.
It is an emotionally charged song, especially in the last stanza
when the mother tells her son that she fed and nurtured him to become the man
he is and that she would die for the person he has become just as he will do
the same for his nation. The reputation of this fiercely nationalistic song
must have been reached all the day to Ankara. Pressured by Turkey, the Lebanese
authorities a few years ago banned its singing on television.
There are several recordings of the song on YouTube.
The song is of particular importance to Kessabsis and is engrained
in their folklore. I can safely claim that in all probability there has not been a wedding in
Kessab during the last 100 years or so that the song was not sung at the
culmination of the wedding festivities, which at one time would last a few days. The tradition is
upheld irrespective of denominational affiliation.
The ceremony takes place as follows: right before the officiating the
wedding, as the groom readies to go to church, the men circle him and the best
man ("gnkahayr") and sing "Zartir Vortyag". At the end of
each stanza a bachelor friend of the groom takes turn in mock dressing him by
hovering over the groom and the best man a different piece of the groom’s
clothing, such as his jacket, vest, necktie. He hovers the piece of the groom’s
clothing over them three times clockwise and three times anti-clockwise. At
each passing of the clothing over them, the men circling the groom and the gnkayar shout in unison, in the Kessab
dialect Asdouds sheneferi (may God congratulate).
The groom’s bachelor friend then mock dresses him with the article clothing by putting the jacket on the groom or tying his necktie. The song is in
four stanzas. At times the second and/or the third stanza is omitted but not the
first and the last.
A Kessabtsi cannot envision a wedding in Kessab
without this ceremonial song. It is generally agreed that the song became part
of the wedding ceremony repertoire in Kessab as the nationalist fervor spread
among the Armenian in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. The most plausible is the explanation that it is sung in honor of the Armenian freedom fighter
Drasdamad (Dro) Ganayan, who later became a defense minister of the First
Republic of Armenia.
Dro and his wife Nvart hailed from the two most prominent but adversarial
families of their native town Igdir. Right after their wedding Dro left his
wife behind and headed to the battlefront.
Dr. Antranig Chalabian narrates the incident in detail in his
book “Dro”. According to him, at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony as the
newlyweds were exiting the church, someone approached Dro and handed him a
note. It was a telegram from Nikol Duman ordering him to leave for Zankezur.
When the newlyweds reached the groom’s parental home, I quote, “the groom
approached his father and said, ‘father, I have received orders from Duman, I
leave forthwith…I entrust my wife to you, to safeguard her as your own
offspring’”. Dr. Chalabian makes no mention of Dro’s mother. It would be
natural that his mother would have given her blessing too. Dro was a volunteer
under the command of the legendary freedom fighter Nikol Duman.
Dro and Nvart’s
wedding took place in 1905 or 1906. The date is within the time frame of the
accepted version as to when and why the song took hold in Kessab folklore and
remains one of the most cherished parts of a Kessabtsi wedding. The symbolism of the song is apparent. It’s a message to the young
men to ready themselves in defense of the nation even at the most auspicious
occasion of their lives, the start of their own family on their wedding day.
On July 14, 1979 the same ceremony took place in Keurkune
after which Stepan Apelian was escorted walking to the Keurkune’s historic
church to welcome the bride Ani Churukian who soon arrived with her entourage from
Kessab. Tradition dictated that it is bride who is escorted to the groom's church, where the marriage ceremony would take place.
****
No comments:
Post a Comment