V.H. Apelian's Blog: May Your Song Never Die, Sireli Shant

Vahe H. Apelian

Google-ի Հայերէն Թարգմանութիւնը կարդալ սեղմելով Armenian տարբերակը

Shant Mandarin

A chance encounter on the Facebook brought Shant Madarian and I together. It all started when I came across a note in Armenian he had posted that said that we realize the value of something only after we lose it. The note reminded me of Krikor Zohrab’s story that was a required reading in some Armenian schools. A few years ago, I had translated the story and posted it in my blog. The title of the story in translation is “After Breakage” ( see below ). I linked my translation, which I had posted in my blog in a comment to his posting. To my surprise I received a message from him letting me know that he wanted to get acquainted with me as a friend. Somehow we connected although, I soon found out, that a 50-years long gap puts each of us across half a century chasm.

Shant seemed to be a mature young man for his age. I found out that he is a Syrian national but is born and raised in Lebanon. He said his father has told him that he, the father, was born and raised in Aleppo but was married and settled in Lebanon where Shant was born and raised. Other than a five-years long stay in Syria, in his younger years, he has been living in Lebanon. His family’s plight struck a cord in me and aroused long buried sentiments in me, for I knew, all too well the plight of the Syrian Armenians in Lebanon. There is no naturalization process in Lebanon. Consequently, the Syrian national Armenians, including their children who were born and raised in Lebanon, retained their Syrian nationality. The situation put them in a bind and created a lot of obstacles for them. The natural way out of the impasse for them was to immigrate. Many, if not most, did.

Shant noted that he attended Sofia Hagopian high school, but he left the school early before graduation and apprenticed with his father to work in the family trade which is manufacturing ladies’ bags. However, the family is struggling, he noted, as many buy the cheaper Chinese imported bags that apparently has decimated that trade that was once an Armenian dominated trade in Lebanon. It is not hard to imagine that the monetary collapse in Lebanon has also exacerbated the situation and is causing inordinate hardship. The dire situation has adversely affected his father’s health who has not been able to attend to work for the past two years.

Shant likes singing. He wrote that he liked singing since his very young age and that he is now 24 years old and has built a good reputation as a singer. I heard a song he has posted on the YouTube. It is titled “Mi Mout Kishervan Metch”, “In a Dark Night”. It is an original song. I liked the song and his singing. His singing style reminded me of the late Paul Baghdadlian, who was known as “the king of the Armenian love songs”. Who knows what’s in store for Shant on the music scene?

Shant confided that he does not have sufficient schooling to read musical notes and that he relies on his ears. A few Armenian singers I know were no different, but they left their mark in the Diaspora Armenian pop music. Yes, who knows what’s in store for Shant on the music scene?

Shant and his family contemplate moving to Armenia if they can put things in order. Things have gotten really bad in Lebanon, he justifiably claims. "Arach Asdvadz" - God's will - he says.

Along his personal FB group, Shant maintains a FB page where he invites to book him for an event of Armenian songs. But, in his Latin scripted Armenian he wrote, “payts kordz chiga, yerke merav”, “but there is no work”, he noted and emphatically said, “the song died”.

In that few words - but the song died - Shant summed up the inordinate plight the Lebanese Armenians are experiencing with their countrymen.

May your song never die, Sireli Shant.

Another song: