Vrej-Armen Artinian: As you experience the Land

to A.W.

My friend, my brother, my alter ego
It is like reading a novel, you say
As you go visiting your Land
My Land
The Land of your forebears
And of mine,
And page by page
Chapter by intriguing chapter
You discover the people of your Land
And start feeling as one of them,
You get caught up into the drama
And see yourself playing a part therein,
let be minor, as you think
A part nevertheless,
In one chapter maybe
Or even one page could be,
As day by day and year by year
Part of them you become
Part of your Land,
Where the ashes of a friend of ours
One of us, tomorrow
Will be spread to the winds
Over the fields and in the valleys deep, to our sorrow

But that, my friend
My brother, my alter ego
That is only half,
Half only of what you would have felt
Had you made yourself versed to visit the Word
And then be caught up in its maelstroms,
The Word, the Words
And the sentences written by those Words
In the Signs of your Land
In prose and poetry,
And penetrated the mystic paths of your past
Discovered the Spirit
Which only the Words can unveil
Those words of your forebears
And of mine,
And layer by layer
Go deep, deep into the treasures of our unfathomed wealth
Our manuscipts and our books
Which only those people whom you deem your kin
Could have begotten,
And against all odds
Have defended with soul and body
On their road to Disaster
And saved and secured,
To bring them on their backs to you and me

The Land and the Word
Are one, my friend,
My brother, my alter ego

Vrej-Armen
2009-06-09