Thursday, June 09, 2016
Thursday, March 24, 2016
ԼՕԼԱ ԳՈՒՆՏԱՔՃԵԱՆ։ ՄԱՌԱԽՈՒՂ
Անոնք պատասխանեցին՝ գնա՜ արեւելք
բայց հոն խելքեր չգտայ։
Դեղին դաշտերուն մէջ երկնցայ
ու խոտերուն հարցուցի ու՞ր են
երեւակայական ոգիները ու անոնք
պատասխանեցին՝ շուրջդ դիտէ՛։
Խմողներուն, ծխողներուն, ձուկերուն ու մուկերուն
աչքերուն մէջ խորու՜նկ նայեցայ
ու հարցուցի՝ ու՞ր են ու՞ր թափառական
աստղերը ու անոնք մատով ցցուցին…
մառախուղը։
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 3/24/2016 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Saturday, March 12, 2016
ԼՕԼԱ ԳՈՒՆՏԱՔՃԵԱՆ։ ԵՐԵՒԱԿԱՅԱԿԱՆ ՆԱՄԱԿԱՆԻ
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 3/12/2016 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Reading in New York City
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 2/11/2016 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Albert Kapikian, Lola Koundakjian, reading, Sarah Giragosian, USA
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Live from Holy Cross: Lola Koundakjian reading Rouben Sevak
Click to hear the audio segment
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 5/14/2015 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: APRIL 21, Armenian Genocide, Audio Clip, Lola Koundakjian, reading, Rouben Sevak, USA
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Lola Koundakjian: Awakening
Click on the link to hear the audio recording of Awakening, read by the author,
There is a moment before you realize you are awake,
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 10/21/2014 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Audio Clip, Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Friday, January 10, 2014
Լօլա Գունտաքճեան։ Ի՞նչ ընեմ…
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 1/10/2014 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Lola Koundakjian: A trip to Egypt
Two friends announced they were planning
To discover Cairo and the desert
I said I’d go remembering my school trip there --
My twelve-old self touring Giza and the pyramids,
Stopping for tea at the Mena House,
Taking a boat ride to King Tut’s tomb,
An overnight train ride to Karnak-Luksor
and the Valley of the Kings.
The following week I sold my camera
a beautiful single lens reflex Nikon
with a gorgeous macro lens.
I was young, fearless and ready for heat stroke.
The men were giddy with excitement,
We talked about shots and malaria pills,
Eating great food on a student budget.
In my mind I visited the souk with endless
Stalls of ladies gallabiahs,
Ate dried dates coated in chocolate,
And bought books by the new Nobel laureate*.
But I never made it to the tarmac at JFK.
The camera paid that month’s rent.
Published in Mizna, Volume 13, Issue 2, 2012
* Naguib Mahfouz, Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1988.
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 3/05/2013 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, translated into Ukrainian, USA
Thursday, October 06, 2011
A review published by the Zohrab Center, New York City
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 10/06/2011 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Lola Koundakjian
Friday, January 14, 2011
"The Accidental Observer" poetry collection now available
Lola Koundakjian's first poetry collection is now available for purchase. Click below to purchase a copy of "The Accidental Observer" online.
Praise for The Accidental Observer
The poetry reading community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Lola Koundakjian for her years of service to the art, making the work of Armenian poets, writers of Armenian ancestry in many languages, available to readers world-wide with her Armenian Poetry Project. Now, we meet Lola herself in three languages…and it’s about time!
— Diana Der-Hovanessian
Lola Koundakjian's first collection reveals a curious and prescient mind roaming the landscapes of our collective illusions – and disillusionments. Through her spare style and a measured economy of language, she manages to decipher the banality of the everyday on one page, and, on the next, dissect the anatomy of suffering. Insightful and poignant, this is the work of a meticulous observer, and an acutely aware consciousness.
— Amir Parsa
These poems of longing and grace are the kind we pass from friend to friend. How wonderful to find them in three languages, each proclaiming their own bright joy.
— William Michaelian
These poems tread lightly but so perceptively. In delicate language and in three tongues, the poet takes us on a winding journey, a walk through “the dew intertwined with mist” on the path leading to and from love, to and from a lover who is now there, now absent. This theme is played out sensitively against backdrops of New York, with echos of the Middle East and Armenia sounding sotto voce. A vignette of a garden on West 87th street with a mulberry tree and “crushed ripe mulberries” evokes loss, love and childhood. From this miniature of New York, Koundakjian shows us far places freshly — Firenze and Toscana, afternoon coffee in Spain and an evocation of Morocco. The Armenian and English texts are transpositions of her perceptions into the different cultures, each rewarding in its own modality and in the meaning to be found in the place between them.
— Michael E. Stone
“y desapareces/ dejándome recuerdos/ bocados apenas” así inicia Lola Koundakjian su potencia evocadora. Así, dando nombres a los gestos íntimos de un pasado que se le hace pedazos en la memoria. Así, sus poemas, como un libro de viajes, recorren las sensaciones en imágenes que agregan futuro a lo ya sucedido. Olores, sabores y miradas que conforman memoriales cuyo objetivo es transformar el espacio de escritura en espacio conmemorativo. La densidad de Koundakjian reside en ofrecer ternura a la resistencia, en acordar una cita agradecida con sus raíces produciendo su propia perpetuación. El rito de la palabra hace justicia, nombra el destino del poema junto a su lector; su calidad de testigo.
— Ana Arzoumanian
Lola Koundakjian continues to open doors with her passion for poetry. These spare but heartfelt pieces have several faces and textures because of the work she has done with their translations. An ambitious project that only a poetry advocate such as Lola can deliver.
— Armine Iknadossian
Lola Koundakjian goes after real moments, and she does so quickly, concisely, masterfully--as if she is in panic of losing that rare afternoon light or the playful shadows cast over Central Park by the accidental cumulus clouds. She's like those rare poet-photographers that must work swiftly if they want to capture the moment just right.
— Shahé Mankerian
“It is hard to find a better advocate for poetry across
culture and time than Lola Koundakjian, and this
collection is good hard evidence.”
— Alan Semerdjian
“A trilingual volume of nostalgic reflections on the
four seasons, filled with exotic aromas and flavours,
drawing from the East and West, from Armenia and New
York, from beyond and within, and in search of our
common destiny.”
— Alan Whitehorn
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 1/14/2011 09:53:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Inside Out: Armenian Perspectives in Poetry and Prose
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 10/28/2010 07:19:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Lola Koundakjian, Michael Akillian, Nancy Agabian, USA
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Uptown Stroll Podcast
Northern Manhattan is a mix of various cultures and languages. As part of June's 8th Annual Uptown Arts Stroll Author and host of the Sunday Best Reading Series Patricia Eakins curated the event Uptown Voices: Writing Across our Cultures, an evening of short stories and poetry read by authors in their native languages. The authors agreed to repeat their performances for the Manhattan Times, which recorded their readings and developed this podcast.
Click here for Lola Koundakjian's portion of the podcast here.
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 8/24/2010 09:43:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Live from the Bowery Poetry Club: Lola Koundakjian
Gartal and the Armenian Poetry Project are proud to release this audio clip recorded live at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City on April 2, 2010. Click to hear Lola Koundakjian’s reading of her poem, Les poètes.
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 6/06/2010 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Audio Clip, BPC, Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Monday, May 31, 2010
Quote for the month of May
*****
Հրեշտակ՝ փոխան ծաղկեպսակի:
Լօլա Գունտաքճեան
******
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 5/31/2010 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, Quotes, USA
Friday, April 02, 2010
At the Bowery Poetry Club
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 4/02/2010 11:23:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: BPC, Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
At the Bowery Poetry Club
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 4/02/2010 11:22:00 PM 0 comments
Labels: BPC, Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, USA
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Լօլա Գունտաքճեան։ Գալով անցեալին
Click here for the audio segment of Speaking of the past read by the author.
Red light, stop!
Red light, stop!
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 3/28/2010 07:00:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: Audio Clip, Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, Translated into English, USA
Friday, October 02, 2009
Lola Koundakjian: Six Balloons
Six balloons, illustration by Alan Semerdjian, based on the poem
Six happy balloons,
six orange balloons went uptown to enjoy the New York Philharmonic in Central Park.
But it rained, in fact it stormed that evening.
The six happy balloons were
quickly saddened, their multicolored ribbons were stained, they were bombarded by rain drops.
So they went home, scarred;
one didn't make it through the night, two others wouldn't stay aloft.
And, on day two, there were none.
July 14, 2007
Six Ballons
Six joyeux ballons oranges
six ballons se sont levés
dans les airs pour écouter
l'orchestre philarmonique de New York, à Central Park.
Mais il a plu, dans la soirée, il a même fait du tonnerre
les joyeux ballons très vite se sont remplis de tristesse
leurs rubans tout bariolés se sont tachés sous la pluie
Ils sont rentrés chez eux
détruits
l'un d'eux ne passa pas la nuit,
deux des autres ne savaient
plus comment rester en l'air
Lorsqu’on fut au second jour,
Ils avaient tous disparu
Traduit de l'anglais par Sylvie M. Miller
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 10/02/2009 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, Translated into French, USA
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
September issue of PAKIN
The September 2009 issue of Pakin has just appeared in Beirut, Lebanon. I am humbled that my work was published in it.
- Lola Koundakjian
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 9/23/2009 07:00:00 AM 1 comments
Labels: Lebanon, Lola Koundakjian, Pakin, USA
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Quote for the month of May
Գործը չի՛ վերջանար.
կեանքը կը վերջանայ:
Լօլա Գունտաքճեան
Posted by Armenian Poetry Project at 5/30/2009 07:00:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Contemporary, Lola Koundakjian, Quotes