Tatul Sonentz Papazian - The Call

Tatul Sonentz-Papazian: The Call (to Neda)

26-year-old Neda Soltan was killed during a protest in Iran earlier this month. The video capturing the last few minutes of her life was watched by millions worldwide.

On a summer day
in this ancient land
where a pagan sun
once reigned supreme
in a merciless encounter
between hope and fear
in the eternal sphere
of creation—
on the streets of a city
torn between what was
and what is to be—
between Adam
and Eve—on the eve
of a new dawn you ventured
forth with childlike candor
holding the hand
of destiny…

You wondered for whom
the shots were meant
as your chest exploded
and you fell…
your wide open young eyes
turned to the skies
to the fading light
of a silent sun
seeking an answer
to the divine thirst
for a sacrifice—
a burnt offering
on the blood soaked altar
of freedom of the soul…

Your unuttered call
yet to be heard
is suddenly silenced
by a pierced heart
bleeding on the dust
of a long road paved with pain

leading to the final abode
of the human spirit
in its quest for peace
in an Eden without bars…

You are home at last
nestled in a million hearts
that witnessed in your demise
and your frozen gaze
the surging triumph of light
over darkness.

(2009)


This poem has appeared in the Armenian Weekly in print and online in June 2009.



L’APPEL

C’était un jour d’été
En cette terre ancienne
Où, suprême, un soleil païen avait régné
Sur l’implacable lutte
Entre crainte et espoir
Dans le cycle sans fin de la création
Dans les rues d’une ville
Combattant ce qui fut pour ce qui devait être
- Adam combattant Eve –
Tu es venue curieuse, avec des yeux d’enfant
Pour voir l’aube nouvelle,
Ta main dans celle du destin
Tu te demandais qui méritait qu’on tirât
Quand la poitrine ouverte par une balle, tu tombas
Tes yeux jeunes d’enfant
Se tournèrent, grands ouverts,
Sur le soleil muet qui s’éteignait au ciel
Et voulait cette offrande…
Offrande calcinée sur un autel en sang
Des âmes qui s’envolent
Ton cri interrompu
Mais sitôt entendu
D’un coup fut englouti par ton cœur qui s’ouvrait
Saignant dans la poussière
Du long chemin pavé de peines
Qui nous mène 
Au sanctuaire de l’âme
De l’être humain en quête
De paix dans un Eden ouvert et sans barreau
Tu es enfin chez toi
Nichée au fond du cœur
D’un million de témoins
Qui ont vu ton décès
Et ton regard figé
Est le flot de lumière
Devant l’obscurité.

Tatul Sonentz
Traduit de l’Anglais par Nanehlala 

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - COLORATURA

You
may be
unaware
just then but…
when out of the blue
you suddenly hear those
visible blinding vibrations
of sharp color and see
The shimmering
Of blinding
sounds
you
do know
the time is here
to drop the palette
pick up the harp
and sing some
wild colors
or words
To life

…………… Tatul Sonentz
2020

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - HI THERE!

Hi there! Didn’t expect me,

Did you…?

It was ajar -- the door to memory,

And I slipped through,

Leaving a few strands of fur

Behind, just for a glimpse of you,

Hoping you might offer

Me a smile or two…

What’s that you say?

Where was I yesterday, and

Why today?

Because that wonderland

Called childhood, before it fades away,

Is best remembered now, today,

Than at tomorrow’s delay…

Tatul Sonentz Papazian

2016

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - THE WIND, MY LOVE [version 2018]

THE WIND, MY LOVE…

I sit alone
In the backyard
Of our past
And the memory
Of your touch comes back
With the rising wind
Caressing away
The wrinkles of time
That a red-hot longing
Etched on my skin
Since you went away
On a bright day
Of spring…

TATUL SONENTZ
2018

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - NIGHTFALL

Our last

amble together

in that drizzling rain,

when the City of Lights

dropped its day-mask, and

the nimble hand of the night

snuffed the lingering sunlight,

removed its long, black glove

and snapped its ornamented

fingers, the iridescent light

show came to sudden life

in its wide open heart

starring the Etoile…

Meanwhile,

in an unremitting

parade of dripping-wet

umbrellas, we strolled along

together, on that last night.

she, always, on my right,

while in my left side,

the rain drizzled

in my heart…

Tatul Sonentz Papazian

2016

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - HI, THERE!

Hi there! Didn’t expect me,

did you…?

It was ajar -- the door to memory,

and I slipped through,

leaving a few strands of fur behind,

just for a glimpse of you,

hoping you might offer

me a smile or two…

What’s that you say?

Where was I yesterday, and

Why today? Because that wonderland

Called childhood, before it fades away,

Is best remembered now, today,

Than at tomorrow’s delay…

Tatul Sonentz 2016

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - PATER

P A T E R

“Come,” he said,

Taking me by the hand

And leading me towards

The clear, visible horizon, and

Beyond it, as it turned invisible,

Onwards, through sunflower fields

Moonlit trees and many galaxies

Of fireflies frozen as stars

Pointing to countless

Other horizons…

“It’s all yours,” he said,

“But keep in mind, son,

“The mere blind possession

“Of one single thing robs you,

“--In its sightless obsession--

“Of everything and all

“That was yours from

“The very beginning…

“Just for the not taking,

“But giving…”

Tatul Sonentz

2016

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - THE WIND. MY LOVE… [version 2016]

“It’s windy out there,

You’ll catch your death…”

She says, with a casual stare,

Murmuring under her breath,

Totally unaware

Of my casual affaire

With the wind…

The only entity that didn’t care

About sagging skin and looks

No longer fair

To look at…

With no critical stare

Or visible flair,

The wind embraces me

Caressing my face

That no one has kissed lately…

“Get back inside, already…”

She yells from the porch

Forcing down windblown skirt,

Apron and grey hair…

“La donna e mobile,

Qual ' pium al vento…”

Blares the radio.

I wish we could elope…

With diminishing courage,

Even at this age,

One lives with hope.

Tatul Sonentz

2016

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - SHATTERED DREAMS

The yellow chariot

Of shattered dreams

The color of anemic flames

Parked in my space

Unhitched motionless

On roulette wheels…

“Faites vos jeux Mesdames

Et  Messieurs  Faites

Vos jeux…” chants

The crimson croupier

Waiving his trident

Calming his restless tail…

The chariot’s wheels

Remain frozen motionless

Like bankrupt players’ hands

“Rien ne va plus, Mesdames

Et Messiieurs, rien

Ne va plus…”

Time to wake up and board

The yellow chariot

Of shattered dreams

Parked in my space…

Tatul Sonentz

2016

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - SAD SONG

Mi mi

re re re do,

mi mi re re do…

Go on, sing it! Do it!

Break your bloody heart,

you bastard… Break it to bits!

It is of no use to you or anyone now,

drown it now in tears, cast it overboard!

Springtime is gone, classrooms, blackboards

are no longer green, with chalk-white notes

and your little sister is not there any more

to sing notes with you, her loving heart

beating in perfect rhythm with yours --

the one that now stumbles behind

a drunk drummer -- a blundering

bastard, who hums expletives

with no rhythm or no beat…

So sing it! You bastard,

sing! Do re mi re mi

re re do…. Do it!

Do break the bloody thing!

Tatul Sonentz

2015

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - THE VANISHING TREE

The old woman sits on a white wicker chair

alone in the backyard of her grandson’s house

in a small New England town where the air

is crisp and fresh with the smell of the sea…

She sits staring at a lone chestnut tree

shedding its malodorous flowers on a lawn recently mowed by her great-grandson

whose name was the same as her young spouse

whose face -- now a haze in her misty mind --

no longer haunts her lonely bed…

“May you grow old on one pillow,”

her mother had said on her wedding day --

“Mek bardzi vra tzeranaq…” heard a long,

long time ago, long before time stopped

for them on that early spring day far far away, when the sun turned blood red… or was it

the ground he had stood on that turned

crimson, as he fell?  She can no longer tell… though she can clearly see the chestnut tree

his grandfather had planted in their garden as a child – ignoring his mother’s forewarning

of the foul-smelling flowers of the chestnut tree. “I love the smell of chestnuts roasting slowly

on the red hot manghal,” the boy had answered, digging deeper into the native soil…

All in white, the tree was in full bloom then -- like a bride -- and she can even now, after eons, hear a snippet of an old song sung on her wedding  day – “Arevid mernem yar jan…” may I die for your sun, my love… and

 with one fatal blow of the yataghan,

his radiant sun had faded into a faint glow

of life floating in her womb, nourished

by her blood, spared–it seemed--for a fate

that loomed ahead far worse than death –

a life of the living dead….

Later, before freedom would hail at another springtime in May – as a lone servant

in her own house -- in the cold crisp winter of that crimson year, she was told by her savage landlords to cut down some limbs off the bare chestnut tree to burn as firewood to heat a house built on love, now petrified with freezing grief

at the sight of the severed hands and limbs

of its builders and their trees….

“That was the tree of the whole family,”

murmurs the old woman to no one in sight --  for under its canopy, they had collected the spiny burrs from the ground, recovering

the chestnuts and preparing them for the roast –

and the aroma of the sizzling fruit attracted

all the children and grandchildren, as the family gathered as one around that chestnut tree --     not too long after the stench of its flowers

had faded from memory….

Startled by the hand of his grandchild on her frail shoulder the old woman starts sobbing

and begging, “Don’t cut down the chestnut tree,

don’t cut down the family…” startled in his turn

the grandson says “Nani jan we have no chestnut tree in our yard. That’s the pear tree in the neighbor’s backyard you’re looking at... nobody is cutting any…”

Oblivious to her grandson’s plea

the old woman repeats between sobs…

“Don’t cut down the family tree….”

Tatul Sonentz

2010

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - LISTEN ...

Some days alone

Under cloudy skies
No one I think holding a stone
Seems to dare or even tries
Hurling it at falsehood and lies…

I now live in past centuries,
Never truly grasping
Each and every day’s
Intrusion and disrupting
Rumble of angry forays
Entering the realm of war
Against so-called hostile arrays
Long kept in sight with a far
Look into centuries
Yet to appear on the altar
Made of man’s dark fantasies…

I now live in silence
Smelling dying roses
Shuffling along in slippers
Yet to be worn
Over time left for me
Under cloudy skies…

Tatul Sonentz

2015

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - CLOUDY SKIES

Some days alone

Under cloudy skies

No one I think holding a stone

Seems to dare or even tries

Hurling it at falsehood and lies…

I now live in past centuries,

Never truly grasping

Each and every day’s
Intrusion and disrupting
Rumble of angry forays
Entering the realm of war
Against so-called hostile arrays
Long kept in sight with a far
Look into centuries
Yet to appear on the altar
Made of man’s dark fantasies…

I now live in silence

Smelling dying roses

Shuffling along in slippers

Yet to be worn

Over time left for me

Under cloudy skies…

Tatul Sonentz

2015

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - A MISSED CALL

“The winds of March,”

she sang -- a long, time ago,

“that make my heart a dancer…”

with her tiny voice, oh, so mellow,

“A telephone rings, but who’s to answer?”

It breaks my heart, dear Lord, for now I know,

it rang for me, then, and I was not there…

“A fairground’s painted swings,”

went the old song, “these foolish things

remind me of you…”

Oh, dear Lord, they still do, as I long for you,

windblown, forlorn, with this melody

ringing in my head -- a missed call

once ignored, now haunting me…

The march of time has swept all,

leaving behind this melody…

Tatul Sonentz

2015

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - COME

 “Deir ez-Zor” Tatul Sonentz (2012)

To all deniers…

Come

Sing with me

The sad song born

In the slit throats of my kin

A wretched distant dirge

Long smothered by

Desert sands and

Scattered by ill

Winds of

Denial

Come

Let us listen

To the echoes

Of unsung lullabies

Rising in both volume

And pitch from mouths

That once sucked on

Withered breasts of

Dead mothers

Raped and

Beaten to

A pulp

Come and

Lend an ear to

The somber gibber

Of solumn academics

Bartered and bought

On slick markets

Of petrodollars

Dispensed by

Merchants

Of lies

Come

Raise your

Voice with those

Whose past is silence

And the present darkness

Even in the light of day

That rises red on that

Hot slaughterhouse

named Der Zor…

Come shed

A tear or

Two…

For your dead souls.

Tatul Sonentz

04/24/11

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - NAVETTE

Hello, good bye,

A smile, a sigh,

And my thoughts elope

To Paris, and a song of hope,

“Un jour tu verras,”

 (One day, you will see,)

“on se rencontrera”

(We shall meet again,)

“quelque part, n’importe où,”

(Somewhere, anywhere,)

“guidés par le hasard…”

(Led by mere fortune,)

And this mellow tune --

Of sunny-sad days of yore,

Shall sing an encore…

Tatul Sonentz

August 29, 2014

Tatul Sonentz Papazian - THEN AND NOW

We were there

and our here and now

was always there

mocking tomorrow

bedecked with desire

festooned with time

to spare …

We  were there

even when time was rare

to be where our love

could face the morrow

with youthful stare

and never blink

or despair

even when

our here and now

decked out with care

was still there…

alas unaware

that you and I were

no longer a pair

Tatul Sonentz

2014