1986_10 The Daily Collegian October 1986

              I
Paget
Hye Sharzhoom;
November 1986
Poetry
* Peter Balakian was born in 1951 inTeaneck, New Jersey, and grew up there and in
the neighboring town of Tenafly. He holds a B A. degree from Bucknell University
and a Ph. D. from Brown U niversity. He is currently assistant professor of Elfish at
Colgate University
Balakian is the author of two books of poems, father Fisheye (1979) and Sad
Days of Light (1983). His poems, essays, and reviews have been published widely in
such magazines as Poetry. The Nation. American Literature. and^American Book
Review. In 1976 he co-founded Graham House Review, a serrtf^annual journal of
contemporary poetry, essays, and interviews, which he co-edits with Bruce Smith.
Peter Balakian was a guest of the Armenian Studies Program and the Armenian
Students Organization in March 1986. This newest poem is from a forthcoming
book. Future Herbalist.
FLAME-VINE
flp the humid January of central Florida
the five points of each flower
curl back to the mouth
so the pistills hang out like scorched tongues.
Pyroategia: their Greek name--
meaning fire and roof,
because fire burns the roof
of the mouth
because fire grows over
the roof of a house
the way these dangling orange mouths
annihilate trees, shrubs, fences,
even the squat water-oak.
Although I am sitting near some
tennis courts
in this torpid part of America,
I keep watching the mouths
and climbing tendrils
and see the pistils
■
almost fall to the ground
as if they were dangling by one
nerve-thread at the base of each flower's neck
neck's of orange, mouths of fire
spilling from green leaflets
as if they have been screaming for centuries:
goat-lung, lamb-nuts, pomegranate-
mouth Armenia spill
like after-birth out of me.
"Cj
More Books
Archie'Minasian. Selected Poems, with
an Introduction by William Saroyan and
an Afterward bv Aram Saroyan, New
York: AshodPress, P.O. Box 1147. Mad¬
ison Square Station. New York. NY 10157, .
1986. 64 pages. $5.50.
Did William Saroyan's meteoric success
make it difficult for other members of his
family to gain fame? Some have suggested
that in the forties and fifties there was not
enough room for more than one Armenian
writer from the extended Saroyan clan to1
make it big in American letters. Archie
/ M inasian. Saroyan's younger first cousin,
' who died last November, is a case in point.
Sharing Saroyan's lust for the varied
experiences of life and his interests in
letters and the arts. Minasian turned writer
(both prose and poetry) and painter at a
young age. Unlike Saroyan he finished
high school and went to Fresno State
before moving to San Francisco. In fair¬
ness to his famous cousin, it should be said
that Saroyan tried over and over again,
especially in his later years, to promote
M inasian's work and even got into several
angry exchanges with editors who refused
to publish Minasian's novel. He once
insisted that I write a letter to a_ mutual
friend to publish the novel without.letting
Archie know about it.
The first part of this wonderous book
republishes for the third time Minasian's
now famous The Simple Songs ofKhatchik
Minasian; originally issued by tbe Grab-
horn Press in 1950 with Saroyan's intro¬
duction. The elegant little volume was
More Books
Vahakn N. Dadrian.' The Naim-Andonian
Documents on the World War I Destruc¬
tion of Ottoman Armenians: The Anatomy
of a Genocide,' International Journal of
Middle East Studies, vol. 18. no.3. August
1986. pp. 311-360. Offprints available
! from the author. Departmerfl of Sociology.
Slate uriiversity of New York. Geneseo.
N. Y. 14454 or the Zoryan Institute.
Professor Dadrian's article answers once
and for all critics who sueeest that the
famous coded telegrams sent by Talaat,
Pasha and the Young Turk government to
initiate and carry out the Armenian Geno¬
cide of 1915 are forgeries. In a carefully
prepared and documented study reinforced
by 113 footnote's and two tables, Dadrian
examines the 52 known telegrams sent by
Talaat and other Turkish officials from
. March 3, 1915 to February 27, 1918 to
carry out the expulsion and extermination
of the Armenian population in the eastern
provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
- The strength of Dadrian's study is its
strong reliance on Turkish sources. Thc
documentation is so overwhelming' that
further Turkish statements questioning
the telegrams'authenticity will be hard to
make credible to even the most pro-
Turkish scholars. Dadrian's scholarship
should encourage Armenians to put moxe
resources into organizations and indivi¬
duals who are competent to pursue re¬
search on questions of our most recent
past. With more studies of this kind
published in journals, which like IJMES
are received by thousands of Middle Eas¬
tern scholars and experts, Armenian will
be able to confront the Turkish lie with the
Armenian truth. The merit of the article
 Dadrian's scholarship
should encourage *
Armenians	
lies not just in restoring these telegrams (in
part used by the Berlin court that tried and
released Soghomon Tehlirranj to their
proper place as documents, but also in its
unrelenting exposure of the entire, care¬
fully conceived. Turkish plan of exter¬
minating the Armenians.
DK
SUPPORT
HYE SHARZHOOM
LOCUS
New UCLA Journal
reprinted by David Kherdian in 1969. The
elder Saroyan's rambling and at times
enigmatic introduction is balanced in the
book at hand by the junior Saroyan's
analytical appreciation of Minasian's craft.
Minasian's extremely sensitive poems have
been compared to Japanese Haiku. But
the power behind a few simple words of
Minasian is much stronger than the often
bucolic sentiments of Haiku. A fine exam¬
ple is an elegy written for his cousin in
1981, entitled Farewell to Willie:
The birds-are in his trees
among the leaves
feeding on the early plum and peach.
Soon they will be off
in the morning sky
and he will be with them.
For those who are not poetry fans or
who have never read poetry, this is the
book to start with. 4
Spring 1986 marked the first issue of the
UCLA Armenian Student Assocfation
journal Locus.
Edited by Ara Oshagan the handsomely
printed journal contains articles in Ar¬
menian and English. Its purpose is 'an
attempt to provide a free intellectual and
artistic forum for reflections by Armenian
and non-Armenian students on the Ar¬
menian Diaspora.'
Touching on a wide area of interests the
journal probes the emotions and thoughts
of Armenians living in the Diaspora,
featured are a% interview with noted
author and critic Vahe Oshagan. an article
on the state of contemporary art in the
Armenian Diaspora by NeeryMelkonian-
Ourfalian, an analysis of one of the char-
aters in'the Armenian oral epic David of"
Sassoun by Rachel L. Stallkamp, and
several poems.
Those interested in submitting material
to Locus may contact:
UCLA Armenian Student Association
Box #520
308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles. CA 90024.
Hye Sharzhoom welcomes this fresh
new student voice of the Arrnenian Dia¬
spora.
f
ESSAY CONTEST
The Armenian Students Organization is pleased to announce an essay
contest open to all college students. The first prize winner will receive $200.00
which has been contributed by a donor from New York.
The topic of the essay is: *
How to resist assimilation?
The essay can be in Armenian or English, and must be typed, double spaced,
and be no less than three and no more than five pages long. The deadline for
essays to be received is December 31,1986. All submissions must be sent to:
ASO Essay Contest
c/o Armenian Studies Program
California State University, Fresno
Fresno, California 93740
The essays will be judged by a panel of the Armenian Students Organization
and the Armenian Studies Program. Winners will have their work published in
Hye Sharzhoom.