KEGHAM SARIAN'S POETRY
( 1902 1976 }

TO ALL MOTHERS
 
By Kegham Sarian
Translated from Armenian by Daniel Janoyan
Glendale, California, January 8, 2000
 
Our mothers preserved the Armenian language
And passed it to their children when breast feeding.
They also filled them up with the Fatherland
So that its people will live eternally.
 
Our mothers preserved the Armenian songs
While rocking their children all along their songs
With tears in their eyes and wounds in their hearts
They always kept dreaming of life that is free.
 
They never yielded our language and our songs
To traitors, the sultan, nor also to any tsar
Whose dream was only see us give up and retreat
And to enable them rule over our Armenian land.
 
Our mothers have never been slaves to foreigners,
Neither have they ever been disappointed.
Having hugged the Armenian book and their children
They've always lived proudly in this very world.
 
Even now it is the Armenian mothers
Who are keeping the legacy live
Preserving our songs, language and noble spirit
Having sacrificed themselves whole-heartedly for our Fatherland.
 
I am now embracing your hands, O mothers.
You are sacred and holy within my heart.
Keep preserving always our Armenian language
To enable us live forever in this world of ours.

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