{"id":20384,"date":"2017-09-21T16:09:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T16:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=20384"},"modified":"2017-09-28T18:14:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T18:14:41","slug":"mothers-treasured-song-fathers-beloved-mansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=20384","title":{"rendered":"Mother\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Treasured Song & Father\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Beloved Mansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mother\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Treasured Song & Father\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Beloved Mansion<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

By Professor Khatchatur I. Pilikian<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE DREAM<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to share with you this magnificent Armenian song, (live performance recording here below) titled: YERAZ (Dream) \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009c a most treasured song of the Armenian students in foreign lands, during the second half of the 19th century, dreaming of home, mother and motherland.<\/p>\n

I first heard this song as a child from my mother,Tefarik, born in Khaskal-Izmit (Nicomedia), who had survived the genocide and lived as a child with her mother. Her father Hagop was dragged to serve the Ottoman army as hard labourer (amele tabourou<\/i>) in Jerusalem. Knitting to survive with her mother in Thessalonica, my mother was \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056d\u009cfound\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7 by my father when she was in her twenties. My father, Vahan\/Israel, born also in Khaskal, survived the Der el Zor hell on earth in the Syrian desert. Orphanaged in Baghdad, he decided to find his childhood beloved come rain or sunshine. He did. They stayed together for over 65 years -now buried together in London (father 95, mother 87). Both parents had very beautiful voices \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009c I have learned many songs first from them. I remember vividly my father\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s singing to raise funds for the families of the Armenian soldiers fighting against the Nazis\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u00bb<\/p>\n

Here is the poem in<\/span><\/span> English. <\/span><\/span>THE DREAM<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Poem by Smpad Shahaziz (1840-1897) Translated by Zabelle Boyajian (1872-1957<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Soft and low a voice breathed o\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7er me,
\nNear me did my mother seem;
\nFlashed a ray of joy before me,
\nBut, alas, it was a dream!<\/b><\/p>\n

There the murmuring streamlet flowing
\nScattered radiant pearls around,
\nPure and clear, like crystal glowing\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d
\nBut it was a dream, unsound.<\/b><\/p>\n

To her heart she pressed me yearning,
\nWiped my eyes which wet did seem;
\nAnd her tears fell on me burning\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d
\nWhy should it have been a dream?
\n<\/b>\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009c<\/p>\n

Yeraz (Dream): performed by Khatchatur I. Pilikian (tenor) and Sona Kupelian (piano).<\/p>\n

Recorded in February 1985, Beirut, in Pilikian\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s vocal recital of Fifteen Centuries of Armenian Song<\/b><\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Click on the this link to listen to the song<\/a><\/p>\n

———————————————————— <\/span><\/p>\n

THE MANSION ON THE HILL<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n
\u0569\u0082\u0539\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\n

A<\/b><\/span>s a child of ten, my father Israel-Vahan Pilikian had \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093helped\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d his own father Hovhanness, a master builder, to build the new family house his father designed and planned, in their home village, Khaskal, during 1912-1913. The village, mostly inhabited by Armenians numbering ca. a thousand, was not far away from the celebrated Armenian Monastery of Armash, in Izmit (ancient Nicomedia). After the large and extended Pilikian family was driven away from the new paternal home, the enormous three story wooden building was confiscated by an officer of the Central Powers and used as army barracks. Surviving the bombardments of the Allied Powers, the Pilikian mansion was subsequently occupied by the Kemalist forces of nationalist uprising<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

After the Great War, having survived the Genocide of the Armenians (1914-1918), Israel-Vahan, a teenager in a Baghdad orphanage in 1919, decides to go back and find his paternal home in Khaskal. Accompanied by his eldest, surviving sister Srbuhi and her husband, they start their odyssey travelling through deserts, hills and valleys, pastures and sea (reversing their march of death), finally reaching their destination.<\/p>\n

They reclaim their paternal home, albeit derelict and completely depleted of household furniture and all. After a few months of sustained and determined efforts of survival, their mansion too breathes new life. But the atmosphere of fear, rekindled by ultra nationalism, poisons the life of those groups who dared outlive the Genocide. To continue surviving, my father and his sister\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s family had to leave their paternal home yet again. But not before procuring a photo-memento (taken by a soldier of the retreating Greek armies), of their beloved mansion\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009da \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093miraculous\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d feat, indeed.<\/p>\n

During the summer of 1963, Israel-Vahan Pilikian, then 60 and a father of a large family with five children residing in Beirut, Lebanon, revisited his birthplace in Khaskal. No traces of the house were found. There the locals told him, that \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056d\u009cthat impressive mansion on the hill\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7 was finally burned down during the nationalist upheavals\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u00bb<\/p>\n

Based on that \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093miraculous\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d photograph of 1920, I sketched with pastel-crayons, on January 13th<\/sup>, 1957, an enlarged (cm. 61.5 x 46.5) picture of our ancestral \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056d\u009cmansion on the hill\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7 in Khaskal.<\/p>\n

Khaskal,<\/i> meaning \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093good-fields\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d, was the name of the original ancient village in Agn, in Historical Armenia (Egin<\/i>, now Kemaliye<\/i>, in Turkey). The Armenian inhabitants of the region were mostly descendants of Ani, the ancient capital of Armenia captured by the Mongol invaders in 1236. The Aniites having become Agnites for three centuries, were uprooted anew, this time by the Ottoman Turks, during the 16th<\/sup> century, hence the name, Khaskal, given by the Armenian immigrants from Agn to their new settlement in Nicomedia-Izmit. The new Khaskal proved worthy of its name. It was the \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056d\u009cParadise\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7 of the region, especially for the pilgrims of the Monastery of Armash. (S. M. Dzotsikian, Arevmdahay Ashkharh<\/i> [Western-Armenian World], New York: Dzotsikian Jubilee Committee, 1947, p.484.). Centuries passed, then most of the Khaskalites were uprooted yet again, this time to become victims of the \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056d\u009cfirst final solution\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7 of the 20th<\/sup> century\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009dThe Genocide of the Armenians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mother\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Treasured Song & Father\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Beloved Mansion By Professor Khatchatur I. Pilikian THE DREAM I would like to share with you this magnificent Armenian song, (live performance recording here below) titled: YERAZ (Dream) \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009c a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}