Ancient Armenia is located on the plateau south of the Black Sea and Caucasus Mountains. Armenia is a country composed of indigenous people and Indo-Europeans, who immigrated here in the 9th century BC. Legend has it that the ancestor of Armenians is Hajik, the grandson of the biblical character Noah. So this area is called Haystan in Armenian, and the people in this area are called Hayi. Armenia is located on the dividing line between the East believing in Islam and the West believing in Christianity, so its historical and cultural development is characterized by being influenced by these two different cultures at the same time. Armenia has been almost the battlefield of foreign invasion since ancient times. In its long history, its borders have undergone major changes, and today's Armenia is only a small part of ancient Armenia. Although it has been oppressed by Persia, Turkey and Russia in history, it still preserves the national cultural traditions completely.
Early Armenian poetry was mainly folk songs. Armenia's early folk songs reflect the dual characteristics of eastern and western cultures-both colorful eastern Islamic culture and implicit and regular western Christian culture. Unfortunately, however, after Armenia converted to Christianity in 30 1 AD, ancient folk songs, hymns and epics were almost lost, leaving only fragments of epics, legendary poems and ballads. Movses, an Armenian historian in the 5th century A.D., collected these remaining fragments of poems and compiled them into his book "History of Armenia". One of the free poems describes the birth of Wayan, the ancient Armenian god of war:
The vast world is gestating,
The purple sea is gestating,
The pregnant sea gave birth to a red reed.
There is a blue smoke from the reeds.
The flame of the torch rises in the reeds,
A teenager jumped out of the flame.
His hair is as golden as fire,
His beard fluttered like fire,
His eyes are as bright as the sun.
The epic David of Sassoon, written in the 9th century, has been lost. However, Magnain, a poet in the19th century, recreated an immortal poem describing David's struggle with the Arab invaders.
In the 4th century, Armenia became a Christian country. In the 5th century, Saint Mesrob created a phonetic symbol with 36 letters. Since then, Armenian literature has entered a golden age in its development history. The Bible was translated into Armenian, and a kind of poem (mainly religious carols and hymns) called "rosary" appeared. This kind of beaded poems can be divided into free poems and metrical poems, the contents of which are mainly faith, history, Bible, Christ, saints and so on. The poem "Zhuzhu" has become the unique literary wealth of the Armenian church and the main material for the church to sing. Zhu Zhu's poetry flourished from the 5th century to the 7th century, and then continued to15th century. Among the more than 20 "Zhuzhu" poets who appeared after the 7th century, the eighth-century poetess Sa Kadak and the sixth-century poet Ness Cleyet Qi are outstanding. Their poems are elegant and exquisite. After Zhu Zhu, lyric poetry has been at the top of Armenian poetry garden. Mysterious poetry was written by two poets Katolicos Komitas and Stefanos Siunezi in the 7th century. /kloc-in the 20th century, a great mysterious poet, Grigor Narekazi, known as "the sage of Armenian lyric poetry", wrote famous hymns, elegies and hymns.
12nd century and13rd century are called "Silver Age" in Armenian literature history. During this period, there was a revival of academic research and a new creation of poetry. Niels Cleyet (1100-1173), who is famous for writing Zhu's poems, also wrote elegies and narrative poems, leaving a lot of poems for future generations. Other outstanding poets in this period were three religious poets-Konstantin Yezenkaz (born at 1250), Orfanis Yezenkaz and Frick (died at 1330). The poems of Constantine Yerzenkazi and Frick reflect the influence of Arab and Persian culture, and their works show a kind of mysticism indulging in sensuality. The influence of Arabic poetry on Armenian poetry existed before this, and the use of rhyme is an example. Since the beginning of the "Silver Age", a new spirit has permeated Armenian poetry, and poets have once again begun to describe themes such as nature, courage, love and beauty that have been rejected by hymns and other religious poems since the 5th century. This new spirit is embodied in the poems of Konstantin Yerzenkaz and later Huo Fan Ness Turkulanchi (1450- 1525) and Nahapet Kuchak (16th century poet). This new spirit was also reflected in the popular bard's popular poems at that time. One of the most famous is Sayat Nova (17 12- 1795), who is famous for his love poems.
By the middle of19th century, a new literary language came into being. Writers and poets began to abandon ancient Armenian and write novels and poems in modern Armenian; Modern Armenian is very different from ancient Armenian in grammar, but there is little difference in vocabulary. As Armenia was divided into two parts-Russian Armenia and Turkish Armenia, two dialects of Armenia appeared-West Armenian (popular in Turkish Armenia, Anatolia, Constantinople and Europe) and East Armenian (popular in Russian Armenia). However, Armenian poets who speak two dialects continue to sing the same theme: the sorrow of compatriots, the love for the motherland and the desire for national freedom. 19 Armenian poets in the 20th century came into contact with European literary traditions. Western Armenian poets are influenced by French and Italian literature, while eastern Armenian poets are influenced by Russian and German literature. It is worth mentioning that Petros Doryan (1851-1872) and his younger brother Archbishop Yekisher (1860- 1930). Among the poets a little later than them, according to European standards, Tuvajie Kaiyang (1877- 1945) is outstanding. Outstanding lyric poets are Daniel Varozan (1884— 1945) and Adam Arianyan (died on 19 15). Among the East Armenian poets, Ha chatur Apovyan (1804-1848) is the founder of modern Armenian literature, Raphael Pat Kanyan and Ovani Ovani Yang are the main lyric poets, and Ovani Tumanyan (1869-1928). The most famous modern poet in Armenia is Avitik Isakayan (1875— 1957). The younger generation of poets include Guy Sariyan, Na Sariyan, A Silaz and Xi Kaputin Yang.