Daniel Varuzhan

Born Apr. 21, 1884; died Apr. 24, 1915. Armenian poet. Born in Western Armenia into a peasant family. Studied at the Mekhitarist school in Venice.

Varuzhan began his literary activity in 1904. In the collection of poems Pogrom (1908), he described the Armenian pogroms and the people’s struggle against the cruelties of the sultan’s regime. His main themes were Armenian patriarchal life and popular patriotism (The Heart of the Tribe, 1909). In his poems, imbued with democratism, Varuzhan celebrated the labor of the peasant (The Song of Bread, published posthumously in 1921). While studying in Belgium, he became an eyewitness to the growing workers’ movement in Europe. In the collection Pagan Songs (1912), he counterposed the spirit of chivalry, nobility, and unselfishness to the injustice and thirst for gain that reigned in capitalist society. He was one of the first Armenian poets to write about industrial workers (“The Break,” “May 1,” “The Dying Worker,” “Woman Worker”). He welcomed the Revolution of 1905-07 in Russia. He was a victim of genocide in Turkey.