Davtian, Vaagn

Born Aug. 15, 1922, in Arapkir, Turkey. Soviet Armenian poet. Honored Cultural Worker of the Armenian SSR (1970).

Davtian published his first work in 1935. His collections of poems First Love (1947) and the Morning of the World (1950) express the patriotic feelings of a participant of the Great Patriotic War and love for the natural scenery of the homeland. Davtian devoted his narrative poem The Road Through the Heart (1952) to the memory of U. Avetisian, a Hero of the Soviet Union. In several of his poems, such as “Dawn in the Mountains” (1957). “Summer Thunderstorm” (1964), and “Song of Wine” (1966). Davtian penetrates deeply into the moral world of a contemporary. His historical narrative poem Tondrakiitsy (1961), which deals with historical events in Armenia during the Middle Ages, is imbued with civic spirit and lyricism. In 1969 he published The Smoke of theHearth, a book of historical narrative poems. He has translated the poetry of A. S. Pushkin, S. A. Esenin, and S. Petôfi.