Archbishop Torkom MANOOGIAN
( 1919 - 2012 )

Your Grace
We were happy to be informed that your esteemed Diocesan Council is preparing to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of your ordination into the priesthood.
We find this undertaking commendable and we wish to express our confidence that your jubilee will be properly celebrated throughout your Diocese.
We forward our paternal blessings to you for your many years of service in the spiritual mission of our Church.
A happy occasion, such as this, not only gives the opportunity to express words of appreciation and good wishes to the person being honored, but it is also a good opportunity to reflect upon the extreme importance of the spiritual and national service of our Church to her people today.
Under the conditions caused by the Diaspora, our people have turned to our Church for nearly all of their needs of spiritual, educational and cultural nature. The Church thus has become Mother and Educator for out children.
In these circumstances we think the importance of the mission and activity of the spiritual servants of our Church becomes clear to us all.
The Armenian clergyman does not live or work for himself, but rather, motivated by a sacred vocation, devotes himself selflessly to the service of the Church and his flock. He works and struggles like a brave and good shepherd, giving an idealistic content to his life.
The solution of most of the problems arising in the Armenian Diaspora depends, to a great extent, on the degree and quality of the service of our clergymen.
We remember and underline all these, especially on the occasion of your jubilee celebration, because we are fully aware that Your Grace, through his life and continuing service of many years, ranks among the senior servants of our hierarchy who are faithful to His calling, attentive to the traditions of the Mother Church and the voice of the history of our people, and always faithful to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and the Throne of the Illuminator.
Now, dear Brother in Christ, on the joyous occasion of your jubilee celebration, accept our greeting of love and best wishes. May God strengthen you with holy inspirations and may you continue your mission with renewed vitality and graces.
"Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one" (Ephesians 6:14-16). Amen

Vasken I
Catholicos of All Armenians

Equally impossible seem to be the suggestions (putting it mildly): "If thy right eye offend thee... pluck it out... cut it off... cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

For many of us, this kind of exhortation sounds very absurd. Not only does it seem to be impossible to put it into practice, but one feels oneself entangled in contradictions.

However, a Christian's uncritical conclusion is that it is not an impossible command to practice even though it seems to be one of the paradoxical statements in the Bible. Since it is Christ who has commanded us to love our enemies, it should be done.

And it can be done. Christ never demands the impossible.

Of late, "Shen Mah," pseudonym of Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, a prolific writer, who is gifted with an innate talent for the fine arts, especially poetry, has taken up the exacting but pleasurable pursuit of translating English poetry into Armenian.
His first work in Jerusalem, an anthology, entitled "Lift Me" ("Verelk" ), published in 1993, and his second work "Haunting Melodies" ("Meghetiner"), publishedin 1995, won the high esteem of all those who read them. Prompted by the spectacular welcome both these works had received, I egged him on to embark upon the daring task of translating all 154 sonnets of William Shakespeare - the unparalleled and finest poems in the English Language - a monumental work, which, to my knowledge, no one has ever ventured to try before in full in the diaspora.
As in the case of the previous work, I was instrumental this time too in supplying him with the entire collection of the sonnets, and he has already crowned his work with success. He set himself the arduous task of translating one sonnet a day; in the case that he would miss one day's task, then he had to live up to his commitment, and would make up for it the next day, by translating two sonnets; even when he was in Etchmiadzin, in Armenia, on his latest mission there as Catholical Locum Tenens, paving the way for the forthcoming elections of the new Catholicos, he would find time in immersing himself in this new pastime, with a perfect serenity, because it held him spellbound, and caused him immeasurable ecstasy and elation, transcending all other feelings.
In fact, one who reads the Armenian version, realizes that it is not translation as much as it is a rendition or rather a personal interpretation. He has just borrowed the theme, without tampering with the original substance matter, and clothed and adorned it with fascinating Armenian Poetry, such that each poem is in itself a genuine creation of Armenian Poesy.
Even though this bold endeavour is a time-consum ing task, yet, I can feel that it affords him a much needed, soothing outlet from his daily, hectic pressures.
Translating Shakespeare is by no means an easy task, one should possess the talent, the insight, and power of penetrating the innermost recesses of the poet's mind; to be able to decipher often abstruse phraseology, and elaborate imagery, and often face the dilemma of picking the exact word that best conveys the required intrinsic meaning; but by his adamant will power, and unflinching perseverance, he has produced his chef d'oeuvre, a priceless legacy of Armenian Poetry for posterity.
Definitely, this work shall likewise provide an ideal relaxation, both mental and spiritual, to all leisure-time readers, especially to those who have a special penchant both for English and Armenian Poetry.

Y. H. Dickranian

What is Armenia? Where is it? If the splendid city of Tigran the Great has vanished, the realm of the Armenian spirit is intact and thrives, two thousand years later. The Armenian nation may be said to rest not on the banks of a river nor set on some plateau, but rather to stand on two firm yet immaterial pillars — one of religion and the other of language.

Yet on further thought these two pillars may be perceived as a single form. It was, after all, the Catholicos St. Sahak and the monk St. Mesrop who performed the visionary labor and miracle of inextricably intertwining Armenian Christianity with the Armenian language.

Thus it should be no surprise, but appropriately in an ancient tradition, that Shen Mah the poet and the Archbishop Torkom Manoogian are one and the same person. What may be a happy surprise, for those who have not already seen Shen Mah's work in the original Armenian, is the strength and freshness of these poems as devotedly translated by the gifted poet Diana Der Hovanessian, and the scholar Marzbed Margossian.

The Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America was born Avedis Manoogian in 1919, in the desert town of Bakuba near Baghdad. He pursued his studies at the Armenian Seminary in the St. James Monastery in Jerusalem, was ordained in 1939 and renamed Torkom in memory of his favorite teacher, the Patriarch Torkom Koushagian. He wrote his first poem on the occasion of the Patriarch's death and it was another of his teachers, the critic Hagop Oshagan, who encouraged him to continue writing poetry. The translations in this collection are drawn from his book Yankee Orer (Seminary Days).

Torkom Manoogian is very much the Armenian intellectual of the Diaspora, the scholar-poet living a solitary meditative life in spite of being surrounded by people and duties to which he is actively committed. Two of Shen Mah's models may be Komitas Vartabed, of whom he has movingly spoken (The Archbishop is himself also a musician) and Vahan Tekeyan, the exiled poet, both men artists who devoted their lives to the Armenian community.

Indeed a number of the poems in this book are attractively reminiscent of the veiled yet strong sadness of certain of Tekeyan's lyrics. Compare the first two lines of Shen Mah's To Look at You with these from Tekeyan's The Memory of You: "Your image in my eye, your voice inside my ear/and in my blood's own pace..."

And when Shen Mah writes: "Pale and ghostly pain, when did we first meet?fl never looked for you. That much I know..." he recalls the tone of Tekeyan's interest in affective and mental states, as in Tekeyan's Hatred: "Hatred, I had never answered your knock before./ I had Love, or at least Tolerance and could excuse/ Hurt by turning my eyes in the dark night..." In For the Poet, Aging, Shen Mah's tribute to Tekeyan, he writes that what he covets is not so much Tekeyan's art but his "true poet's heart."

The theme of lost yet profoundly revered human connections, connections of the heart, is an insistent one. The lovely poem I Am Here Mother is the most powerfully central and direct expression of this. But such a feeling also runs more subtly through several of the group of poems which reflect tenderly on seminary life. The Monastery Bell stands at one end of the spectrum among this group, in its stark despair. In The Supper Where Love Was Shared, however, despair, if specifically present, is also specifically relieved by the yearningly remembered yet somehow — and this is where the poet's alchemy transforms what would otherwise languish in nostalgia -presently vital experience of spontaneous idealistic love. To me, perhaps the most striking among these poems is They Are Sleeping. Again, but this time more implicitly, it is only the unspoken human touch of tenderness which can mitigate the despair of human existence; that touch, if human, is nevertheless God-given.

The Arc is a brief, ingeniously worked-out conceit, akin in its religious sensibility to the work of the great English metaphysical poet, George Herbert. This time, what might easily be a deeply bitter theme is mitigated not by love or tenderness but by honesty and a measure of striving humility. Interestingly, it is one of the relatively few poems in the collection whose thematic concern is directly religious.

Finally, there is Our Miracle, addressed to Etchmiadzin. A brave poem, it reminds me of another Ode to Etchmiadzin written in the early eighteenth century, at yet another difficult time for Armenians, by the erudite Bolsetzi, Tiratzou Balthazar Depir. But where the latter poem is proud at the very outset, proclaiming Etchmiadzin as a miraculous triumph descending gloriously upon evil, Shen Mah's poem acknowledges a perception of Etchmiadzin as "old, a broken, flooding cup," nevertheless offering hope in a "desert filled with slaughter." True, that desert is miraculously transformed — but through effort. And it is here that the Archbishop, or man of action and service, is inextricably intertwined, reconciled and at one with the Poet, Shen Man.

Peter Sourian

In this volume of the REST SERVICE we have printed in three columns the original Armenian text, the English transliteration and the English translation. We express our thanks to the Reverend Father Dajad Davidian who provided the English translation. Also to Mr. Mischa Kudian of London, England, who upon our request kindly translated four chapters from the Book of Lament of Gregory of Narek which are used in the Rest Service (Chapter 12 "Ungal Kaghtzrootyamb"; chapter 41 "Vorti Asdoodzo"; chapter 93, "Asdvadz Havidenagan"; chapter 80, "Yev Art I Vera Ayskanyatz Hoosahadoot-yantz").
We acknowledge the contribution of the Reverend Father Arten Ashjian who prepared the typewritten copy of the whole text and the transliteration, and did the proof-reading of the printed pages.
We have added in the Appendix the music of the opening psalms of the Rest Service, and of the Litany "Aghachestzook Zamenagaln Asdvadz", and of the psalm No. 4 "Khaghaghootyamb Hays yev i sooyn nunjestzook", and of the four chapters of Krikor Naregatzi, and the prayer of "Park Kez Der".

ARCHBISHOP TORKOM MANOOGIAN
Primate

The present volume of the Hymns of ^unrise Office with parts for a mixed chorus and with the organ accompaniment is the first attempt of its kind. With the publication of it, we hope partly to meet the wide demand of the Armenian Church Choirs of America for a comprehensive compilation of the music requisite for the choir members.
As the volume is primarily intended for the American-Armenian, an English transliteration is placed below the words under the music. Also, a conscientious translation of the classical Armenian text, carried out by His Eminence, Archbishop Tiran Nersoyan, former Primate of the American Diocese of the Armenian Church, appears on each corresponding page.
The melodies of the hymns, save for some slight alterations towards simplification, are the traditional ones chanted in the Armenian Cathedrals in Jerusalem, Antelias, Constantinople and other centres (most probably in Etchmiadsin as well). The composer, Wardan Sarxian, who is one of the five students of the renowned Komitas Vardapet, helped by his sound knowledge of Armenian music and inspired by his outstanding musical intuition, has been able to create the harmony and atmosphere peculiar to the Armenian hymns. When we listen to the tunes being played on the organ, we intensely feel the undercurrents of thought expressed in the notes; we are thrilled so much that 'we forget ourselves to marble.'
Heartfelt thanks are due to Mr. & Mrs. Paul Chapoutian of Long Island, New York, who, in memory of their beloved grandson, Gary Paul To-rosian, have supplied the forty-six photo-engraving plates used in this volume; and to Mr. & Mrs. Aram Attarian of Philadelphia, Pa., who, in order to encourage their children, Mr. & Mrs. Mardiros Attarian, and their grandchildren, Aram and Leon, in their love for the Church, have contributed to the publication of this volume.

TORKOM VARTABED MANOOGIAN