THE WOE OF ARAXES

Meditating by Araxes,

Pacing slowly to and fro,

Sought I traces of the grandeur

Hidden by her turgid flow.

"Turgid are thy waters, Mother,

As they beat upon the shore.

Do they offer lamentations

For Armenia evermore?

"Gay should be thy mood, O Mother,

As the sturgeons leap in glee:

Ocean's merging still is distant,

Shouldest thou be sad, like me?

"Are thy spume-drifts tears, O Mother,

Tears for those that are no more?

Dost thou haste to pass by, weeping,

This thine own beloved shore?"

Then uprose on high Araxes,

Flung in air her spumy wave,

And from out her depths maternal

Sonorous her answer gave:

"Why disturb me now, presumptuous,

All my slumbering woe to wake?

Why invade the eternal silence

For a foolish question's sake?

"Know'st thou not that I am widowed;

Sons and daughters, consort, dead?

Wouldst thou have me go rejoicing,

As a bride to nuptial bed?

"Wouldst thou have me decked in splendor,

To rejoice a stranger's sight,

While the aliens that haunt me

Bring me loathing, not delight?

"Traitress never I; Armenia

Claims me ever as her own;

Since her mighty doom hath fallen

Never stranger have I known.

"Yet the glories of my nuptials

Heavy lie upon my soul;

Once again I see the splendor

And I hear the music roll.

"Hear again the cries of children

Ringing joyfully on my banks,

And the noise of marts and toilers,

And the tread of serried ranks.

"But where, now, are all my people?

Far in exile, homeless, lorn.

While in widow's weeds and hopeless,

Weeping, sit I here and mourn.

"Hear now! while my sons are absent

Age-long fast I still shall keep;

Till my children gain deliverance,

Here I watch and pray and weep."

Silent, then, the mighty Mother

Let her swelling tides go free.

And in mournful meditation

Slowly wandered to the sea.

Raphael Patkanian.