BIRTH OF ZAREH KHRAKHOUNI

Zareh Khrakhouni (pen name of Arto Jumbushian) was born in Constantinople on October 16, 1926. After starting his education at Kapamajian School, in 1935 he continued his studies at the Mekhitarian Secondary College of the Viennese Mekhitarists, from which he graduated in 1945. He studied philosophy, law, and literature at Istanbul University, graduating in 1951. He followed a course in literature and art history in Paris.

He published his first poem in 1948. From 1952-1958, he taught philosophy, psychology, and Armenian language at Esayan School in Constantinople. He also taught at the Getronagan Lyceum, where he was also the vice principal.

While a student, Zareh Khrakhuni actively participated in various literary movements, which in the post-World War II period sought to revitalize poetry and prose in the Armenian community of Istanbul, Zareh Khrakhouni was one of the principal promoters of the “modern literature” and the “new poetry” movements in Western Armenian letters. Together with a group of young writers and poets, he created an avant-garde literary journal, San (1948-1955). He also participated in the publication of another literary journal, Toh (1959). Later he became the editor of the literary and artistic supplement of the daily newspaper Marmara. He was the main theoretician of the new school of poetry he named “objective symbolism,” which was based on the principles of phenomenological aesthetics.

Khrakhouni published sixteen collections of poems, along with articles, studies, reviews, editorials, and translations, mostly of contemporary French literature. Many of his collections of poems, including Stone Tears (1963), I and Others (1964), Luna Park (1968), Celebration Order (1973), The Parade of Heroes (1984), Roads (1987), Shade and Echo (1988), Liberty Song (1993), and others, were widely praised. A collection of his poetry, Selected Poems, appeared in English in 1990. He collected his essays in the book Glimpses from the Other Side (1991). In 1989, Khrakhouni was awarded the St. Sahag-St. Mesrob Medal by Catholicos Vazgen I. He was also the recipient of Hamazkayin’s Anahid Literary Award, the AGBU Alex Manoogian Cultural Foundation Award, the Elize Kavoukjian Literary Award of the Society of Armenian Writers of France, the Haigashen Ouzounian Literary Prize of the Tekeyan Cultural Association, as well as the Movses Khorenatsi Medal of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople’s highest Medal of Honor.

He passed away on November 27, 2015, in Istanbul.