User:Saak.ovsepian

 VICTOR JACOB OVSEPIAN (HOVSEPIAN) VIKTOR HOVSEPIAN /1947-1996/ 

Victor Ovsepian (Hovsepian Viktor), contemporary Armenian poet, novelist and publicist was born in village Heshtia, Javachk, Rep. of Georgia. Ovsepian family founder Hovsep (Joseph, Hovakim Hoseph), born in Kars, historical Western Armenia (Modern Turkey), emigrated during XIX centuries Russian Turkish Wars to Javachk, South province of Russian Empire (Modern Rep. of Georgia). Poet’s father Jacob (Akop) Ovsepian was an officer in local county administration. His mother Mariam Grabskaya, a Polish descend, was a teacher in local school. Poet’s early worldview developed under the profound influence of his grandmother Chazo (Bernik), a woman who inspired the young boy with wealthy local folk traditions and Biblical stories, deeply influencing poet’s spiritual evolution and his legacy. After graduating from local school, young poet continued his education in Kirovakan (modern Vanadzor, Rep. of Armenia), in pedagogical University as a philologist.

Poet was fluent in Russian, Georgian and German languages. From 1965 to 1996 he worked as a village teacher of Armenian and German languages and literature. In 1992 he was elected as a head of the local county. Poet’s first publication ‘Snowmelt’ came out in 1965 in Republican Newspaper ‘Soviet Georgia’, /Tbilisi/. From 1981 poet was elected permanent member of Soviet Writer’s Society. From 1991 he was also elected as a member of Georgian writer’s Society. He received numerous awards from Armenian, German (Neues Leben, Berlin) and Russian (Pravda, Lit. Gazeta) periodicals and from Society of Journalists of USSR. In 1985 poet received the excellence diploma from Pioner /Yerevan/ journal. Overall, fourteen books and poetic anthologies have been published by author. Poet’s early anthologies such as ‘Sunflower’s Night’, ‘Vagrant Stars’, ‘Halo’, ‘Solstice’ are profound and refined reflections of his rich spiritual world and his overwhelmingly individual creative talent.

Ovsepian’s more recent work is summarized in a unique “The un-formation” anthology, which was published in 1993 and represents an utterly new artistic breath in contemporary Armenian literature tradition. In deeply vitalistic and impressionistic stream of lyrics, Ovsepian-artist makes an attempt to overcome and break poetic traditions and forms and replaces them with amorphous steam of expressions free of rhythms, shapes and formal boundaries. The “The un-formation” represents the pinnacle of Ovsepian’s mature poetic legacy and is a significant novelty in Armenian poetic tradition. Another side of Ovsepian’s legacy that is of special interest is his psychological prose. In his book “The home of the spirit” writer uses his creative intuition to explore the structure and intrinsic architecture of human spirit to understand better the individual – society relations. The latest years of his life poet exercised his innovative and artistic gift in writing short stories, fable and collection of folk narratives and stories which are summarized in his “The fish and the reed” and “Eight Wise man” anthologies, which represents poet’s retrospection into his deep past, the roots of spirit, with an attempt of communicate with infant mind using poetic art.

Ovsepian’s ten volume unpublished legacy (due to his unfortunate early death), in addition to imaginative creations, novels and versus contains also pieces of refined philological and philosophical analysis of the legacy of Grigor from Narek as well as profound analysis of Armenian folk poem “David from Sasun” as well as the lyrics and epics of Javachk. Poet’s correspondence with H. Shiraz, V. Karents, G. Mahari and other nobles of Armenian literature is of special interest and is currently availed by Ovsepian Home-Museum for academics and scientific research. Translations of Georgian T. Graneli, German R. Rilke, Russian I. Annenski and others represent an important aspect of Ovsepian’s legacy composing a new and unique page in Armenian translational art, full of fine poetic tunes and artistic exercises.

Currently, the unpublished legacy of poet is in the process of systematization and preparation for publication by his daughter Mrs. Gisane Ovsepian with family support and financial help from Georgian Ministry of Culture and local authorities. Some of Ovsepian’s representative poets and his novel “Lost paradise of where river Arax starts?” can be uploaded now from public domain in internet at: www.saakovsepianonline.com.