Metakse or Metakse Poghosian (), December 23, 1926 – August 10, 2014,

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

) was an Armenian poet, writer, translator and public activist. She was a member of the Advisory Board of the

Writers Union of Armenia The Writers' Union of Armenia was founded in August 1934, simultaneously with the USSR Union of Writers and as a component part of the USSR Union. 1930s The Constituent Assembly was held during 1 August - 5 August, after which the Armenian delega ...

Biography

Born in

Artik Artik () is a town in the Artik Municipality of the Shirak Province of Armenia. As of the 2011 census, the town had a population of 19,534. As per the 2016 official estimate, the population of Artik was around 18,800. As of the 2022 census, the t ...

, Metakse authored many popular books including poem collections (''Youth'', ''Female Heart'', and ''A Conversation with the World''). In 2006 she published ''The Woman of the Fate'', an anthology of her selected works. Her poetry has been translated into English, French, Japanese, Bulgarian, Serbian, Spanish and other languages by

Bella Akhmadulina Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina (, ; 10 April 1937 – 29 November 2010) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian poet, short story writer, and translator, known for her apolitical writing stance. She was part of the Russian New Wave literary movem ...

Desanka Maksimović Desanka Maksimović ( sr-Cyrl, Десанка Максимовић; 16 May 1898 – 11 February 1993) was a Serbian poet, writer and translator. Her first works were published in the literary journal ''Misao'' in 1920, while she was studying at t ...

Diana Der Hovanessian Diana Der Hovanessian (May 21, 1934 – March 1, 2018) was an Armenian American poet, translator, and author. Much of the subject of her poetry was about Armenia and the Armenian diaspora. She wrote and published over twenty-five books. Life and ...

and others. After the

1988 Armenian earthquake The 1988 Armenian earthquake, also known as the Spitak earthquake (), occurred on December 7 at with a surface-wave magnitude of 6.8 and a maximum MSK intensity of X (''Devastating''). The shock occurred in the northern region of Armenia (then ...

she became the vice-president of "Motherhood" benevolent fund, supporting female members of the

Armenian Army The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia (, abbreviated ՀՀ ԶՈՒ, ''HH ZU''), sometimes referred to as the Armenian Army (), is the national military of Armenia. It consists of personnel branches under the General Staff of the Armenian Arm ...

during the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

. She subsequently authored a memoir entitled ''How I Saw Artsakh''. Plaque to Metakse

She was in close relations with the famous Armenian poets

Hovhannes Shiraz Hovhannes Shiraz (; April 27, 1914 – March 24, 1984) was an Armenians, Armenian poet. Biography Shiraz was born Onik Tadevosi Karapetyan in the city of Alexandropol, then part of the Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia). His mother, Astghik ...

and

Paruyr Sevak Paruyr Sevak (; January 24, 1924 – June 17, 1971) was an Armenians, Armenian poet, translator and literary critic. He is considered one of the greatest Armenian poets of the 20th century. Biography Sevak was born Paruyr Ghazaryan () in the vi ...

. Artem Sargsyan called her "one of the most prominent figures of modern Armenian poetry". She is the mother of Armenian popular poet Lilit. Metakse died at the age of 88 in

on August 10, 2014.

References

{{authority control 1926 births Armenian women poets People from Shirak Province 2014 deaths 20th-century Armenian poets Armenian-language women poets Armenian-language poets 20th-century Armenian women writers 21st-century Armenian women writers 21st-century Armenian writers