Samvel Suren Mkrtchyan (''

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

: Սամվել Մկրտչյան'') (25 February 1959 – 7 December 2014) was an Armenian translator, editor and writer.

Early life

Mkrtchyan was born in

Talin Talin may refer to: Places * Talin, Armenia, a city * Tálín, a municipality and village in the Czech Republic *Tallinn, capital of Estonia * Talin, Iran, a village in West Azerbaijan Province * Talin, Syria, a village in Tartus Governorate Other ...

in the

Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia ...

. He graduated from

Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences (), is a public university in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, operating since 1935. It is named after the Russian poet and historian Valery Bryusov since 1962. The university gra ...

Career

From the early 1990s, Mkrtchyan became a foremost translator of British and American literature into Armenian. His list of translations started with a collection including William Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Venus and Adonis, and A Lover’s Complaint (1991), followed by

The Rape of Lucrece ''The Rape of Lucrece'' (1594) is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, ''Venus and Adonis (Shakespeare poem), Venus and Adonis'' (1593), Shakespeare had included ...

(2004) and new editions of the Sonnets in 2004 and 2013, the latter also including the Bard’s long and short poems. T. S. Eliot’s

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important English-language poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United ...

(1991) was followed by Poems (2004) and Four Quartets (2013). Mkrtchyan also translated

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

’s

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

and

Through the Looking Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford. It was the sequel to h ...

(1994),

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

’s Just So Stories for Little Children (1995),

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

’s The Bear (1992) and

Absalom, Absalom! ''Absalom, Absalom!'' is a Southern Gothic novel by the American author William Faulkner, first published in 1936. Taking place before, during, and after the American Civil War, it focuses on the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen, a plantation own ...

(2001), Herman Melville’s stories (2001), and an anthology of American and British poetry (2004). He did not leave aside the lyrics of contemporary names like

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

(

Songs of Love and Hate ''Songs of Love and Hate'' is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album was released on March 19, 1971, through Columbia Records. Recording and composition Cohen reunited with produ ...

, 2012) and

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German Americans, German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambien ...

(The Genius of the Crowd and Other Poems, 2013), and translations from Armenian authors like

William Saroyan William Saroyan (; August 31, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film ''The ...

(1992), William Michaelian (Ancient Language, 2005), and

Garin Hovannisian Garin K. Hovannisian (born 1986) is an Armenian American writer, filmmaker, and producer. He is the director of the award-winning films ''1915'' (2015), '' I Am Not Alone'' (2019), and ''Truth to Power'' (2020), and the author of the book ''Fami ...

(Family of Shadows, 2009). He compiled a collection of his translations in a two-volume edition of 2009. Mkrtchyan also produced several volumes of translations from Armenian into English. These included two selections of poetry from Armenia (1991, 2004) and an anthology of

Yeghishe Charents Yeghishe Charents (; , 1897 – November 27, 1937) was an Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents' literary subject matter ranged from his experiences in the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and frequently Armenia and Arme ...

՛ poems (2012), as well as essays by Ruben Angalatyan (1995) and poetry by Shushig Dasnabedian (1999) and Vahe Armen (2000). He published many opinion pieces, poems, and short stories. From 2002 to 2014 He was the founding editor-in-chief of the quarterly translation magazine "Foreign Literature". He was a member of the Writers' Union of Armenia since 1995. He was a laureate of "Kantegh" award.

Death

Mkrtchyan died in

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 ...

in 2014.

Personal life

He was married to the politician

Naira Zohrabyan Naira Zohrabyan (born 8 May 1965) is an Armenian politician who was a member of the National Assembly of Armenia for the Prosperous Armenia party. She stood for her party to become the Mayor of Yerevan at the 2018 Yerevan City Council election. ...

References

External links