– It is said that people don’t read much now.
– Now literature is not interesting for people at all. For example, artist Hakob Hakobyan said things to your newspaper that were sensation, and it is very good that a painter speaks of literature too. But the strangest thing is that no one reacted to the issues raised by him.
– Do you have time for reading?
– I write so much that do not have time for reading. When you are speaking of writers, you are becoming a member of the writers’ union gatherings. When you read the writings of others, you have an individual approach, and in many situations you prefer not to read their books, especially when you realize that you have not read many books written by Shakespeare and Tolstoy. Even if you have time, you are not able to read the most important thing. For me the best readers are painters, workers and drivers because they read the content and their words are concrete despite those of literature representatives and writers. I can express an opinion about an exhibition I see but not a writer. I accept painting easier than writing. What I think is worthy I try to write myself instead of looking for worthy things in the writings of others. For me for example Vano Siradeghyan is a good writer. But you can’t meet his names either on the pages of the Literature newspaper or the sessions of the writers’ union.
– “Haykakan Zhamanak” is really sent to the printing house as a daily.
– My novel is the longest novel of all times. We were thinking with the chief editor of Aravot daily that after I finish the tenth volume, we could submit it to the Book of Guinness. But when we reached to the 12th volume, we lost that interest. If Aram did not publish the Haykakan Zhamanak, the novel would not be so long. My novel is cooperation between a newspaper and writer, which is very interesting to me. I wrote the fist volume, than the second and the third one… Now I continue writing because for me it is not something like literature; for me it is a way of living.
– The times are different in Haykakan Zhamanak.
– Other people are changing the names of actors in their works and leave the actions and what they said the same. I am doing the vice versa; I keep the names and change the actions. This is the specific side of my writing.
– Everyone reads newspapers and the novel published in the newspapers seems to be an invitation to read.
– The problem is that always those people are invited that do not need invitation. Let’s take Eurovision for example. Our singers sing their own style in our country but for going to that competition they include some Arabic or Turkish elements in their songs. If you sing and have success here, you should sing the same way in Europe too. We will have success if we send the people that are loved here. If people love the songs of Tata and Ruben Hakhverdyan, they are the ones that should go to Eurovision.
– Will they win?
– They will bring the prize in the pocket. They should send the ones that are loved by people. Of course I for me it is not a very important competition, but if people watch and vote, it should be taken serious. Generally one should vote for the people that are loved. When I read the list of the people included in the commission in charge of giving literature prizes, it is horrible. Do those people know who should get a prize without having read books? Now I am like a man who gives advises; I don’t like it. Everyone gives advises to the president, opposition leader and others. Why should I give advice if the president has advisers? Why should I explain that the imprisonment of Nicol Pashinyan is worse for Nicol than the president? At least the advisers get salary. Now advisers are usually appointed either young people or old people that are pensioners. There are community councils but no elders in them. For example, Muslims have an understanding of “aksakal”, who is an old and experienced man, who gives advices, which sometimes may be unpleasant too. What about these advisers, they only flatter and are not able to give a piece of good advice.
– In our country it is like a hobby to establish councils and commissions. There are councils in theatres, competitions, etc. Such institutions cannot make objective decisions but still their role is exaggerated.
– If I become a member or president of any commission, prizes will be given to wrong people again because all of us have specific contacts and taste. Literature prizes should be given by ordinary readers. When you make professionals, and especially wrong professionals, members of commissions, prizes are given to wrong people.
– Is it possible to create independent prizes?
– I don’t think such thing is possible here. I am afraid that they may go and again ask the wrong professionals who the prizes should get. Prizes help writers be independent and not to go, for example, to praise community head candidates during campaigns with the hope that his/her book may be published after the elections. Writers are in a poor situation now. Of course in all countries writers should sell their books and later live on the account of that money, but in Armenia it is not possible as many people cannot afford paying for books. For such readers writers cannot be independent, and for being financially stable, one should always go through paths other than the regular ones.
– Where do those paths lead to?
– It has some component of “fake” information. Recently I understood that when I have a look at the work of a painter or writer I try to understand if there is anything fake there. Even though everybody thinks that he/she is fair, the fake behavior is always evident. People can be fair, but their writings may not be interesting at all. For example, I don’t write poems anymore, because this style is fake already, I mean it is fake for me.
– Why?
– When you are trying to make the reading sound good, you are doing it on the account of something else. The biggest achievement of poetry is the opportunity to be free even in the risky rhythms. It is like freedom for a prisoner. If there is no feeling of freedom, there should not be poetry either. I can’t write better than the poems I have written in the past. Recently I translated the poems of Boris Grebenschikov. I was sure that nobody had translated his poems, that is why I decided to translate. As I had not written poetry for a long time, I had a lot of energy for that. When I translated, I used that energy.
– It was more like Shekoyan than Grebenschikov.
– I could translate his works only that way. I believe that if I translated mere the words, there would be less Grebenschikov than I had.
– Is the Internet good or bad space to present the works of writers?
– I would say it is a bad space but I do not have the moral right for that as I do not use that tool and space.
– Our language is taking foreign words and always trying to have them translated. This results mostly in ugly new words. Now we are speaking in either artificial literal language or slang. Many people say that even though Armen Shekoyan’s language is a mix, it is very simple and rich.
– It is interesting that the Russians are the ones that have used the most foreign words and they have the richest literature. The Russian language is developing all the time because in that country there is no slogan such as “let’s keep our language”. Now I am giving an interview and I am making efforts to use the right words, but I can’t figure out what is my language. For that reason often I can’t finish my ideas. Now many things in writing is replaced with the computers; I mean many things that we were doing and learning grammar to do is automatically done by the computer. Generally in the life and arts, be it modern or classic, the best thing is the simplicity. Even the black square of Malevich is very simple. Tumanyan, Saryan, Charents and Shakespeare are simple too. The humanity has not created any serious value which would not be simple. Only those who don’t understand say that those values are hard. I remember people saying that the music of the Beatles was a noise and they said that those guys had long hair. When I look at them now I understand that their hair was not so long because during those times we had longer hair. What I want to say is that the great things have always been criticized. Now we remember Hrant Matevosyan, attach his pictures on walls, but it is horrible when I remember how harshly he was criticized in the last years of his life. I am afraid of myself and everybody; I am afraid that we can do things easily and that easily forget too. Conscience is the biggest value of a man.
– Can we ask different questions to good writers? I want to ask what happiness is for you.
– I have written much about that in the last volumes. I don’t know what it is either. You think about it when you see others happy. Happiness does not last forever; one can’t be happy for 30 years. It will become a normal thing. The human being is a creation that always thinks that others are happy but he/she is not. However happiness is a moment that burns and goes away and you realize it when it is already gone. If happiness was a precise thing, everybody would learn about it. It is an abstract thing as the love. I don’t know anybody that would say that he/she is happy, but when they participate in TV shows, they say that they are happy. People want to show themselves happy. If several months ago we used to think that the Japanese people were happier than us, after the tsunami we don’t think so. I know one thing for sure; happiness is not in money. For example, Shura Balaganov knew how much money he needed to be happy. But it did not help him.
– Now show business is a mix too and people take whatever they want from poetry. And it is developing.
– It is not development; song writers are stagnating. If they look for it they will find what they want. Our composers find only what they want, I mean some words that fit with the context they want. They want poets to give them the words as they want; they don’t understand that they are the ones to make them better to make the songs good. If it is about fitting with the context of the song, they can simply take the songs of the Beatles and make them Armenian. These will be excellent songs in Armenia. It is a good thing to translate songs.
– Isn’t it pity that your poetry has not been translated?
– Even though I have translated poems, I don’t think translation of poetry is serious, It is impossible to translate the poetry of Charents and Tumanyan into another language. Unfortunately it is a fact. In order to understand Pushkin one has to read in Russian. It is the trouble of poets. It is better to say that it is the trouble of readers.