Artashes Emin is a translator by profession and is the Ambassador to Canada in Armenia. “Canada is a good, peaceful country; it has many resources and is on the right path in politics. The country has socialism elements-education and medicine are free,” says poet Gevorg Emin’s son who seems to be someone that is peaceful like Canada and is taking the right path in life. He is certain that tomorrow is going to be better than today because each person helps that day come sooner by doing his job and looking at life’s difficulties through humor. Artashes Emin has taken the initiative of making a CD of songs written based on the lyrics of Gevorg Emin’s poems at the Sony recording studio. The sale of the CDs will take place on November 23rd.
-There are five new songs in the CD and the old songs have been newly arranged. Christ Manaryan has written a song based on one of my father’s poems called “Strip Tease”. Some singers will sing at the event but that will not take that long.
“Have you tried defending the CD from “pirates”?
-The people stealing the copyright will not be able to reproduce the booklet of poems sold with the CD. That will be very expensive. They want to get some profit, but I don’t.
“Why don’t you care about profit?”
-With this CD, I want to have done something in memory of my father. I am trying. I know that if I do not film a video clip for the songs, nobody will listen to the songs, nor will anyone like it, basically, I will not get any profit. Many expenses must be made in order to do that, however, currently I don’t have that much money. Besides that, I have no plan.
“Many singers sing the songs written with Gevorg Emin’s lyrics. Have you received any money for the copyright? After all, there is a law about copyrights.
-I have not received any money. I think that law is not applied in Armenia. There are small tries. These tries are not small when the police get involved. This is not done for the sake of the law, but rather to open up the playing field for some. Stealing the copyright is very profitable. The “Pirate” product exceeds the original one.
“Songs usually start with a melody, then come the lyrics and the musical composition. The songs in your CD are an exception and are well-known.
-Not all songs are good just because the lyrics are good. Usually, good and popular songs have pretty lame lyrics. We have the opposite too-a good poem rarely becomes a good song. I am trying to go in the opposite direction with my CD. My father has never written a poem with the foresight that it will be turned into a song later. Many people used to ask him to write a poem for a song, but he refused. His dear friend Edgar Hovhannisyan asked him to write a poem for a song about Yerevan, but my father used to say that he did not write poems upon request. That song later on became the well-known song “Erebuni-Yerevan” and the lyrics are by Paruyr Sevak. That’s just how my father wanted it.
“You have worked as a translator for many years. Does it matter what the translator translates, or are there any nice topics to translate?”
-I am also involved in translations at the present. As a matter of fact, I have to be a translator during a meeting for water resources in a couple of minutes. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, but there are nice ones too. Recently, I had the pleasure of translating during a seminar dedicated to breast-feeding. Americans had come to Armenia and were teaching us that breastfeeding is good and beneficial.
“When you notice that the topic needed to be translated has errors or is just plain lame, can you intervene and go against it, or you have no right to do that?”
-Of course I have no right since it is my responsibility to translate. Besides that, I don’t even have the right to complain when presidents make errors while talking during negotiations and then accuse us translators for that. By throwing the blame on us, they save themselves from having committed errors. We don’t have many rights, but I love my job.
“But when we talk about national interests or very important issues, can you make an influence on what the speaker has to say?”
-I can, for example, make eye contact, make gestures and give a little shove. There have been cases like that, especially when it comes time to talk about the country’s honor. State figures are not always what they seem and get nervous when appearing in foreign countries. When that happens, you have to balance nationalism and professionalism and see which one is higher than the other. It depends on what we are dealing with. If I correct anything, I do it based on my personal ambitions. When I translate something stupid, the listener may think that I am a bad translator. Of course I am joking, but I really don’t want to be non-professional. If the first speaker of the day makes errors, he is fortunate enough to have me because I can more or less configure what he is saying so that the listeners can see that I am doing my job well and so that there can be some contact between the speakers. There is a nice saying-“don’t shoot the pianist: he only plays what they tell him to play.”
“How do you look at Yerevan?”
-There is no better place in the world than Yerevan. I have traveled many times and I am sure when I say that. The number of songs written about Yerevan says a lot too. Nobody has forced that many songwriters to write songs about Yerevan. Let’s put aside the political, cosmopolitan and military fields aside and we will see how many beautiful people there are. We have no problem with the new generation. The youth of this generation has not seen the “glamour” of the Soviet Union. They travel and come back as they please. Everything will be fine due to the fact that this year was better than the last and last year was better than the year before that…and this goes on until we go back to 1996. Changes are being accumulated.
“Are you sure that next year will be better?”
-We have to look at it more philosophically. When a journalist had asked president of Taiwan Chan Kai Shin about his opinion on the French Revolution, Kai Shin had replied: “Are you referring to the 18th century revolution? It is too early to state an opinion on that.” What I’m saying is that we tend to rush into things and wish to see the end of the world with our own two eyes. History is a long, slow process. If one chooses the right path in life, then he has to continue living his life in a peaceful way.
“Do you still translate books?”
-I have translated William Golding’s novels and some works by William Saroyan during the Soviet era. Now I want to translate Jack Hashyan’s “Mamikon” novel, but not in Armenian but Russian. Hashyan’s real last name is Trevanyan; he has worked in the American Central Investigation Department for many years and has written many bestsellers under a false name. The “Mamikon” novel is about the Armenian Genocide. We recognize the concepts “centuries-old” and “glorious”; genocide is also considered as that. Vartan Petrosyan tried to say something about it, but before that Hashyan wrote his novel, which presents a half-Western and half-thriller with a little erotic twist. It is an awesome novel. I want to translate it in Russian so that there will be more readers. I mean foreigners and us. I will translate “Mamikon” with pleasure if, of course, I have the time. I am not worried about the book publication, thank God there is Internet. I will put it on the Internet and whoever wants to can read it. My job is to translate the work.
“Aren’t you afraid of late reactions or even reproaches?
-Perhaps the fear of not getting reproached is what keeps me from printing the unprinted works of Charents which I keep in my house. I am afraid of the possible consequences. Perhaps it is still too early to print them. My father used to keep them safe and did not dare printing them. I am also not daring.
“What to print and what not to print: man makes an impact on history by his decision. It turns out that history depends on one person alone.”
-Of course, man decides for himself-not the state.