From: “The Mystery of the Armenian Language”
Hyusisapayl, 1858
Issues for the Armenians
Today, our Fatherland, raising its voice, asks its wealthy sons:
– What kind of worthy contribution have you made to financing the nation’s upbuilding?
– What have you donated to satisfy the material and spiritual needs of your compatriots?
– You, my son, do you have any admirable accomplishments before your nation, other than your wealth, your comfortable life, your magnificent belongings?
Today, our Fatherland turning to its learned sons asks them in all seriousness:
– What benefits has your knowledge and scholarship produced for the nation?
– Have you discovered any truth useful for the common good or the nation’s current life?
– have you grasped the spiritual needs of our times and of your nation, as well as your sacred responsibility towards yourself and your friends, that is, have you overcome your love of physical comfort and spiritual laziness and unsheathed your pen as a sword against falsehood and deceit. -have you courageously spread the truth and bright ideas among your brothers who sit in darkness?
-Have you applied the fruits of your education to cultivate the hearts and souls of your countrymen?
… On the eve of this new year may all thinking Armenians their hands on their hearts and with a clear conscience answer these questions posed by their homeland.
Pointlessness to speak to people who lack reason
I know that for do-nothings there is no Homeland, no enlightenment, no issue of concern for the nation, nor a problem or question of humanity. Our words are wasted on such people, since such people are neither capable of understanding or capable of being understood.
On the Armenian Language
The house of the Armenian nation must and can only be built through the building up of its language. . .
Loss of language is tantamount to the loss of the nation, just as their flourishing and prosperity are joined together, like brothers, like a team, such that one without the other has no existence, no meaning.
On the Holy Translators
Our translators were not the initial architects of our language. Rather they perfected the language inherited from their nation. They labored, as any author should, that is, they took the raw material of the language itself from the people, transformed and adorned it, returning it to the people. This is how we interpret the accomplishments of the Translators.
On Eastern and Western Armenian
What harm can there be in having two flowers in a nation instead of one? Would it be worthy of a patriot to wish that one type of a flower exist in Turkish Armenia and no other type of flower exist among the Armenians in Russia. No, God’s economy is not like that.
By His wise providence, from one and the same earth the blossom all manner of flowers and plants, each with its own beauty and meaning. One does not preclude the other, but rather manifests the wonders of the Creator through the variety of nature. And if it is true that no human beings in the world have completely identical faces, then what reasonable person could demand that two separate Armenian communities, living in different countries, different conditions, not manifest their own character through variations in their way of speaking?
Our desire, and that desire is from the bottom of our heart, is the following: let these two branches of the single rooted tree grow and develop, let them blossom and bear fruit, and after that, we shall honor both judging by the pre-eminence of their fruits. Then the issue of preferable eminence of this or that dialect will be resolved in a simple and natural way.
